Today in history
Today is Monday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2018. There are 56 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 5, 1968, Republican Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Democratic Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace. On this date: In 1605, the “Gunpowder Plot” failed as Guy Fawkes was seized before he could blow up the English Parliament.
In 1911, aviator Calbraith P. Rodgers arrived in Pasadena, Calif., completing the first transcontinental airplane trip in 49 days.
In 1935, Parker Brothers began marketing the board game “Monopoly.”
In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie.
In 1956, Britain and France started landing forces in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. (A cease-fire was declared two days later.)
In 1974, Democrat Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.
In 1985, Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at age 90; he was succeeded by Ezra Taft Benson.
In 1987, Supreme Court nominee Douglas H. Ginsburg admitted using marijuana several times in the 1960s and 70s, calling it a mistake. (Ginsburg ended up withdrawing his nomination.)
In 1990, Rabbi Meir Kahane (meh-EER’ kah-HAH’nuh), the Brooklyn-born Israeli extremist, was shot to death at a New York hotel. (Egyptian native El Sayyed Nosair (el sah-EED’ no-sahEER’) was convicted of the slaying in federal court.)
In 1992, Malice Green, a black motorist, died after he was struck in the head 14 times with a flashlight by a Detroit police officer, Larry Nevers, outside a suspected crack house. (Nevers and his partner, Walter Budzyn, were found guilty of second-degree murder, but the convictions were overturned; they were later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.)
In 1994, former President Ronald Reagan disclosed he had Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2009, a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas left 13 people dead; Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
Ten years ago: One day after being elected president, Barack Obama began filling out his new administration, selecting Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel to be White House chief of staff. A case of postelection nerves on Wall Street sent the Dow industrials plunging nearly 500 points.
Five years ago: Republican Gov. Chris Christie won a resounding re-election victory in Democratic-leaning New Jersey, while Democrat Terry McAuliffe prevailed in Virginia’s gubernatorial contest. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford acknowledged for the first time that he had smoked crack “probably a year ago” when he was in a “drunken stupor,” but he refused to resign despite immense pressure to step aside as leader of Canada’s largest city. India launched its first spacecraft bound for Mars; the Martian Orbiter Mission, or MOM, reached the red planet in Sept. 2014.
One year ago: A gunman armed with an assault rifle opened fire in a small South Texas church, killing more than two dozen people; the shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, was later found dead in a vehicle after he was shot and chased by two men who heard the gunfire. (An autopsy revealed that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.) President Donald Trump arrived in Japan for the start of a 12-day, five country Asian trip.