TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Friday, Nov. 3, the 307th day of 2017. There are 58 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Nov. 3, 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.
On this date
1839 — The first Opium War between China and Britain broke out. 1903 — Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia. 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.) 1936 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide election victory over Republican challenger Alfred “Alf” Landon. 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. 1960 — The Meredith Willson musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” opened on Broadway with Tammy Grimes in the title role. 1961 — Burmese diplomat U Thant was appointed acting U.N. Secretary-General following the death of Dag Hammarskjold. 1964 — President Lyndon B. Johnson soundly defeated Republican Barry Goldwater to win a White House term in his own right. 1970 — Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile. 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, North Carolina. 1986 — The Iran-Contra affair came to light as Ash-Shiraa, a pro-Syrian Lebanese magazine, first broke the story of U.S. arms sales to Iran. 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. 2017 — Two astronauts conducted a successful spacewalk to save a ripped solar wing on the international space station.
Five years ago
The lights came back on in lower Manhattan to the relief of residents who’d been plunged into darkness for nearly five days by Superstorm Sandy, but there was deepening resentment in the city’s outer boroughs and suburbs over a continued lack of power and maddening gas shortages.
One year ago
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine delivered a speech entirely in Spanish as he addressed a small crowd in a largely Hispanic area of Phoenix as part of Hillary Clinton’s push into traditionally Republican Arizona.
China’s plans for a permanent space station remained firmly on track with the successful launch of its new heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket.
Today’s Birthdays
Horace Cline, former owner of Cline Pharmacy of Cave Spring, is 94. Actress Peggy McCay is 90. Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis is 84. Actor Shadoe Stevens is 71. Singer Lulu is 69. Comedian-actress Roseanne Barr is 65. Actress Kate Capshaw is 64. Comedian Dennis Miller is 64. Singer Adam Ant is 63. Actor Dolph Lundgren is 60. Rock musician C.J. Pierce (Drowning Pool) is 45. Actress Julie Berman is 34. TV personality Kendall Jenner (TV: “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”) is 22.