TODAY IN HISTORY

1825: The first college social fraternity, the Kappa Alpha Society, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, New York.

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,” published under Dodgson’s pen name, Lewis Carroll.

1917: The National Hockey League was founded in Montreal.

1941: U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull delivered a note to Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Kichisaburo Nomura, setting forth U.S. demands for “lasting and extensive peace throughout the Pacific area.” The same day, a Japanese naval task force consisting of six aircraft carriers left the Kuril Islands, headed toward Hawaii.

1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning Dec. 1.

1950: China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the U.S. and South Korea.

1973: President Richard Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she’d accidentally caused part of the 18-1/2-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.

2000: Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified George W. Bush the winner over Al Gore in the state’s presidential balloting by 537 votes.