Today in history

On Nov. 26, 1789, President George Washington asked Americans to observe the day as one of thanksgiving for the adoption of the Constitution.

In 1825 the first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

In 1832 public streetcar service began in New York. The fare: 12 1⁄2 cents.

In 1864 English mathematician and writer Charles Dodgson presented a handwritten and illustrated manuscript, “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground,” to his 12-year-old friend Alice Pleasance Liddell; the book was later turned into “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

In 1917 the National Hockey League was founded in Montreal, succeeding the National Hockey Association.

In In 1940 1940 Warsaw’s 500,000 Jews were ordered by the Nazis to live within a walled ghetto.

In 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning Dec. 1. Also in

1942 the film “Casablanca,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere 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, including 1,015 American troops.

In 1949 India adopted a constitution as a republic within the British Commonwealth.

In 1950 China entered the Korean War, launching a bloody counteroffensive against United Nations forces, primarily troops from the United States and South Korea.