Today in History
1512 - Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were first exhibited to the public.
1604 - "Othello," the tragedy by William Shakespeare, was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London.
1611 - "The Tempest," Shakespeare's romantic comedy, was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London.
1755 - At least 60,000 people were killed in Lisbon, Portugal by an earthquake, its aftershocks and the ensuing tsunami.
1765 - The British Parliament enacted The Stamp Act in the American colonies. The act was repealed in March of 1766 on the same day that the Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts which asserted that the British government had free and total legislative power of the colonies.
1800 - U.S. President John Adams became the first president to live in the White House when he moved in.
1848 - The first medical school for women, founded by Samuel Gregory, opened in Boston, MA. The Boston Female Medical School later merged with Boston University School of Medicine.
1861 - Gen. George B. McClellan was made the general-in-chief of the American Union armies.
1864 - The U.S. Post Office started selling money orders. The money orders provided a safe way to payments by mail.
1870 - The U.S. Weather Bureau made its first meteorological observations using 24 locations that provided reports via telegraph.
1879 - Thomas Edison executed his first patent application for a high-resistance carbon filament (U.S. Pat. 223,898).
1894 - "Billboard Advertising" was published for the first time. It later became known as "Billboard."
1894 - Russian Emperor Alexander III died.
1904 - The Army War College in Washington, DC, enrolled the first class.
1911 - Italy used planes to drop bombs on the Tanguira oasis in Libya. It was the first aerial bombing.
1936 - Benito Mussolini made a speech in Milan, Italy, in which he described the alliance between Italy and Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Berlin and Rome.
1937 - "Hilltop House" was aired for the first time on CBS Radio.
1937 - "Terry and the Pirates" debuted on NBC Radio.
1940 - "A Night in the Tropics" was released. It was the first movie for Abbott and Costello.
1944 - "Harvey," by Mary Chase, opened on Broadway.
1947 - The famous racehorse Man o' War died.
1949 - In Washington, 55 people were killed when a fighter plane hit an airliner.
1950 - Two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to assassinate U.S. President Harry Truman. One of the men was killed when they tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington, DC.
1952 - The United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
1954 - Algeria began to rebel against French rule.
1959 - Jacques Plante, of the Montreal Canadiens, became the first goalie in the NHL to wear a mask.
1963 - The USSR launched Polyot I. It was the first satellite capable of maneuvering in all directions and able to change its orbit.
1968 - The movie rating system of G, M, R, X, followed by PG-13 and NC-17 went into effect.
1973 - Leon Jaworski was appointed the new Watergate special prosecutor in the Watergate case.
1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged all Iranians to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand their attacks against the U.S. and Israel. On November 4, Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 63 Americans hostage.
1981 - The U.S. Postal Service raised the first-class letter rate to 20 cents.
1985 - In the village of Ignacio Aldama, 22 members of a Mexican anti-narcotics squad were killed by alleged drug traffickers.
1987 - Deng Xiaoping retired from China's Communist Party's Central Committee.
1989 - Tens of thousands of refugees to fled to the West when East Germany reopened its border with Czechoslovakia.
1989 - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced the end of a cease-fire with the Contra rebels.
1993 - The European Community's treaty on European unity took effect.
1994 - The Amazon.com domain name was registered.
1995 - In Dayton, OH, the Bosnian peace talks opened with the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia present.
1998 - Nicaraguan Vice President Enrique Bolanos announced that between 1,000 and 1,500 people were buried in a 32-square mile area below the slopes of the Casita volcano in northern Nicaragua by a mudslide caused by Hurricane Mitch.
1998 - Iridium inaugurated the first handheld, global satellite phone and paging system.