Today in History: November 26, Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 begin

Today is Thursday, Nov. 26, the 330th day of 2026. There are 35 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 26, 2008, teams of heavily armed militants from the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant and a crowded train station in Mumbai, India, leaving at least 175 people dead (including nine of the attackers) in a rampage spanning four days.

Also on this date:

In 1791, President George Washington held his first full cabinet meeting; in attendance were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

In 1864, English mathematician Charles Dodgson presented the illustrated manuscript “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground” to his friend Alice Pleasance Liddell, 12, a book later published under the pen name Lewis Carroll as “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

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

In 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 of six aircraft carriers left the Kuril Islands, bound for Hawaii, days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1942, the film “Casablanca,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court she’d accidentally caused part of the 18 1/2-minute erasure of a key Watergate tape. The gap was in a 1972 recording of a conversation between Nixon and his chief of staff.

In 1998, two trains collided in the northern town of Khanna, India, killing 210 people in one of that country's deadliest rail disasters.

In 2000, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified Republican George W. Bush the winner over Democrat Al Gore in the state’s presidential balloting by a 537-vote margin. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately stopped recounts of the vote, and Bush won Florida's 25 electoral votes and the presidential election.

In 2011, an Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (After landing on Mars in August 2012, Curiosity found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments and continues its explorations.)

In 2019, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Albania, killing at least 49 people, injuring some 2,000 others and leaving at least 4,000 homeless.

Today’s Birthdays: Impressionist Rich Little is 88. Football Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud is 84. Author Marilynne Robinson is 83. Bass guitarist John McVie (Fleetwood Mac) is 81. Football Hall of Famer Art Shell is 80. NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett is 70. Actor-TV personality Garcelle Beauvais is 60. Actor Peter Facinelli is 53. DJ-music producer DJ Khaled is 51. Country musician Joe Nichols is 50. Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield is 45. Actor-singer-TV personality Rita Ora is 36. Singer-songwriter Olivia O'Brien is 27. NBA forward Carter Bryant is 21.