November 24 brings together three stories about the limits of what people know—and how they respond when familiar explanations fall short. In 1632, Baruch Spinoza was born into a Dutch community of Portuguese Sephardic origin. His rationalist, pantheistic philosophy helped lay groundwork for the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, challenging readers to examine inherited beliefs through reason. More than two centuries later, Charles Darwin offered a powerful new framework for understanding life: when *On the Origin of Species* appeared in 1859, its account of evolution by natural selection reshaped biology and provoked intense scientific and religious debate.
The date’s later entry is less a theory than a puzzle. In 1971, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper extorted $200,000 from a Boeing 727 over the Pacific Northwest, then parachuted from the plane. His identity and fate remain unknown, leaving the episode among aviation history’s enduring mysteries. Taken together, these events trace a striking arc: a philosopher questioning convention, a scientist changing how the natural world was explained, and an unresolved case that resists explanation altogether. Falling in late November, the date also arrives as the year turns toward winter—a fitting season for reflection on what evidence can establish, and what remains in shadow.