Jerry Waxman
Today in History: November 05
Today in History: November 05. On Nov. 5, 1872, suffragist Susan B. Anthony defied the law by casting a vote in the presidential election. In 1605, the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ failed as Guy Fawkes was seized before he could blow up the English Parliament. In 1930, novelist Sinclair Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie. In 2006, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal to hang for crimes against humanity.
Today in History: November 04
Today in History: November 04: In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama was elected the first Black president of the United States. In 1922, the entrance to King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered in Egypt. In 2007, King Tutankhamen’s face was unveiled for the first time to the public more than 3,000 years after the pharaoh was buried in his Egyptian tomb. In 1991, Ronald Reagan opened his presidential library in Simi Valley, California. In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli minutes after attending a peace rally.
Today in History: November 03
Today in History: November 03: 1979, five Communist Workers Party members were killed in a clash with heavily armed Ku Klux Klansmen and neo-Nazis during an anti-Klan protest in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1908, Republican William Howard Taft was elected president, outpolling Democrat William Jennings Bryan. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the spacecraft Sputnik 2, carrying the first animal into orbit, a dog named Laika. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won the presidency and became one of the greatest presidents in history, while Republican President Donald Trump would refuse to concede, falsely claiming that he was a victim of widespread voter fraud.
Today in History: November 02
Today in History: November 02: In 1948, in one of the most unexpected results in U.S. election history, Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman won the presidential election against the heavily favored Republican governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey. In 1783, General George Washington issued his Farewell Address to the Army. In 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his Hughes H-4 Hercules, nicknamed the ‘Spruce Goose,’ on its one and only flight. In 1959, Charles Van Doren testified to a Congressional committee that he had conspired with television producers to cheat on the television quiz show ‘Twenty-One.’ In 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter became the first candidate from the Deep South to be elected president since the Civil War as he defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford. In 2000, American astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, became the first crew to reside onboard the International Space Station; they spent a total of 136 days in the International Space Station before returning to Earth on Space Shuttle Discovery.
Today in History: November 1
Today in History: November 01: In 1765, the Stamp Act, passed by the British Parliament, went into effect, prompting stiff resistance from American colonists. In 1894, Nicholas II became Emperor of Russia, succeeding his late father Alexander III. In 1938, in a two-horse match race, Seabiscuit defeated the favored Triple Crown winner War Admiral by four lengths in what was dubbed the “Race of the Century” at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. In 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington, D.C., in a failed attempt to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. In 1982, the first Japanese car produced in the U.S. rolled off the assembly line at the Honda manufacturing plant in Marysville, Ohio. In 1989, East Germany reopened its border with Czechoslovakia, prompting tens of thousands of refugees to flee to the West. And in 1995, Yugoslavia peace talks opened in Dayton, Ohio, with the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia present. And that’s the way it was – on this day, November 1 – in history, dad gummit.
Today in History: October 31
Today in History: October 31: In 1913, the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile highway across the United States, was dedicated. In 1941, work was completed on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, begun in 1927. In 1950, Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols became the first Black American to play in an NBA game. In 1984, Indira Gandhi, India’s Prime Minister for over 15 years, was assassinated by two of her own security guards.
Today in History: October 30
Today in History: October 30, 1912, Vice President James S. Sherman, running for a second term of office with President William Howard Taft, died six days before Election Day. In 1938, the radio play “The War of the Worlds,” starring Orson Welles, aired on the CBS Radio Network. In 1975, the New York Daily News ran the headline, “Ford to City: Drop Dead” a day after President Gerald R Ford said he would veto any proposed federal bailout of New York City. In 1995, by a razor-thin vote of 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent, Federalists prevailed over separatists in a Quebec secession referendum. In 2005, the late Rosa Parks became the first woman to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
Today in History: October 29
Today in History. October 29. In 1929, ‘Black Tuesday’ descended on the New York Stock Exchange, heralding the beginning of America’s Great Depression. In 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh, the English courtier, military adventurer and poet, was executed in London for treason. In 1940, Secretary of War Henry Stimson drew the first number from a glass bowl in America’s first peacetime military draft. In 1956, the Suez Crisis began when Israeli forces, backed by Great Britain and France, pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal. In 1998, Sen. John Glenn, at age 77, returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery. In 2015, China announced plans to abolish its one-child policy, allowing all families to have two children for the first time in over 35 years. In 2017, all but 10 members of the Houston Texans took a knee during the national anthem. In 2018, a Boeing jet operated by the Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed in the Java Sea minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. In 2022, more than 150 people were killed and dozens more injured in South Korea after being crushed by a large crowd pushing forward on a narrow street during Halloween festivities in Seoul.
Today in History: October 28
Today in History. October 28. On this day in 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. In 1936 President Franklin D Roosevelt rededicated the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary. In 1636, the General Court of Massachusetts passed a legislative act establishing Harvard College. In 1858, Rowland Hussey Macy opened his first New York store at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan. In 1919, Congress enacted the Volstead Act, which provided for enforcement of Prohibition, over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. In 1922, fascism came to Italy when Benito Mussolini took control of the government. In 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the United States that he had ordered the dismantling of missile bases in Cuba. In 2016, the FBI announced it was investigating whether Hillary Clinton’s emails, found on a device belonging to Anthony Weiner, might contain classified information. This announcement, coming days before election day, may have influenced voters in the last minute, but there is no concrete evidence that it would have changed the electoral college results.