Today in History

From wikipedia.org:

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
1862 - Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) sends the handwritten manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Underground to 10-year-old Alice Liddell
1872 - The San Francisco Evening Bulletin exposes one of the most notorious mining scandals in US history, The Great Diamond Hoax
1917 - The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams
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
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
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
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
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)
1894 - Norbert Wiener, mathematician, founder of Cybernetics (d. 1964)
1910 - Cyril Cusack, actor (d. 1993)
1912 - Eric Sevareid, journalist (d. 1992)
1922 - Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist (d. 2000)
1933 - Robert Goulet, singer, actor
1938 - Rich Little, comedian, actor
1939 - Tina Turner, singer, actress
1945 - John McVie, musician
1956 - Dale Jarrett, NASCAR race car driver

Deaths
399 - Pope Siricius
1252 - Blanche of Castile, wife of Louis VIII of France
1504 - Isabella, Queen of Castile and Aragon, wife of Ferdinand II and patron of Christopher Columbus
1836 - John MacAdam, road builder
1956 - Tommy Dorsey, Big Band leader
2002 - Verne Winchell, founder of Winchell's Donuts

Holidays & observances
Mongolia : Independence Day