This Day in History
In Alaska, in the Nation and the World
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In Alaska
• In 1898, the weekly Douglas Island News was established in Douglas and operated there until 1921.
• In 1924, the Northern Commercial Co. in Fairbanks dropped the price of gasoline four cents to 40 cents per gallon.
• In 1939, the first annual Gold Bowl football game was played in Juneau.
• In 1980, a roaming dog killed three caribou calves at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. The caribou had been the subject of nutrition and metabolism studies.
In the nation
• In 1765, Frederick County, Md., became the first colonial entity to repudiate the British Stamp Act.
• In 1903, singer Enrico Caruso made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, appearing in "Rigoletto."
• In 1936, Life, the photojournalism magazine created by Henry R. Luce, was first published.
• In 1945, most U.S. wartime rationing of foods, including meat and butter, was set to expire by day's end.
• In 1959, the musical "Fiorello!," with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, opened on Broadway.
• In 1963, President Johnson proclaimed Nov. 25th a day of national mourning following the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
• In 1997, Iowa septuplet mom Bobbi McCaughey left the hospital and returned home while her seven babies stayed behind in intensive care.
In the world
• In 1943, during World War II, U.S. forces seized control of Tarawa and Makin atolls from the Japanese.
• In 1971, the People's Republic of China was seated in the U.N. Security Council.
• In 1980, some 2,600 people were killed by earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.
• In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the waves off Comoros Islands, killing about two-thirds of the 175 people on board.
• In 1997, artillery shells fired by Lebanese guerrillas accidentally struck a village near the Israeli border, killing eight Lebanese.
• In 2002, Miss World organizers moved the beauty pageant from Abuja, Nigeria, to London after about 100 people died in violence triggered by a newspaper's suggestion that the Islamic prophet Muhammad would have liked the event.