Today in History....November 27

On this day in …

1901, the U.S. Army War College was established in Washington
1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad began service at New York's Pennsylvania Station

1911, Elizabeth Jaffray, a White House housekeeper, writes in her diary about a conversation she’d had with President William Howard Taft and his wife about the commander in chief’s ever-expanding waistline. According to the White House Historical Association, Jaffray was also quoted regarding Taft’s growing girth in a 1926 book called Secrets of the White House. In it, she detailed a typical breakfast consumed by the 332-pound president: "two oranges, a twelve-ounce beefsteak, several pieces of toast and butter and a vast quantity of coffee with cream and sugar."

1924, New York City's Macy's department store held its first Thanksgiving Day parade down a two-mile stretch of Broadway from Central Park West to Herald Square. The parade featured large performing platforms that, because they were attached to specially outfitted automobiles concealed beneath them, seemed to float down Broadway. Felix the Cat was Macy's first parade balloon

1942, during World War II, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis, ym"sh

1945, Gen. George C. Marshall was named special U.S. envoy to China to try to end hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists

1965, in Washington, nearly 35,000 war protesters circle the White House for two hours before moving on to the Washington Monument. Dr. Benjamin Spock, Coretta Scott King, and activist Norman Thomas were among those who gave speeches

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

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