TODAY IN HISTORY
On this day in:
1864 – During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated the Confederate forces in Missouri that were under Gen. Stirling Price.
1910 – Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to make a public solo airplane flight in the United States.
1915 – The first U.S. championship horseshoe tourney was held in Kellerton, IA.
1915 – Approximately 25,000 women demanded the right to vote with a march in NewYork City, NY.
1929 – In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged starting the stock-market crash that began the Great Depression.
1930 – J.K. Scott won the first miniature golf tournament. The event was held in Chattanooga, TN.
1942 – During World War II, the British began a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein, Egypt.
1944 – During World War II, the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
1946 – The United Nations General Assembly convened in NewYork for the first time.
1956 – Hungarian citizens began an uprising against Soviet occupation. On November 4, 1956 Soviet forces enter Hungary and eventually suppress the uprising.
1956 – NBC broadcasted the first videotape recording. The tape of Jonathan Winters was seen coast to coast in the U.S.
1958 – Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He was forced to refuse the honor due to negative Soviet reaction. Pasternak won the award for writing “Dr. Zhivago”.
1962 – During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. naval “quarantine” of Cuba was approved by the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).
1962 – The U.S. Navy reconnaissance squadron VFP62 began overflights of Cuba under the code name “Blue Moon.”
1971 – The U.N. General Assembly voted to expel Taiwan and seat Communist China.
1973 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon agreed to turn over the subpoenaed tapes concerning the Watergate affair.
1978 – China and Japan formally ended four decades of hostility when they exchanged treaty ratifications.
1980 – The resignation of Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin was announced.
1984 – “NBC Nightly News” aired footage of the severe drought in Ethiopia.
1985 – U.S. President Reagan arrived in New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.
1989 – Hungary became an independent republic, after 33 years of Soviet rule.
1992 – Japanese Emperor Akihito became the first Japanese emperor to stand on Chinese soil.
1993 – Joe Carter (Toronto Blue Jays) became only the second player to end the World Series with a homerun.
1995 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin and U.S. President Bill Clinton agree to a joint peacekeeping effort in the war-torn Bosnia.
1998 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a breakthrough in a land-for-peace West Bank accord.
1998 – Japan nationalized its first bank since World War II.
2000 – Universal Studios Consumer Products Group (USCPG) and Amblin Entertainment announced an unprecedented and exclusive three-year worldwide merchandising program with Toys “R” Us, Inc. The deal was for the rights to exclusive “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” merchandise starting in fall 2001. The film was scheduled for re-release in the spring of 2002.
2001 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft began orbiting Mars. In 2010, it became the longest-operating spacecraft ever sent to Mars.
