http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Nov 8, 1917: New Russian leader Lenin calls for immediate armistice
On November 8, 1917, one day after an armed uprising led by his radical socialist Bolsheviks toppled the provisional Russian government, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin rises before the newly formed All-Russian Congress of Soviets to call for an immediate armistice with the Central Powers in World War I.
Lenin, in exile in Western Europe when the war broke out in 1914, managed to secure passage through Germany back to Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) in April 1917, after the first wave of Russia's revolution in March overthrew the regime of Czar Nicholas II. In the months that followed, the Bolsheviks increased their influence, aided in their cause by Russia's dismal economic situation and widespread frustration with the continuing war effort. In late June, the spectacular failure of an offensive ordered by the provisional government's minister of war, Alexander Kerensky, sent the army into a tailspin, with millions of soldiers deserting the front and streaming home to join the socialist cause.
Over the next several months, Russia's revolutionary fervor only increased, as Kerensky--by now serving as prime minister--struggled to maintain order in the face of growing opposition. Meanwhile, Lenin was hiding in Finland after an abortive workers' uprising in July. He returned to Russia in late September, in time to push the Bolshevik Central Committee to organize an armed insurrection and seize power. The committee approved the plan in late October. On the night of November 6-7, under the direction of Leon Trotsky, an armed band of workers, soldiers and sailors stormed the Winter Palace, headquarters of the provisional government. The following morning, after a virtually bloodless victory, Trotsky announced that the government had fallen. Kerensky escaped and went into exile, while several other ministers were arrested later that day.
On November 8, Lenin made his first appearance before the Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks held a 60 percent majority. "We shall now proceed to the construction of the socialist order," he announced. The first order of business for the new Bolshevik state was putting an end to Russia's participation in what Lenin and his followers considered an imperialist, upper-class war. That day, the Congress adopted a manifesto calling for "all warring peoples and their governments to open immediate negotiations for a just, democratic peace." A formal ceasefire between Russia and the Central Powers was declared on December 2.
Russia's exit from the war--which was formalized in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk the following March--shook the Allied war effort to its very foundations, as Germany and Austria-Hungary would be now be able to shift all their efforts to the west. Even more importantly, the rise to power of Lenin and the Bolsheviks in Russia announced the arrival of a new vision of the world order--a vision that would over the next decades rise to challenge the ideals of liberal democracy not only in Europe but around the world.
Nov 8, 1895: German scientist discovers X-rays
On this day in 1895, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (1845-1923) becomes the first person to observe X-rays, a significant scientific advancement that would ultimately benefit a variety of fields, most of all medicine, by making the invisible visible. Rontgen's discovery occurred accidentally in his Wurzburg, Germany, lab, where he was testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass when he noticed a glow coming from a nearby chemically coated screen. He dubbed the rays that caused this glow X-rays because of their unknown nature.
X-rays are electromagnetic energy waves that act similarly to light rays, but at wavelengths approximately 1,000 times shorter than those of light. Rontgen holed up in his lab and conducted a series of experiments to better understand his discovery. He learned that X-rays penetrate human flesh but not higher-density substances such as bone or lead and that they can be photographed.
Rontgen's discovery was labeled a medical miracle and X-rays soon became an important diagnostic tool in medicine, allowing doctors to see inside the human body for the first time without surgery. In 1897, X-rays were first used on a military battlefield, during the Balkan War, to find bullets and broken bones inside patients.
Scientists were quick to realize the benefits of X-rays, but slower to comprehend the harmful effects of radiation. Initially, it was believed X-rays passed through flesh as harmlessly as light. However, within several years, researchers began to report cases of burns and skin damage after exposure to X-rays, and in 1904, Thomas Edison's assistant, Clarence Dally, who had worked extensively with X-rays, died of skin cancer. Dally's death caused some scientists to begin taking the risks of radiation more seriously, but they still weren't fully understood. During the 1930s, 40s and 50s, in fact, many American shoe stores featured shoe-fitting fluoroscopes that used to X-rays to enable customers to see the bones in their feet; it wasn't until the 1950s that this practice was determined to be risky business. Wilhelm Rontgen received numerous accolades for his work, including the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901, yet he remained modest and never tried to patent his discovery. Today, X-ray technology is widely used in medicine, material analysis and devices such as airport security scanners.
