Today is Tuesday, Nov. 23, the 327th day of 2010. There are 38 days left in the year.

On this date:

In 1765, Frederick County, Md., became the first colonial entity to repudiate the British Stamp Act.

In 1804, the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, was born in Hillsboro, N.H.

In 1889, the first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon.

In 1903, singer Enrico Caruso made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, appearing in "Rigoletto."

In 1910, American-born physician Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London for murdering his wife, Cora. (Crippen's mistress, Ethel Le Neve, was acquitted in a separate trial of being an accessory.)

In 1943, during World War II, US forces seized control of Tarawa and Makin atolls from the Japanese.

In 1959, the musical "Fiorello!," starring Tom Bosley as legendary New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, opened on Broadway.

In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed Nov. 25 a day of national mourning following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In 1971, the People's Republic of China was seated in the UN Security Council.

In 1980, some 2,600 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.

In 1996, a commandeered Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the water off the Comoros Islands, killing 125 of the 175 people on board, including all three hijackers.

Thought for Today:

"The ultimate aim of the human mind, in all its efforts, is to become acquainted with Truth." — Eliza Farnham, American reformer (1815-1864).