FLASHBACKS; HOWARD HUGHES’ ARRIVAL, LIZA MINELLI’S ‘GYPSY SHOW’ & WAYNE NEWTON’S ULTIMATUM

Howard Hughes -Wikimedia Commons

November 24, 1966: Billionaire Howard Hughes arrives in Las Vegas by train and moves into the ninth-floor penthouse of the Desert Inn, which he later buys. He becomes both a Vegas power broker and mysterious recluse before dying of kidney failure in 1976.

November 25, 2006: Liza Minnelli revives the Vegas tradition of a “Gypsy show” by performing a free late-night concert at the Luxor for 1,000 entertainers and crewmembers who are busy with their own revues at the regular showtimes. She earns 23 standing ovations during the two-hour show.

November 26, 1976: Bing Crosby, no fan of Sin City, gives his first concert in Las Vegas, packing the Aladdin Hotel to raise money to build Holy Family Catholic Church. The congregation had been holding Sunday services at the Sundancer Saloon, a topless bar, amid slot machines and cases of beer.

November 27, 2009: The Las Vegas Locomotives defeat the Florida Tuskers, 20-17, to win the first United Football League championship in front of 14,800 fans at Sam Boyd Stadium. The champs were 4-2 in the regular season in a league that starts with just four teams.

November 28, 2001: Nevada designates Las Vegas Boulevard near downtown as a state scenic byway because of its history, culture and amazing neon signs. Eight years later the federal government concurs, making it the 83rd National Scenic Byway – and the first one honored for how it looks at night.

November 29, 2007: Wayne Newton tells CNN’s Larry King that years before, he invaded Johnny Carson’s office to confront the talk-show legend about years of jokes implying that Newton was gay. He said he told Carson the jokes had to “stop now or I will kick your ass.”

November 30, 2007: Kevin DuBrow, lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, is buried in Corona del Mar, Calif., five days after he had been found dead in his Las Vegas home at age 52. Authorities determined that he was the victim of an accidental cocaine overdose.

—RESEARCHED AND WRITTEN BY MIKE PRECKER