November 26

783 – The Asturian queen Adosinda is held at a monastery to prevent her king from retaking the throne from Mauregatus. 1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dynasty ships on the Yangtze river during the Jin–Song Wars. 1476 – Vlad the Impaler defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Báthory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time. 1778 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui. 1789 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as proclaimed by President George Washington at the request of Congress. 1805 – Official opening of Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. 1812 – The Battle of Berezina begins during Napoleon's retreat from Russia. 1852 – An earthquake as high as magnitude 8.8 rocks the Banda Sea, triggering a tsunami and killing at least 60 in the Dutch East Indies. 1863 – United States President Abraham Lincoln proclaims November 26 as a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November. Following the Franksgiving controversy from 1939 to 1941, it has been observed on the fourth Thursday in 1942 and subsequent years. 1865 – Battle of Papudo: A Spanish navy schooner is defeated by a Chilean corvette north of Valparaíso, Chile. 1914 – HMS Bulwark is destroyed by a large internal explosion with the loss of 741 men near Sheerness. 1917 – The Manchester Guardian publishes the 1916 secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between the United Kingdom and France. 1917 – The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams. 1918 – The Montenegran Podgorica Assembly votes for a "union of the people", declaring assimilation into the Kingdom of Serbia. 1920 – Ukrainian War of Independence: The Red Army launches a surprise attack against the Makhnovshchina. 1922 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3000 years.