Today In History

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 7, the 311th day of 2018. There are 54 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1944: President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Republican Thomas E. Dewey.

ON THIS DATE

› 1862: During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln replaced Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac with Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside.

› 1874: The Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly.

› 1916: Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress, winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

› 1917: Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

› 1940: Washington state’s original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed “Galloping Gertie,” collapsed into Puget Sound during a windstorm just four months after opening to traffic.

› 1967: Carl Stokes was elected the first black mayor of a major city — Cleveland, Ohio.

› 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.

› 1991: Basketball star Magic Johnson announced that he had tested positive for HIV, and was retiring. (Despite his HIV status, Johnson has been able to sustain himself with medication.)

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Former U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn., is 88. Actor Barry Newman is

80. Singer Johnny Rivers is 76. Former supermodel Jean Shrimpton is 76. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 75. Actor Christopher Knight (TV: “The Brady Bunch”) is 61. Rock musician Tommy Thayer (KISS) is 58. Actress Julie Pinson is

51. Rock musician Greg Tribbett (Mudvayne) is

50. Actress Michelle Clunie is 49. Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is 46. Actors Jeremy and Jason London are 46. Actress Yunjin Kim is 45. Rock musician Zach Myers (Shinedown) is 35. Actor Lucas Neff is 33. Rapper Tinie Tempah is 30. Rock singer Lorde is 22.