November 3

1964

Residents of the District of Columbia cast their ballots in a presidential election for the first time. The passage of the 23rd Amendment in 1961 gave citizens of the nation’s capital the right to vote for a commander in chief and vice president. They went on to help Democrat Lyndon Johnson defeat Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964, the next presidential election. In 1970, Congress gave Washington, D.C., one non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives and with the passage of 1973’s Home Rule Act, Washingtonians got their first elected mayor and city council. In 1978, a proposed amendment would have given D.C. the right to select electors, representatives and senators, just like a state, but it failed to pass, as have subsequent calls for D.C. statehood.

    

1998

Former professional wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota with 37 percent of the vote. Ventura, the Reform-Party candidate, spent $250,000 on his campaign—money he raised by selling $22 t-shirts and accepting $50 donations from his supporters. Some of his accomplishments as governor were popular: He managed to pass a light-rail plan for the Twin Cities, drafted a novel property-tax reform package and sent tax rebates, called “Jesse Checks,” to voters every year for three years. Then the state ran into economic problems. In 2002, Ventura decided that he would not run for office again. Ventura has since hosted TV talk shows and taught a class at Harvard. He occasionally discusses running as a Green Party candidate in presidential elections.

2014

One World Trade Center officially opened in Manhattan. The new tower, along with the rest of the World Trade Center complex, replaced the Twin Towers and surrounding complex, which were destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Though its cornerstone was laid in 2004, construction on One World Trade did not begin until the summer of 2006. At 1,776 feet tall, One World Trade Center (WTC) is not only the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Its sheer size, geographic constraints, and operational necessities make it easily one of the region’s — if not the nation’s — most complex projects ever built.

November 4

1979

Student followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini sent shock waves across America when they stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages. The students were enraged that the deposed Shah had been allowed to enter the United States for medical treatment and they threatened to murder hostages if any rescue was attempted. On January 20, 1981—the day of Reagan’s inauguration—the United States freed almost $3 billion in frozen Iranian assets and promised $5 billion more in financial aid. Minutes after Reagan was sworn in, the hostages flew out of Iran on an Algerian airliner, ending their 444-day ordeal.

1990

Dances with Wolves premiered in Los Angeles. The film, which stars Kevin Costner and marks his directorial debut, is about an American Civil War-era soldier and a group of Sioux Native Americans. Dances with Wolves was a surprise box-office success and earned 12 Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Costner. Dances with Wolves took home seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, and solidified Costner’s place on Hollywood’s A-list. Costner played the Union Army’s Lieutenant John Dunbar, who travels to a desolate Western post, befriends his Sioux neighbors and eventually becomes an honorary member of their tribe. Based on a novel by Michael Blake, the film was shot on location, primarily in South Dakota, and contained Lakota dialogue with English-language subtitles.

2008

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first African American elected to the White House. The 47-year-old Democrat garnered 365 electoral votes and nearly 53 percent of the popular vote. President Obama's campaign was notable for its unprecedented use of the Internet for organizing constituents and fundraising. According to The Washington Post: “3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less.” Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. On November 6, 2012, he defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term in the White House. He left office in January, 2017.

 

November 5

1940

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected for an unprecedented third term as president of the United States. Roosevelt’s decision to break the precedent set by George Washington was made in July 1940, as the United States neared its entry into World War II. The third-term decision dominated his election campaign against the Republican contender, Wendell Wilkie. In the end, Roosevelt won the election by a wide margin, and he was able to win a fourth election in 1944. The fourth term of his presidency ended with his death on April 12, 1945.

1994

George Foreman, age 45, became boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion when he defeated 26-year-old Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas. More than 12,000 spectators at the MGM Grand Hotel watched Foreman dethrone Moorer, who went into the fight with a 35-0 record. Foreman dedicated his upset win to “all my buddies in the nursing home and all the guys in jail.” Foreman returned to the ring at age 38 and staged a successful comeback. When he won his second heavyweight title in his 1994 fight against Moorer, becoming the WBA and IBF champ, Foreman was wearing the same red trunks he’d had on the night he lost to Ali. Foreman’s last fight was in 1997 and he retired with a lifetime record of 76-5.

2009

13 people were killed and more than 30 others were wounded, nearly all of them unarmed soldiers, when a U.S. Army officer went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in central Texas. The deadly assault, carried out by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military installation. Fort Hood is the largest active-duty U.S. military post. At the time of the shootings, more than 50,000 military personnel lived and worked there, along with thousands more family members and civilian personnel. The massacre lasted approximately 10 minutes before Hasan was shot by civilian police and taken into custody. On August 23, 2013, a jury found Hasan guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder, and he later was sentenced to death for his crimes.

November 6

1860

Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded, and the Confederate States of America had been formally established. The American Civil War soon began and eventually ended in 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrenders. For preserving the Union and bringing an end to slavery, along with his unique character and powerful oratory, Lincoln is hailed as one of the greatest American presidents.

