TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: NOV 26
43 BC Second Triumvirate alliance of Roman leader Octavian (later Caesar Augustus), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony formed
1716 1st lion exhibited in America (Boston)
1774 A congress of colonial leaders criticizes British influence in the colonies and affirms their right to “Life, liberty and property.”
1778 British explorer Captain James Cook is the first European to visit Maui in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii)
1789 President George Washington issued a proclamation designating November 26 of that year as a national day of thanksgiving to recognize the role of providence in creating the new United States and the new federal Constitution.
1825 The first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, NY.
1861 At Wheeling, a convention adopts a constitution for new state West Virginia
1863 The first National Thanksgiving is celebrated.
1865 “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll is published in America
1907 The Duma lends support to Czar in St. Petersburg, who claims he has renounced autocracy.
1917 The National Hockey League (NHL) was officially formed in Montreal, Canada.
1922 Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, archeologists, open King Tut’s tomb, undisturbed for 3,000 years.
1938 Poland renews nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union to protect against a German invasion.
1941 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. In 1939 Roosevelt had signed a bill that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November.
1941 The Japanese fleet departs from the Kuril Islands en route to its attack on Pearl Harbor.
1966 World’s first tidal power station opens in France
1973 Nixon’s personal sec, Rose Mary Woods, tells a federal court she accidentally caused part of 18-minute gap in a key Watergate tape
1975 Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme is found guilty of an attempt on President Gerald Ford’s life.
1979 Oil deposits equaling OPEC reserves are found in Venezuela.
1982 Howard Cossell calls his last fight after being disgusted by the Larry Holmes-Tex Cobb mismatch
1983 At London’s Heathrow Airport, almost 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million stolen from Brinks-MAT vault.
1988 The U.S. denied an entry visa to PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, who was seeking permission to travel to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.
1992 The British government announced that Queen Elizabeth II had volunteered to start paying taxes on her personal income. She also took her children off the public payroll.
1997 The U.S. and North Korea held high-level discussions at the State Department for the first time.
1998 Hulk Hogan announced that he was retiring from pro wrestling and would run for president in 2000.
2000 Republican candidate George W. Bush is certified the winner of Florida’s electoral votes, giving him enough electoral votes to defeat Democrat Al Gore Jr. for the US presidency, despite losing the popular vote.
2003 Concorde retired from service
2011 NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani checkpost in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.
2011 The Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. The Mars rover Curiosity landed on the floor of Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
