On Nov. 23, 1765, a court in Frederick County, Md., repudiated the Stamp Act, the first rebellious colonial action against England.
In 1876 representatives of Columbia, Princeton and Harvard met in Springfield, Mass., to form the first intercollegiate football association.
In 1889 the first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale saloon. (It featured an Edison tinfoil phonograph with four listening tubes.)
In 1903 Enrico Caruso made his U.S. debut, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in “Rigoletto.”
In 1945 the United States ended wartime rationing of most food items, including meat and butter.
In 1954 the Chinese government announced that 11 American airmen captured during the Korean War had been convicted of espionage.
In 1969 the first news conference in outer space to be viewed from Earth was held aboard the orbiting Apollo 12.
In 1980 a devastating earthquake and several aftershocks struck southern Italy, killing 4,800 people and leaving 200,000 homeless.
In 1982 President Ronald Reagan proposed an increase in the federal tax on gasoline to pay for mass transit projects and repairs to highways and bridges.
In 1985 terrorists seized an Egyptian jetliner carrying more than 100 people and forced it to land in Malta. (The next day, 60 people died when Egyptian forces stormed the plane.)
In 1992 country music singer Roy Acuff died at age 89 in Nashville.
In 1993 President Clinton signed legislation lifting remaining U.S. sanctions against South Africa, and announced an initiative to spur investment in South Africa’s black private sector.
