Today’s highlight in history

On Oct. 3, 1967, folk music legend Woody Guthrie died in New York of complications from Huntington’s disease. He was 55.

On this date

In 1789, President George Washington declared Nov. 26, 1789, a day of Thanksgiving to express gratitude for the creation of the United States of America.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day.

In 1951, the New York Giants captured the National League pennant by a score of 5-4 as Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the “shot heard ’round the world.”

In 1974, Frank Robinson was named major league baseball’s first black manager as he was placed in charge of the Cleveland Indians.

In 1995, the jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles found the former football star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later found liable for damages in a civil trial.)

In 2008, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Simpson was later sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was granted parole in July 2017, and was released from prison Sunday.)

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush vetoed expansion of a children’s health insurance program.

Five years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised a full and transparent probe of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

One year ago: The United States suspended diplomatic contacts with Russia over failed efforts to end the war in Syria while President Vladimir Putin put on hold a deal with the U.S. on disposing weapons-grade plutonium.