Today:
1716: The first lion to be exhibited in America went on display in Boston, Massachusetts.
1778: British explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to visit the island of Maui in Hawaii.
1789: United States President George Washington proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day to be observed in gratitude for the successful establishment of the new American republic.
1832: Public streetcar service began in New York City with a horse-drawn vehicle operating on the New York and Harlem Railroad.
1865: The first American edition of Lewis Carroll’s novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was published.
1917: The National Hockey League (NHL) was officially formed in Montreal, Canada.
1922: Archaeologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first people to enter the inner chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb in over 3,000 years.
1940: The Nazis began forcing the 500,000 Jews of Warsaw, Poland, to live within a walled ghetto.
1942: The classic film Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premiered at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City.
2011: NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, beginning its journey to Mars.