Today in history

In 1861,

ex-U.S. President John Tyler was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives (Tyler died before he could take his seat).

In 1916,

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

In 1917,

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

In 1940,

Washington state’s original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed into Puget Sound during a windstorm four months after opening to traffic.

In 1944,

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

In 1972,

President Richard Nixon was reelected 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.