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November 26 is the 330th day (331st on leap years) of the
year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 35 days
remaining.
Events
- 1778 - In the Hawaiian
Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to discover Maui.
- 1805 - Official opening of Thomas
Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
- 1825 - At Union College in
Schenectady, New York a group of college students form
Kappa Alpha Society as the first college social fraternity (it was the first to combine
aspects of secret Greek-letter societies, literary societies and formalized student social groups).
- 1862 - Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) sends the handwritten manuscript of Alice's Adventures Underground to 10-year-old Alice Liddell.
- 1863 - American Civil
War: Mine Run - Union forces under General George Meade position against troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee
(Meade's forces could not find any weaknesses in the Confederate lines and give-up trying after five days).
- 1872 - The San
Francisco Evening Bulletin exposes one of the most notorious mining scandals
in US history, The Great Diamond Hoax.
- 1922 - Howard Carter and
Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun in over 3000
years.
- 1922 - Toll of the
Sea debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor (The Gulf Between was the first film to do so but it was not widely
distributed).
- 1941 - US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States (this partly
reverses a 1939 action by Roosevelt that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the
third Thursday of November).
- 1941 - World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor - A fleet of six aircraft carriers commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo leaves Hitokapu Bay for Pearl Harbor under strict radio
silence.
- 1941 - World War II: The Hull note ultimatum is delivered to Japan by the
United States.
- 1942 - The film Casablanca premieres at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.
- 1949 - The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution. [1]
- 1950 - Korean War: Troops from the
People's Republic of China move into North Korea and launch a massive counterattack against South Korean and American forces, ending any
thought of a quick end to the conflict.
- 1965 - In the Hammaguira launch facility in the Sahara Desert,
France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1 on board, becoming the third
country to enter space.
- 1968 - Vietnam War: United States Air Force 1st Lt. and Bell UH-1F helicopter pilot James P. Fleming gets and responds to an urgent message from an Army
Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire. After a failed first rescue
attempt Fleming lands under heavy fire and picks up the unit (he was later rewarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery).
- 1983 - Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly UK£26 million are taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport (only a fraction of the gold was ever recovered, and only
two men were convicted of the crime). [2]
- 1985 - US President Ronald
Reagan signs over rights to his autobiography to Random House for a record US$3 million.
- 1986 - Iran-Contra
scandal: US President Ronald Reagan announces that as of December 1 former Senator John Tower,
former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security
Adviser Brent Scowcroft will be serving as members of the Special
Review Board looking into the scandal (they became known as the Tower Commission).
- 1998 - Tony Blair becomes the first
Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland's
parliament.
- 2003 - Last ever flight by Concorde.
Births
- 1607 - John Harvard, cleric (d.
1638)
- 1792 - Sarah Grimke, abolitionist, feminist (d. 1873)
- 1832 - Mary Edwards Walker, feminist, physician (d. 1919)
- 1869 - Maud,
Queen of Norway (d.1938)
- 1876 - Willis Carrier,
engineer, inventor (d. 1950)
- 1885 - Heinrich Brüning,
German Reichskanzler 1930-1932 (d. 1970)
- 1894 - Norbert Wiener,
mathematician, founder of Cybernetics (d. 1964)
- 1899 - Bruno Hauptmann,
kidnapper of Charles Lindbergh III (d.
1936)
- 1910 - Cyril Cusack, actor (d.
1993)
- 1912 - Eugène Ionesco,
playwright (d. 1994)
- 1912 - Eric Sevareid, journalist (d. 1992)
- 1915 - Earl Wild, pianist
- 1922 - Charles M.
Schulz, cartoonist (d. 2000)
- 1924 - George Segal,
sculptor
- 1925 - Eugene Istomin,
pianist (d. 2003)
- 1927 - Jean-Pierre Daras, actor (d. 1999)
- 1933 - Robert Goulet, singer,
actor
- 1934 - Barry Coe, actor
- 1937 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
- 1938 - Rich Little, comedian, actor
- 1939 - Tina Turner, singer,
actress
- 1943 - Bruce Paltrow, producer,
director (d. 2002)
- 1945 - Daniel Davis, actor
(The Nanny)
- 1948 - Kresimir Cosic,
professional basketball player (d. 1995)
- 1951 - Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina,
pornographic film actress, politician
- 1959 - Jamie Rose, actress
Deaths
- 399 - Pope Siricius
- 1252 - Blanche of
Castile, wife of Louis VIII of France
- 1836 - John MacAdam, road
builder
- 1857 - Joseph von
Eichendorff, lyricist and narrator
- 1956 - Tommy Dorsey, Big Band leader
- 1959 - Albert Ketèlbey,
composer
- 1963 - Amelita
Galli-Curci, opera singer
- 1980 - Peter DePaolo, automobile racer
- 1996 - Michael Bentine,
comedian
- 2002 - Verne Winchell,
founder of Winchell's Donuts.
- 2002 - Wilhelm Bittorf,
journalist
- 2003 - Stefan Wul, French sf writer
Holidays and observances
November 25 - November 27
- October 26 - December 26
-- listing of all days
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