Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 26, the 330th day of 2019. There are 35 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 26, 2000, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified George W. Bush the winner over Al Gore in the state’s presidential balloting by a 537-vote margin.

On this date:

In 1789, Americans observed a day of thanksgiving set aside by President George Washington to mark the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

In 1842, the founders of the University of Notre Dame arrived at the school’s present-day site near South Bend, Indiana.

In 1883, former slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Mich.

In 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull delivered a note to Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Kichisaburo Nomura (kee-chee-sah-boor-oh noh-moo-rah), setting forth U.S. demands for “lasting and extensive peace throughout the Pacific area.” The same day, a Japanese naval task force consisting of six aircraft carriers left the Kuril Islands, headed toward Hawaii.

In 1942, the Warner Bros. motion picture “Casablanca,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York.

In 1943, during World War II, the HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed.

In 1950, China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the U.S. and South Korea.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she’d accidentally caused part of the 18-1/2-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed a commission headed by former Senator John Tower to investigate his National Security Council staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.

In 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney experienced an irregular heartbeat and was taken to George Washington University Hospital for evaluation.

In 2008, teams of heavily armed gunmen, allegedly from Pakistan, stormed luxury hotels, a popular tourist attraction and a crowded train station in Mumbai, India, leaving at least 166 people dead in a rampage lasting some 60 hours. A Missouri mother on trial in a landmark cyberbullying case was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles of three minor offenses for her role in a mean-spirited Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl, Megan Meier, to suicide. (However, Lori Drew’s convictions were later thrown out.)

In 2010, Connecticut beat Howard 86-25 to win its 82nd straight game, setting an NCAA women’s basketball record for consecutive victories.

Ten years ago: An investigation ordered by Ireland’s government found that Roman Catholic Church leaders in Dublin had spent decades sheltering child-abusing priests from the law and that most fellow clerics had turned a blind eye. John Jones, a 26-year-old medical student stuck upside-down in a cave in Utah for more than a day, died despite the efforts of dozens of rescuers to extract him.

Five years ago: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a heart stent implanted, reviving talk about how long the 81-year-old liberal jurist would be staying on the court.

One year ago: A NASA spacecraft designed to drill down into Mars’ interior landed on the planet; it was the first successful landing on Mars in six years. General Motors announced that it would cut as many as 14,000 workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure, abandoning many of its car models, as part of a major restructuring. Scientists and bioethics experts reacted with alarm to a claim from a Chinese researcher that he had helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies. Ukraine’s government imposed martial law in parts of the county to fight what its president called “growing aggression” from Moscow. Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci died in Rome at the age of 77. Stephen Hillenburg, who used his loves of drawing and marine biology to create the undersea world of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” died of Lou Gehrig’s disease at the age of 57.

Today’s Birthdays: Impressionist Rich Little is 81. Singer Tina Turner is 80. Singer Jean Terrell is 75. Pop musician John McVie is 74. Actress Marianne Muellerleile is 71. Actor Scott Jacoby is 63. Actress Jamie Rose is 60. Country singer Linda Davis is 57. Actor Scott Adsit is 54. Blues singer-musician Bernard Allison is 54. Country singer-musician Steve Grisaffe is 54. Actress Kristin Bauer is 53. Actor Peter Facinelli is 46. Actress Tammy Lynn Michaels Etheridge is 45. DJ/record label executive DJ Khaled (KAL'-ehd) is 44. Actress Maia (MY'-ah) Campbell is 43. Country singer Joe Nichols is 43. Contemporary Christian musicians Anthony and Randy Armstrong (Red) are 41. Actress Jessica Bowman is 39. Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield is 38. Actress Jessica Camacho is 37. Country singer-musician Mike Gossin (Gloriana Rock) is 35. Rock musician Ben Wysocki (The Fray) is 35. Singer Lil Fizz is 34. MLB All-Star Matt Carpenter is 34. Singer Aubrey Collins is 32. Actress-singer-TV personality Rita Ora is 29.

Thought for Today: “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey.

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