Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 27, the 331st day of 2018. There are 34 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 27, 1924, Macy's first Thanksgiving Day parade -- billed as a "Christmas Parade" -- took place in New York.

On this date:

In 1901, the U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.

In 1910, New York's Pennsylvania Station officially opened.

In 1942, during World War II, the Vichy French navy scuttled its ships and submarines in Toulon to keep them out of the hands of German troops.

In 1945, General George C. Marshall was named special U.S. envoy to China by President Harry S. Truman to try to end hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists.

In 1962, the first Boeing 727 was rolled out at the company's Renton Plant.

In 1967, the Beatles album "Magical Mystery Tour" was released in the United States by Capitol Records.

In 1973, the Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who'd resigned.

In 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White. (White served five years for manslaughter; he committed suicide in Oct. 1985.)

In 1989, a bomb blamed on drug traffickers destroyed a Colombian Avianca Boeing 727, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground.

In 1999, Northern Ireland's biggest party, the Ulster Unionists, cleared the way for the speedy formation of an unprecedented Protestant-Catholic administration.

In 2000, a day after George W. Bush was certified the winner of Florida's presidential vote, Al Gore laid out his case for letting the courts settle the nation's long-count election.

In 2005, doctors in France performed the world's first partial face transplant on a woman disfigured by a dog bite; Isabelle Dinoire received the lips, nose and chin of a brain-dead woman in a 15-hour operation.

Ten years ago: Indian commandoes fought to wrest control of two luxury hotels and a Jewish center from militants, a day after a chain of attacks across Mumbai. Iraq's parliament approved a pact requiring all U.S. troops to be out of the country by Jan. 1, 2012.

Five years ago: In a short ceremony inside their Chicago apartment, Vernita Gray and her partner of five years, Patricia Ewert, made Illinois history as they became the first gay couple to wed under the state's new law legalizing same-sex marriage. Rising anger over deadly drone attacks spurred a Pakistani political party to reveal the identity of what it said was the top U.S. spy in the country and demand he be tried for murder. A crane collapsed at a Sao Paulo stadium being constructed for the 2014 World Cup, killing two workers.

One year ago: As he tried to bolster his support in the wake of a sexual harassment allegation, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken apologized to "everyone who has counted on me to be a champion for women." Authorities ordered a mass evacuation of people from an expanded danger zone around an erupting volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali; the eruption had closed the island's international airport, stranding tens of thousands of travelers. On Cyber Monday, the Echo Dot was the top-selling electronic item on Amazon, followed by the Fire TV.

Today's Birthdays: Author Gail Sheehy is 81. Footwear designer Manolo Blahnik is 76. Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow is 67. TV host Bill Nye ("Bill Nye, the Science Guy") is 63. Actor William Fichtner is 62. Caroline Kennedy is 61. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri is 61. Rock musician Charlie Burchill (Simple Minds) is 59. Jazz composer/big band leader Maria Schneider is 58. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is 58. Rock musician Charlie Benante (Anthrax) is 56. Rock musician Mike Bordin (Faith No More) is 56. Actor Fisher Stevens is 55. Actress Robin Givens is 54. Actor Michael Vartan is 50. Rapper Skoob (DAS EFX) is 48. Actor Kirk Acevedo is 47. Rapper Twista is 46. Actor Jaleel White is 42. Actor Arjay Smith is 35. Actress Alison Pill is 33. Actress Lashana Lynch (TV: "Still Star-Crossed") is 31. Actress-singer Aubrey Peeples is 25.

Thought for Today: "Pioneers are seldom from the nobility. There were no Dukes on the Mayflower." -- Mack Sennett, Canadian-born American movie producer (1880-1960).