On this date

In 1891, the first basketball game, devised by James Naismith, is believed to have been played at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Mass. (The final score of this experimental game: 1-0.) In 1937, the first Dr. Seuss book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” was published by Vanguard Press. In 1942, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Williams vs. North Carolina, ruled 6-2 that all states had to recognize divorces granted in Nevada.

In 1967, “The Graduate,” starring Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman, was released by Embassy Pictures.

In 1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.

In 1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.

In 1991, 11 of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the death of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Ten years ago: A suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a mosque outside the home of Pakistan’s former interior minister, killing at least 50 people (the ex-official escaped injury).

Five years ago: In the face of growing calls for gun control after the Newtown, Conn., shootings that claimed the lives of 26 children and school staff, the National Rifle Association said guns and police officers were needed in all American schools to stop the next killer “waiting in the wings.” One year ago: President-elect Donald Trump suggested he might go forward with his campaign pledge to temporarily ban Muslim immigrants from coming to the United States.