Who shot J.R.? was an advertising catch phrase that American network CBS created in 1980 to promote the television show Dallas. In the final scene of the 1979-1980 season, the character J.R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was shot by an unknown assailant.

The episode, titled A House Divided, was broadcast on March 21, 1980. Viewers had to wait all summer, and most of the autumn because of a Hollywood actors’ strike, to learn whether J.R. would survive, and which of his many enemies was responsible.

During the summer of 1980, the question “Who shot J.R.?” was asked in everyday conversations around the world. T-shirts printed with such references as “Who Shot J.R.?” and “I Shot J.R.” became common over the summer. Betting parlors worldwide took bets as to which one of the 10 or so principal characters had actually pulled the trigger. A session of the Turkish parliament was suspended to allow legislators a chance to get home in time to view the Dallas episode.

Ultimately, the person who pulled the trigger was revealed to be Kristin Shepard who was played by Mary Crosby in the “Who Done It?” episode which aired on November 21, 1980. Kristin was J.R.’s scheming sister-in-law and mistress, who shot him in a fit of anger.

The great success of this 1980 stunt helped usher in the practice of ending a television season with a cliffhanger.

Jarno Sebastian Elg is a Finnish Devil-worshipper, who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a 23-year-old man, eating some of the body parts and instigating others to participate in a ritual that included torturing the victim and listening to black metal music on November 21, 1998, in Hyvinkaa. Elg’s partners were 17-year-old Terhi Johanna Tervashonka from Jarvenpaa, 20-year-old Mika Kristian Riska from Mantsala and a 16-year-old boy from Kerava.

The criminal investigation started when a leg was found from a dump site, thus giving the name “dump site murder” to the case. The case was generally described as the most gruesome homicide in Finnish history.

Bill Bixby was an American film and television actor, director and frequent game show panelist. His career spanned over three decades, appearing on stage, in motion pictures and starring in five TV series.

His lead television roles were as Ray Walston’s young friend, reporter Tim O’Hara, in My Favorite Martian (1963–1966) on CBS; Tom Corbett in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1969–1972) on ABC; Anthony Blake in The Magician (1973) on NBC; Dr. David Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk (1977-1982) on CBS; and Matt Cassidy in Goodnight, Beantown (1983-1984) on CBS.

Goldie Jean Hawn is an Academy Award-winning American actress, director and producer. She is best known for starring in popular film comedies of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Hawn began her acting career as a cast member of the short-lived situation comedy Good Morning, World during the 1967-1968 television season, her role being that of the girlfriend of a radio disc jockey, with a stereotypical “dumb blonde” personality.

Her next role which brought her to international attention was as one of the regular cast members on the 1960s sketch comedy show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. She made her feature film debut in the 1968 The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (she was billed as Goldie Jeanne) in a bit role as a giggling dancer. Hawn won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Cactus Flower (1969), which was her first supporting role and which co-starred Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman.

Hawn’s popularity continued into the 1980’s and beyond.

The Humberto Vidal Explosion was a gas explosion that occurred on November 21, 1996 on the Humberto Vidal shoe store located in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, United States. The explosion killed 33 and wounded 69 others when the building collapsed.

Most of the victims were inside the building at the moment of the explosion, but others were in the streets surrounding the building. After the explosion, bodies of victims were placed in the pavement in front of the nearby La Milagrosa Church, where Luis Cardinal Aponte Martínez administered last rites.

United States President Bill Clinton quickly declared Puerto Rico a disaster area, which ensured the receipt of federal aid to help the victims, including the NTSB which launched an investigation. San Juan Gas Company, owned by Enron Corporation, quickly denied any responsibility claiming that the building had no gas service at the moment. An investigation of the explosion was quickly initiated.

The MGM Grand Fire was a 1980 fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, that killed 85 people, most through smoke inhalation. The tragedy remains the worst disaster in Nevada history, and the second-worst hotel fire in modern U.S. history, after the 1946 Winecoff Hotel fire that killed 119.

At the time of the fire, approximately 5,000 people were in the hotel and casino, a 26-story luxury resort with more than 2,000 hotel rooms. Just after 7:00 on the morning of November 21, 1980, a fire broke out in the Deli, a restaurant. Smoke and fire spread through the building, killing 85 people and injuring 650, including guests, employees and 14 firefighters.

While the fire primarily damaged the second floor casino and adjacent restaurants, most of the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation on the upper floors of the hotel. Openings in vertical shafts (elevators and stairwells) and seismic joints allowed toxic smoke to spread to the top floor.

The Birmingham pub bombings were bombings by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Birmingham, England on November 21, 1974 which killed 21 people and injured 182.

The devices were placed in two central Birmingham pubs: the Mulberry Bush, at the foot of the Rotunda, and the Tavern in the Town, a basement pub on New Street

A memorial plaque, commemorating the victims of the bombings, is situated in the grounds of St. Philip’s Cathedral, in the centre of Birmingham.

Operation Ivory Coast was a United States military operation in the Vietnam War.

On November 21, 1970, U.S. Army Colonel Arthur D. “Bull” Simons and Lieutenant Colonel Elliot “Bud” Sydnor led a team of 56 U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers in a joint Air Force/Army raid on the Son Tay prison camp in North Vietnam. The objective of the operation was to recover approximately 70 American prisoners of war thought to be held at the camp. The mission was a tactical success but the prisoners had been moved to another camp.

As a result of the raid, the North Vietnamese consolidated their POW camps to a few more easily defended central prison complexes, such as the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.” After their repatriation, many POWs stated that being in close contact with other Americans lifted their morale, as did knowledge of the rescue attempt. During the course of the Vietnam War there were numerous attempts by U.S. Special Forces teams to rescue POWs but only one succeeded, and fifteen days after his recovery the rescued POW died from wounds inflicted by his captors during the rescue attempt.

The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II and connects the Continental U.S. to Alaska through Canada.

It runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. Although the highway was completed on October 28, 1942 and its completion was celebrated at Soldier’s Summit on November 21st, the “highway” was not usable by general vehicles until 1943. It is 2,451 kilometres or 1,523 miles long.

The historic end of the highway is near milepost 1422, where it meets the Richardson Highway in Delta Junction, Alaska, about 160 km (100 mi) southeast of Fairbanks. Mileposts on the Richardson Highway are numbered from Valdez, Alaska. The Alaska Highway is popularly considered part of the Pan-American Highway, which extends south to Argentina.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that opened its upper level to the public on November 21, 1964. It connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City at the Narrows, the reach connecting the relatively protected upper bay with the larger lower bay.

The bridge is named for Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first known European navigator to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River, while crossing The Narrows.

It has a center span of 4,260 feet (1,298 m) and was the largest suspension bridge in the world from the time of its completion in 1964 until 1981. It now has the eighth longest center span in the world but still is the largest suspension bridge in the United States. Among local residents it is often referred to as simply “The Verrazano”.