Nov 8, 1923: Beer Hall Putsch begins
Adolf Hitler, president of the far-right Nazi Party, launches the Beer Hall Putsch, his first attempt at seizing control of the German government.
After World War I, the victorious allies demanded billions of dollars in war reparations from Germany. Efforts by Germany's democratic government to comply hurt the country's economy and led to severe inflation. The German mark, which at the beginning of 1921 was valued at five marks per dollar, fell to a disastrous four billion marks per dollar in 1923. Meanwhile, the ranks of the nationalist Nazi Party swelled with resentful Germans who sympathized with the party's bitter hatred of the democratic government, leftist politics, and German Jews. In early November 1923, the government resumed war-reparation payments, and the Nazis decided to strike.
Hitler planned a coup against the state government of Bavaria, which he hoped would spread to the dissatisfied German army, which in turn would bring down the central, democratic government in Berlin. On the evening of November 8, Nazi forces under Hermann Goering surrounded the Munich beer hall where Bavarian government officials were meeting with local business leaders. A moment later, Hitler burst in with a group of Nazi storm troopers, discharged his pistol into the air, and declared that "the national revolution has begun." Threatened at gunpoint, the Bavarian leaders reluctantly agreed to support Hitler's new regime.
In the early morning of November 9, however, the Bavarian leaders repudiated their coerced support of Hitler and ordered a rapid suppression of the Nazis. At dawn, government troops surrounded the main Nazi force occupying the War Ministry building. A desperate Hitler responded by leading a march toward the center of Munich in a last-ditch effort to rally support. Near the War Ministry building, 3,000 Nazi marchers came face to face with 100 armed policemen. Shots were exchanged, and 16 Nazis and three policemen were killed. Hermann Goering was shot in the groin, and Hitler suffered a dislocated elbow but managed to escape.
Three days later, Hitler was arrested. Convicted of treason, he was given the minimum sentence of five years in prison. He was imprisoned in the Landsberg fortress and spent his time writing his autobiography, Mein Kampf, and working on his oratorical skills. Political pressure from the Nazis forced the Bavarian government to commute Hitler's sentence, and he was released after serving only nine months. In the late 1920s, Hitler reorganized the Nazi Party as a fanatical mass movement that was able to gain a majority in the Reichstag in 1932. By 1934, Hitler was the sole master of a nation intent on war and genocide.
Nov 8, 1939: Hitler survives assassination attempt
On this day in 1939, on the 16th anniversary of Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, a bomb explodes just after Hitler has finished giving a speech. He was unharmed.
Hitler had made an annual ritual on the anniversary of his infamous 1923 coup attempt, (Hitler's first grab at power that ended in his arrest and the virtual annihilation of his National Socialist party), of regaling his followers with his vision of the Fatherland's future. On this day, he had been addressing the Old Guard party members, those disciples and soldiers who had been loyal to Hitler and his fascist party since the earliest days of its inception. Just 12 minutes after Hitler had left the hall, along with important Nazi leaders who had accompanied him, a bomb exploded, which had been secreted in a pillar behind the speaker's platform. Seven people were killed and 63 were wounded.
The next day, the Nazi Party official paper, the Voelkischer Beobachter, squarely placed the blame on British secret agents, even implicating Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain himself. This work of propaganda was an attempt to stir up hatred for the British and whip the German people into a frenzy for war. But the inner-Nazi Party members knew better—they knew the assassination attempt was most probably the work of a German anti-Nazi military conspiracy.
In an ingenious scheme to shift blame, while getting closer to the actual conspirators, Heinrich Himmler, the Gestapo chief, sent a subordinate, Walter Schellenberg, to Holland to make contact with British intelligence agents. The pretext of the meeting was to secure assurances from the British that in the event of an anti-Nazi coup, the British would support the new regime. The British agents were eager to gain whatever inside information they could about the rumored anti-Hitler movement within the German military; Schellenberg, posing as "Major Schaemmel," was after whatever information British intelligence may have had on such a conspiracy within the German military ranks.
