Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870)

Born in Portsmouth, England, Dickens left school at the age of 12
to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors’
prison. After three years he was returned to school, before he began
his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for
20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories
and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, and campaigned vigorously for children’s rights, education and other social reforms.

In 1836 Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, with whom he would
have nine children. He died from a stroke in 1870 at the age of 58,
with his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, still unfinished.

War bonds were debt securities issued by the government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war. They were
also a means to control inflation by removing money from circulation from a stimulated wartime economy.

On November 30, 1876, Yale defeated Princeton, 2-0, in Hoboken,
New Jersey in the first collegiate football game played on the Thanksgiving holiday. Nearly 1,000 fans attended the game,
played in cold, rainy weather. "The friends of both colleges
mustered in good force," the New York Times reports. "Several
carriages containing ladies were on the ground, and a goodly
number of Alumni were there to cheer the contestants."

The football was oval and made of leather, the Times noted,
"similar to those used in Rugby Union rules." The game
resembled rugby more than a present-day game of football. 

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City,
the world’s largest parade is presented by the department store
chain Macy’s, started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest
Thanksgiving parade in the United States with America’s
Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit (with both parades being four
years younger than Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Day Parade).
The three-hour parade is held in Manhattan, ending outside
Macy’s Herald Square, and takes place from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00
p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thanksgiving Day, and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1953.