1869

Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4, in the very first college football game. The game was played with a soccer ball before roughly 100 fans in New Brunswick, New Jersey and resembled rugby instead of today's football. Each school had 25 players. Every score counted as a "game"—the contest was supposed to end when the teams combined for 10 "games." Rutgers finished with six games to Princeton's four. Even off of the playing fields, the rivalry between the New Jersey schools, located 20 miles apart, was heated. At the time, Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey. In 2019, Rutgers theater students reenacted the first game to commemorate college football's sesquicentennial.

1906

President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt embarked on a 17-day trip to Panama and Puerto Rico, becoming the first president to make an official diplomatic tour outside of the continental United States. Roosevelt visited Panama to check on the progress of the Panama Canal, the construction of which had suffered many setbacks, including worker accidents and disease outbreaks. His time in Puerto Rico was to recommend that Puerto Ricans become U.S. citizens. He stopped short of suggesting Puerto Rico become another U.S. state, however, and vowed to allow the island a certain amount of autonomy.

November 7

1916

Montana suffragist Jeannette Rankin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first woman in the history of the nation to win a seat in the federal Congress. A dedicated pacifist, Rankin’s first vote as a U.S. congresswoman was against U.S. entry into WW1. Many supported her courageous stand, though others claimed her vote showed that women were incapable of shouldering the difficult burdens of national leadership—despite the fact that 55 men had also voted against the war. Rankin’s vote against WWI contributed to her defeat in her 1918 reelection bid. Ironically, she again won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1940, just as the nation was about to enter WW2. Rankin became the only person in the history of Congress to vote against U.S. entry into both world wars. This time, though, the principled pacifist from Montana cast the sole dissenting vote.

  

1989

Two very important firsts for African Americans in politics occurred on the same day. In New York, former Manhattan borough president David Dinkins, a Democrat, was elected New York City’s first African American mayor, while in Virginia, Lieutenant Governor Douglas Wilder, also a Democrat, became the first elected African American state governor in American history.

2000

A pivotal moment in U.S. election history occurred when the presidential election culminated in a statistical tie between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George Bush. The results in Florida were unclear by the end of election night and led to a recount and a Supreme Court case, Bush v. Gore, which ended the dispute in favor of Bush a month later. The election exposed several flaws and controversial elements of the American electoral process and was the fourth of five U.S. presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote.

November 8

1960

John F. Kennedy, 43, became the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. He was also the first Catholic to become president. The campaign was hard fought and bitter. For the first time, presidential candidates engaged in televised debates. Many observers believed that Kennedy’s poised and charming performance during the four debates made the difference in the final vote.

1965

For action this day in the Iron Triangle northwest of Saigon, Specialist Five Lawrence Joel, a medic with the 1st Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade was awarded the Medal of Honor, becoming the first living African American since the Spanish-American War to receive the nation’s highest award for valor. When his unit was outnumbered in an attack by an enemy force, Specialist Joel, who suffered a severe leg wound in the early stages of the battle, continued to administer aid to his wounded comrades. Wounded a second time—with a bullet lodged deep in his lungs—Joel continued to treat the wounded, completely disregarding the battle raging around him and his own safety.

1973

Maurice Ferré was elected Mayor of Miami, Florida. In addition to becoming the first Puerto Rican to lead a major city in the mainland United States and the first Hispanic Mayor of Miami, Ferré is credited for transforming Miami from a tourist town into an international city. He would hold the position until 1985, serving six two-year terms. During his time as mayor, he expanded the city's port, lured domestic and foreign banks to a newly-christened financial center, and welcomed the immigrants who poured in from Cuba. Upon his death in September of 2019, both allies and bitter political rivals acknowledged his contributions to the city. His obituary in the Herald referred to him as "the father of modern-day Miami."

November 9

1965

The biggest power failure in U.S. history occurred as all of New York state, portions of seven neighboring states, and parts of eastern Canada are plunged into darkness. The Great Northeast Blackout began at the height of rush hour, delaying millions of commuters, trapping 800,000 people in New York’s subways, and stranding thousands more in office buildings, elevators, and trains. Ten thousand National Guardsmen and 5,000 off-duty policemen were called into service. The blackout was caused by the tripping of a 230-kilovolt transmission line near Ontario, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. All together, 30 million people in eight U.S. states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec were affected by the blackout. During the night, power was gradually restored to the blacked-out areas, and by morning power had been restored throughout the Northeast.

  

1984

Wes Craven's horror film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" premiered in the US. The plot centers around four teenagers living on one street in the fictitious town of Springwood, Ohio, who are invaded and killed in their dreams, and thus killed in reality, by a burnt killer with a bladed leather glove named Freddy Krueger. The film was met with rave critical reviews and is considered one of the greatest horror films of all time.

1996

Evander Holyfield upset Mike Tyson in 11th-round knockout in Las Vegas to regain WBA heavyweight boxing title. He became the second boxer, after Muhammad Ali, to win a heavyweight title 3 times. The two boxers would have a rematch the following year that would achieve notoriety as one of the most bizarre fights in boxing history, after Tyson bit off part of Holyfield's ear. Tyson was disqualified from the match and lost his boxing license, though it was later reinstated.