Today in History for Nov. 26, 2015

Sven Hedin

Nov. 26, 1476 – Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) defeated Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Báthory and became the ruler of Wallachia for the third time.

Nov. 26, 1776 – The body of Peyton Randolph was returned to Williamsburg, Va. for re-interment at his alma mater, the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. Randolph had died on Oct. 22, 1775, at the age of 54, while in Philadelphia representing Virginia in the second Continental Congress. He was initially buried at Christ Church in Philadelphia, but was moved to the cemetery at the chapel of the College of William and Mary one year later.

Nov. 26, 1778 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook became the first European to visit Maui.

Nov. 26, 1789 – A national Thanksgiving Day was observed in the United States as proclaimed by President George Washington at the request of Congress.

Nov. 26, 1819 – The Alabama state legislature approved the articles of incorporation for Coffeeville, Ala.

Nov. 26, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Independence, or Little Blue, Mo.

Nov. 26, 1861 – During the Civil War, a three-day Federal expedition to Dranesville, Va. began. A skirmish was also fought near Vienna, Va.

Nov. 26, 1861 – During the Civil War, the Pro-Federal convention held in Wheeling, WV, adopted a resolution to secede from Virginia and form a new state.

Nov. 26, 1863 – United States President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed November 26 as a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November.

Nov. 26, 1863 - Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg retreated from Chattanooga, Tenn. Bragg resigned shortly thereafter.

Nov. 26, 1863 - The Mine Run campaign began when Union General George Meade moved against General Robert E. Lee after months of inaction following the Battle of Gettysburg. Meade sent three corps against Lee's right flank around a small valley called Mine Run. By Dec. 1, Meade realized that to continue his attack would be foolish and he began pulling his men back across the Rappahannock River into winter quarters, and there would be no further activity between the two great armies until spring.

Nov. 26, 1864 - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson sent Alice Liddell a handwritten manuscript called “Alice’s Adventures Underground” as an early Christmas present. He published “Alice in Wonderland” the following year, and Queen Victoria liked it so much that she dispatched a letter to him saying she would be “pleased to accept any other works by the same pen.” She soon received a copy of a book called “Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry.”

Nov. 26, 1885 - The first meteor trail was photographed in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was part of the Andromedid meteor shower.

Nov. 26, 1896 – Witnesses in Oakland, Calif. observed in the sky on this date a "giant cigar shaped ship." It was one of thousands of mysterious airship sightings that continued into the spring of 1897.

Nov. 26, 1908 – National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Gomez was born in Rodeo, Calif. He went on to play for the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972.

Nov. 26, 1914 – On this morning, the “horribly mangled” body of Marion Smith was found on the railroad near Wilcox station in Conecuh County, Ala. after he was supposedly killed by the No. 2 Passenger Train. He left the home of W.T. Tanner during the early part of the previous night, saying he was going to Owassa to catch a freight train for Georgiana, where he expected to meet his wife. No foul play was suspected.

Nov. 26, 1915 – Distinguished statesman and orator William Jennings Bryan was scheduled to speak in Evergreen, Ala. on this Friday at 11 a.m. Evergreen businessmen paid to hear Bryan speak, so admission was to be charged to hear Bryan’s speech. Bryan was to arrived in Evergreen on the No. 5 train and was to proceed to Mobile on the No. 1 train at 1:45 p.m.

Nov. 26, 1915 – Miss Willie Kelly of Shanghai, China was scheduled to give a lecture on “The Work in China” at the Baptist Church in Repton, Ala. at 2 p.m.

Nov. 26, 1917 – “The Eternal Mother,” a movie version of Alabama author Mary McNeil Fenollosa's book “Red Horse Hill,” was released.

Nov. 26, 1922 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3,000 years.

Nov. 26, 1923 – The “horribly mangled” body of George Neferos, a Greek man from Chicago, was found on the railroad tracks near Sparta, Ala. during the morning. Papers in his pockets showed that he’d been discharged from the Army at Camp Grant, Ill. on May 31, 1919. Authorities believed that he was riding on a flat car, fell asleep and feel off a fast moving freight train.

Nov. 26, 1924 - Alabama author Paul Ramsey was born in Atlanta, Ga.

Nov. 26, 1931 – On this Thanksgiving Day, Evergreen High School beat Monroe County High School, 14-0, in a football game at Gantt Field in Evergreen, Ala. The game was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

Nov. 26, 1931 – All businesses in Evergreen, Ala. were closed in observance of Thanksgiving Day, and both of the schools in Evergreen, as well as all county schools, were closed on Nov. 26-27. Union Thanksgiving services were held at the Baptist Church at 6:30 a.m., and Dr. J.G. Dickinson delivered the sermon.

Nov. 26, 1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

Nov. 26, 1943 – Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson was born in Sandpoint, Idaho. She is best-known for three novels that take place in a small Iowa town called Gilead: “Gilead” (2004), “Home” (2008), and “Lila” (2014).

Nov. 26, 1946 – NFL lineman and head coach Art Shell was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He was an offensive lineman for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders from 1968 until 1982. He coached the Raiders from 1989 to 1994 and again, briefly, in 2006.

Nov. 26, 1953 – Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner was born in New York City.

Nov. 26, 1968 – The Evergreen City Council created a Public Housing Authority and agreed to proceed with plans for a low rental housing project in Evergreen, Ala. D.T. Stuart III, an official of the Bank of Evergreen, was named chairman of the authority. Other directors included Byron Warren, H.E. Scott Jr., Walter Poole and Ed Smith.

Nov. 26, 1950 – During the Korean War, Army PFC Robert H. Hart of Conecuh County, Ala. died while a prisoner of war in Korea. Army Sgt. Herbert W. Frazier of Escambia County, Ala. died while missing in Korea.

Nov. 26, 1952 – Swedish geographer and explorer Sven Hedin died at the age of 87 in Stockholm, Sweden. During four expeditions to Central Asia, he made the Transhimalaya known in the West and located sources of the Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej Rivers. He also mapped lake Lop Nur, and the remains of cities, grave sites and the Great Wall of China in the deserts of the Tarim Basin.

Nov. 26, 1965 – The Betts Family of Monroeville, Ala. presented the State Archives in Montgomery with a portrait of early Monroe-Conecuh County settler John Green. The Betts were descendants of Julia Green, a daughter of John Green and wife, Nancy Betts Jones.

Nov. 26, 1973 - Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she was responsible for the 18-1/2 minute gap in a key Watergate tape. Woods was U.S. President Nixon's personal secretary.

Nov. 26, 1976 – Major League Baseball catcher Brian Schneider was born in Jacksonville, Fla. He went on to play for the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Nov. 26, 1977 – Former Conecuh County, Ala. athlete and coach Wendell Hart passed away in Atlanta, Ga. at the age of 60.

Nov. 26, 1990 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz at the Kremlin to demand that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait.

Nov. 26, 1998 - Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions became only the second running back in NFL history to run for more than 15,000 career yards.

Nov. 26, 2000 – The London Observer reported that the European Patent Office had stated in the previous month that it would never grant a patent on mixed-species embryos, considering such biological blendings “against public order and morality.”

Nov. 26, 2000 – Seasonal resident Elizabeth Wilkins reported sighting a “large humped, crocodile-like creature… about 30 or 40 feet long” in Lake Champlain as she ate breakfast that morning.