On this date...

Washington Retires his Commission

In 1619, Thirty-eight colonists from Berkeley Parish, England, disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God, considered by many the first Thanksgiving in the Americas.

In 1682, First General Assembly in Pennsylvania (Chester).

In 1775, Washington faces a flood of administrative demands. He writes to Colonel Alexander McDougall in New York. The recent capture of the British ordnance ship Nancy has supplied his army with shells and shot, but he still lacks cannon. He urges McDougall to expedite the promised shipment of “twelve good iron four-pounders.”

In 1780, A force of Continental dragoons commanded by Colonel William Washington–General George Washington’s second cousin once removed–corners Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his followers in Rugeley’s house and barn near Camden, South Carolina.

In 1783, Washington announces his retirement from the Continental Army to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City. It would be the first time in history that a victorious general voluntarily gave up power. King George III is reported to have said, "he "would be the greatest man in the world"."

In 1812, Peter Gaillard of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, patents a horse-drawn mower.

In 1816, James Monroe of Virginia was elected the fifth president of the United States.

In 1843, Manila paper (made from sails, canvas and rope) patented in Massachusetts.

In 1867, Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Grange, which became a powerful political force among western farmers.

In 1875, Influential New York politician William Magear Tweed "Boss Tweed" of Tammany Hall escapes from jail where he was being held for embezzlement (flees to Spain but later recaptured).

In 1915, Henry Ford's peace ship, Oscar II, sails for Europe 'to get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas'.

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson travels to Versailles for WWI peace talks, is first US president to travel to Europe while in office.

In 1928, “Dapper Dan” Hogan, a St. Paul, Minnesota saloonkeeper and mob boss, is killed when someone plants a car bomb under the floorboards of his new Paige coupe.

In 1933, FDR creates the Federal Alcohol Control Administration.

In 1945, The Senate approved U.S. participation in the United Nations.

In 1956, An impromptu jam session breaks out between Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash at Memphis' Sun Studios. The press dubs it the “Million Dollar Quartet.

In 1964, police arrested some 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, one day after the students stormed the administration building and staged a massive sit-in.

In 1965, the United States launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Cmdr. James A. Lovell aboard on a two-week mission. (While Gemini 7 was in orbit, its sister ship, Gemini 6A, was launched on Dec. 15 on a one-day mission; the two spacecraft were able to rendezvous within a foot of each other.)

In 1978, Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco's first woman mayor when she was named to replace George Moscone, who had been assassinated.

In 1981, Reagan Executive Order on Intelligence (No 12333) that allows CIA to engage in domestic counter-intelligence.

In 1991, American journalist Terry Anderson released after more than six years as hostage in Lebanon.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush orders 28,000 U.S. troops to Somalia, a war-torn East African nation where rival warlords were preventing the distribution of humanitarian aid to thousands of starving Somalis.

In 1996, The unmanned space vehicle Mars Pathfinder was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in order to explore the surface of Mars.

In 2001, The United States froze the financial assets of organizations allegedly linked to the terrorist group Hamas.

In 2016, a North Carolina man armed with an assault rifle fired several shots inside Comet Ping Pong, a Washington, D.C., pizzeria, as he attempted to investigate an online conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were harboring child sex slaves at the restaurant; no one was hurt, and the man surrendered to police. (He was later sentenced to four years in prison.)

In 2017, US President Donald Trump scales back Utah National Parks - Bears Ears National Monument (85%), Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (50%).

In 2018, long lines of mourners wound through the Capitol Rotunda to view the casket of former President George H.W. Bush.