Today in history
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 1, the 305th day of 2017. There are 60 days left in the year. This is All Saints Day.
Today’s highlight
On 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.
On this date
In 1478, the Spanish Inquisition was established.
In 1604, William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Othello” was presented at Whitehall Palace in London.
In 1765, the Stamp Act, passed by the British Parliament, went into effect, prompting stiff resistance from American colonists.
In 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.
In 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.
In 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.
In 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. (One of the pair was killed, along with a White House police officer.)
In 1952, the United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb, code-named “Ivy Mike,” at Enewetak (en-ih-WEE’-tahk) Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
In 1967, the prison drama “Cool Hand Luke,” starring Paul Newman, was released by Warner Bros. Seven Arts.
In 1979, former first lady Mamie Eisenhower died in Washington, D.C., at age 82.
In 1989, East Germany reopened its border with Czechoslovakia, prompting tens of thousands of refugees to flee to the West.
In 1991, Clarence Thomas took his place as the newest justice on the Supreme Court.
Ten years ago: Retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, died in Columbus, Ohio, at age 92. Less than a week after workers ratified a new contract, Chrysler announced 12,000 job cuts, or about 15 percent of its work force.
Five years ago: Israel, lifting a nearly 25-year veil of secrecy, acknowledged it had killed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s deputy in a 1988 raid in Tunisia. (Khalil al-Wazir, who was better known by his nom de guerre Abu Jihad, founded Fatah, the dominant faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization.)
One year ago: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired the commander of the peacekeeping force in South Sudan after an independent investigation sharply criticized the military response to deadly attacks in July on a U.N. compound housing 27,000 displaced people. Most of an African-American church in Greenville, Mississippi, was destroyed by an arson fire; the building was spray-painted with the words “Vote Trump.” The Chicago Cubs forced a deciding Game 7 in the World Series as they defeated the Cleveland Indians 9-3.
Today’s Birthdays: World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player is 82. Country singer Bill Anderson is 80. Actress Barbara Bosson is 78. Actor Robert Foxworth is 76. Magazine publisher Larry Flynt is 75. Country singer-humorist Kinky Friedman is 73. Actress Jeannie Berlin is 68. Music producer David Foster is 68. Actress Belita Moreno is 68. Rhythm-and-blues musician Ronald Khalis Bell (Kool and the Gang) is 66. Country singer-songwriter-producer Keith Stegall is 63. Country singer Lyle Lovett is 60. Actress Rachel Ticotin is 59. Rock musician Eddie MacDonald (The Alarm) is 58. Apple CEO Tim Cook is 57.