TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT Nov. 1, 1512

Michelangelo’s just-completed paintings on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel were publicly unveiled by the artist’s patron, Pope Julius II.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1478

The Spanish Inquisition was established.

1604

William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Othello” was presented at Whitehall Palace in London.

1765

The Stamp Act, passed by the British Parliament, went into effect, prompting stiff resistance from American colonists.

1861

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln named Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan General-in-Chief of the Union armies, succeeding Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott.

1936

In a speech in Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini described the alliance between his country and Nazi Germany as an “axis” running between Rome and Berlin.

1949

An Eastern Airlines DC-4 collided in midair with a Lockheed P-38 fighter plane near Washington National Airport, killing all 55 people aboard the DC-4 and seriously injuring the pilot of the P-38.

1950

Two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington, D.C., in a failed attempt to assassinate President Harry S. Truman.

1952

The United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed “Ivy Mike,” at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.