History Highlights

Today is Thursday, Nov. 4, the 308th day of 2021. There are 57 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 4, 1979, the Iran hostage crisis began as militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran, seizing its occupants; for some of them, it was the start of 444 days of captivity.

On this date:

In 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois.

In 1862, inventor Richard J. Gatling received a U.S. patent for his rapid-fire Gatling gun.

In 1922, the entrance to King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered in Egypt.

In 1942, during World War II, Axis forces retreated from El Alamein in North Africa in a major victory for British forces commanded by Lt. Gen. Bernard Montgomery.

In 1955, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young died in Newcomerstown, Ohio, at age 88. In 1956, Soviet troops moved in to crush the Hungarian Revolution.

In 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan won the White House as he defeated President Jimmy Carter by a strong margin.

In 1985, to the shock and dismay of U.S. officials, Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko announced he was returning to the Soviet Union, charging he had been kidnapped by the CIA.

In 1991, Ronald Reagan opened his presidential library in Simi Valley, California; attending were President George H.W. Bush and former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford and Richard Nixon — the first-ever gathering of five past and present U.S. chief executives.

In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli minutes after attending a festive peace rally.