TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, NOV. 3, the 307th day of 2018. There are 58 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd president of the United States, defeating President George H.W. Bush. In Illinois, Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
In 1839, the first Opium War between China and Britain broke out.
In 1900, the first major U.S. automobile show opened at New York’s Madison Square Garden under the auspices of the Automobile Club of America.
In 1908, Republican William Howard Taft was elected president, outpolling William Jennings Bryan.
In 1911, the Chevrolet Motor Car Co. was founded in Detroit by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant. (The company was acquired by General Motors in 1918.)
In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide election victory over Republican challenger Alfred “Alf” Landon.
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, the second manmade satellite, into orbit; on board was a dog named Laika, who was sacrificed in the experiment.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson soundly defeated Republican Barry Goldwater to win a White House term in his own right.
In 1970, Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile.
In 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, N.C.
In 1997, the Supreme Court let stand California’s groundbreaking Proposition 209, which banned race and gender preference in hiring and school admissions.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Lois Smith is 88. Actress Monica Vitti is 87. Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and actor-dancer Ken Berry are 85. Actor Shadoe Stevens is 72. Singer Lulu is 70. Comedian-actress Roseanne Barr is 66. Actresses Kate Capshaw and Kathy Kinney, and comedian Dennis Miller are 65. Singer Adam Ant is 64. Director-screenwriter Gary Ross is 62. Actor Dolph Lundgren is 61. Rock musician C.J. Pierce (Drowning Pool) is 46. Actor Francois Battiste (TV: “Ten Days in the Valley”) is 42. Actress Julie Berman is 35. Actress Antonia Thomas (TV: “The Good Doctor”) is 32. Alternative rock singer/songwriter Courtney Barnett is 31. TV personality Kendall Jenner (TV: “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”) is 23.