Today is Saturday, Nov. 7, the 311th day of 2009. There are 54 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.
On this date:
In 1874, the Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.
In 1893, the state of Colorado granted its women the right to vote.
In 1916, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.
In 1940, in Washington state, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed "Galloping Gertie," collapsed during a windstorm.
In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.
In 1962, Richard Nixon, having lost California's gubernatorial race, held what he called his "last press conference," telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."
In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.
In 1973, Congress overrode President Richard Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive's power to wage war without congressional approval.
In 1989, L. Douglas Wilder won the governor's race in Virginia, becoming the first elected black governor in U.S. history; David N. Dinkins was elected New York City's first black mayor.
Ten years ago: Relatives of the victims of EgyptAir Flight 990 gathered in Newport, R.I., to bid them a wrenching farewell, a week after the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Tiger Woods became the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win four straight tournaments. Kenya's Joseph Chebet won the New York City Marathon; Adriana Fernandez won the women's division.
Five years ago: France rolled out overwhelming military force to put down an explosion of anti-French violence in Ivory Coast, its former West African colony. In the New York City Marathon, Britain's Paula Radcliffe won the women's race, edging Kenya's Susan Chepkemei by only four seconds; South Africa's Hendrik Ramaala won the men's race. Actor and musical star Howard Keel died at age 85.
One year ago: In his first news conference since being elected president, Barack Obama called on Congress to extend unemployment benefits and pass a stimulus bill. The government reported the unemployment rate had soared to 6.5 percent in Oct. 2008, up from 6.1 percent just a month earlier. General Motors Corp. reported a $2.5 billion loss in the third quarter while Ford Motor Co. said it had lost $129 million. A school in Haiti collapsed, killing some 90 people. Mieczyslaw Rakowski, Poland's last communist-era party chairman and prime minister, died in Warsaw at age 81.
Today's Birthdays: Evangelist Billy Graham is 91. Opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland is 83. Actor Barry Newman is 71. Singer Johnny Rivers is 67. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 66. Singer Nick Gilder is 58. The head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, is 57. Actor Christopher Knight ("The Brady Bunch") is 52. Rock musician Tommy Thayer (KISS) is 49. Actress Julie Pinson is 42. Rock musician Greg Tribbett (Mudvayne) is 41. Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is 37. Actors Jason and Jeremy London are 37. Actress Yunjin Kim is 36. Rock musician Zach Myers (Shinedown) is 26.
Thought for Today: "History is simply a piece of paper covered with print; the main thing is still to make history, not to write it." — Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (1815-1898).
