TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, NOV. 5, the 309th day of 2019. There are 56 days left in the year.
ON THIS DATE IN 2017, 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.)
In 1605, the “Gunpowder Plot” failed as Guy Fawkes was seized before he could blow up the English Parliament.
In 1781, the Continental Congress elected John Hanson of Maryland its chairman, giving him the title of “President of the United States in Congress Assembled.”
In 1911, singing cowboy star Roy Rogers was born Leonard Slye in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie.
In 1968, Republican Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Democratic Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace.
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 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, the Brooklyn-born Israeli extremist, was shot to death at a New York hotel. (Egyptian native El Sayyed Nosair 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 2003, President Bush signed a bill outlawing the procedure known by its critics as “partial-birth abortion”; less than an hour later, a federal judge in Nebraska issued a temporary restraining order against the ban. (In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.)
In 2006, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal to hang for crimes against humanity.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Harris Yulin is 82. Actor Chris Robinson is 81. Actress Elke Sommer is 79. Singer Art Garfunkel is 78. Singer Peter Noone is 72. TV personality Kris Jenner and actor Nestor Serrano are 64. Actress-comedian Mo Gaffney and actor Robert Patrick are 61. Singer Bryan Adams is 60. Actress Tilda Swinton is 59. Actor Michael Gaston is 57. Actresses Tatum O’Neal and Andrea McArdle are 56. Rock singer Angelo Moore (Fishbone) is 54. Actress Judy Reyes is 52. Actors Seth Gilliam and Sam Rockwell, and rock musician Mark Hunter (James) are 51. Country singers Heather and Jennifer Kinley (The Kinleys) are 49. Actor Corin Nemec and rock musician Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) are 48. Country singer-musician Ryan Adams is 45. Actors Sebastian Arcelus and Sam Page are 43. Actor Luke Hemsworth is 39. Actor Jeremy Lelliott is 37. Actress Annet Mahendru is 34. Rock musician Kevin Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 32. Actor Landon Gimenez is 16.