Today is Saturday, November 12, the 317th day of 2016. There are 49 days left in the year.
1775 — General Washington forbids recruiting officers enlisting blacks
1859 — Jules Leotard performs first Flying Trapeze circus act
1873 — Bay District Race Track opens
1892 — Pudge Heffelfinger receives $500, becomes first pro football player
1910 — First movie stunt: man jumps into Hudson river from a burning balloon
1915 — Britain annexes Gilbert & Ellice Islands
1918 — Emperor Karl of Austria-Hungary abdicates, Austria becomes a republic
1919 — Ross & Smith start a first month flight from London to Australia
1920 — Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis elected first baseball commissioner