TODAY INHISTORY
Today is Sunday, Nov. 1, the 306th day of 2020. There are 60 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 1, 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.) On this date: In 1478, the Spanish Inquisition was established.
In 1512, Michelangelo’s justcompleted paintings on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel were publicly unveiled by the artist’s patron, Pope Julius II.
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 1870, the United States Weather Bureau made its first meteorological observations.
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 1945, Ebony, a magazine geared toward Black readers, was first published.
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 1973, following the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Acting Attorney General Robert H. Bork appointed Leon Jaworski to be the new Watergate special prosecutor, succeeding Archibald Cox.
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.
In 2003, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean stirred controversy within his party by telling the Des Moines (duh-MOYN’) Register he wanted to be “the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.” (The former Vermont governor explained that he intended to encourage the return of Southern voters who had abandoned the Democrats for decades but were disaffected with the Republicans.)