On This Day in History
Today is Monday, Nov. 4, the 309th day of 2024 with 57 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include humorist Will Rogers in 1879; journalist Walter Cronkite in 1916; actor Doris Roberts in 1925; actor Loretta Swit in 1937 (age 87); former U.S. first lady Laura Bush in 1946 (age 78); photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in 1946; novelist Charles Frazier in 1950 (age 74); actor Markie Post in 1950; comedian Kathy Griffin in 1960 (age 64); actor Ralph Macchio in 1961 (age 63); television personality Jeff Probst in 1961 (age 63); actor Matthew McConaughey in 1969 (age 55); actor Samantha Smith in 1969 (age 55); singer/actor/songwriter Sean "Puffy" Combs in 1969 (age 55); actor Steven Ogg in 1973 (age 51); actor Jean-Luc Bilodeau in 1990 (age 34).
On this date in history:
In 1879, James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio, patented the first cash register, known as "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier."
In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the steps leading to the tomb of Tutankhamen, ancient Egypt's child-king. Unlike other burial places in the Valley of the Kings, King Tut's tomb was largely untouched by looters.
In 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected the first female governor in the United States.
In 1924, voters overwhelmingly re-elected Calvin Coolidge president of the United States over Charles Davis.
In 1952, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president, ending 20 years of Democratic administrations .
In 1956, Soviet forces entered Budapest to crush an anti-communist revolt in Hungary. UPI correspondent Russell Jones described the conflict as " the murder of a people ."
In 1979, Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran , taking about 90 people hostage, 63 of them Americans.
In 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th president of the United States in a landslide victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter.
In 1991, Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines, returned home, ending more than five years of exile in the United States.
In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 73, was assassinated by a Jewish extremist following a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
In 2002, Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston apologized for assigning priests who may have been sexually abusive to parishes where they continued to have access to children.
In 2003, the elevation of a gay Episcopal priest to bishop prompted worldwide opposition, a Kenyan cleric said, "The devil has clearly entered our church."
In 2006, Katharine Jefferts Schori was installed as the first female presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church .
In 2008, Barack Obama, a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois, was the first African American elected president of the United States , taking 338 electoral votes to 161 for Republican John McCain.
In 2016, the Paris Agreement on climate change officially went into effect . One hundred and ninety-seven countries signed the accord promising to keep the global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.
In 2019, more than 450 Oklahoma inmates were released from prison as part of the nation's largest commutation of sentences.
A thought for the day: "I think being a liberal, in the true sense, is being non-doctrinaire, non-dogmatic, non-committed to a cause, but examining each case on its merits. Being left of center is another thing; it's a political position." - American journalist Walter Cronkite