But Himmler wanted more than talk—he wanted the British agents themselves. So on November 9, SS soldiers in Holland kidnapped, with Schellenberg's help, two British agents, Payne Best and R.H. Stevens, stuffing them into a Buick and driving them across the border into Germany. Himmler now proudly announced to the German public that he had captured the British conspirators. The man who actually planted the bomb at their behest was declared to be Georg Elser, a German communist who made his living as a carpenter.
While it seems certain that Elser did plant the bomb, who the instigators were—German military or British intelligence—remains unclear. All three "official" conspirators spent the war in Sachsenhausen concentration camp (Elser was murdered by the Gestapo on April 16, 1945—so he could never tell his story). Hitler dared not risk a public trial, as there were just too many holes in the "official" story.
Nov 8, 1942: FDR broadcasts message to Vichy France leader Marshal Petain
On this day in 1942, just as the Allies were preparing an invasion of North Africa during World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt broadcasts a message directed at Vichy France and its leader Marshal Petain. Petain, who chose to collaborate with the Germans in 1940 rather than fight them, was nominally the leader of France but the country was far from free. (Exiled French General Charles De Gaulle was considered the leader of the "Free French.")
FDR's radio broadcast was intended to appeal to the patriotism of Petain and the Francophile residents of the French colonies in North Africa and the Nazi-controlled portion of France. American ships had just arrived in North Africa carrying the Allied Expeditionary Force. The consummate orator, Roosevelt warned French listeners that if they did not assist the Allies in throwing off the "Axis yoke" that it would mean the "death knell of the French Empire." In his message, Roosevelt reminded Petain that the Axis powers had plundered France of its savings, industry and transport, and looted the nation's farms and factories "all for the benefit of a Nazi Reich and Fascist Italy." Calling himself an "old friend of France," Roosevelt promised that America was not looking to take over French territory in North Africa. He hoped Petain might encourage his fellow countrymen to rise up and help boot out the Germans.
Petain, however, was not moved by Roosevelt's words. In a written reply sent the same day, Petain lamented "It is with stupor and sadness that I learned tonight of the aggression of [American] troops against North Africa." He denied that Germany's treatment of France had been as bad as Roosevelt described and, furthermore, promised to defend French territory against any aggressor, America included.
"Operation Torch," the code name for the Allied invasion of North Africa, commenced that same day, led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After a month of fighting against Vichy troops, the Allies, with help from a small number of Free French forces and colonists, were able to gain a foothold in North Africa. Roosevelt's promise to rout the Germans from North Africa was carried out by May 1943.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
392 - Emperor Theodosius declares Christian religion, state religion
911 - Duke Koenraad I chosen German king
1322 - Pope John XXII names John van Diest, bishop of Utrecht
1494 - Uprising against Piero de' Medici in Florence Italy
1519 - 1st meeting of Montezuma & Hernán Cortés in Mexico
1520 - Stockholm Bloodbath begins: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces results in the execution of around 100 people.
1575 - French Roman Catholics & Huguenots signs treaty
1576 - Eighty Years' War: Pacification of Ghent - 17 Dutch provinces sign anti-Spanish covenant
1598 - Spanish troops under Bernardino de Mendoza conquer Doetinchem
1602 - The Bodleian Library at Oxford University is opened
1620 - Battle of White Mountain, Prague
1627 - English fleet under George Villiers leaves Île de Ré
1638 - Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts
1658 - Battle of Sont: Swedish fleet beats Dutch
1701 - William Penn presents Charter of Priviliges
1731 - In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin opens 1st US library
1734 - Vincent la Chapelle, master cook to various nobility and royalty, forms Free Masons Lodge in Netherlands
1789 - Bourbon Whiskey, 1st distilled from corn (by Elijah Craig, Bourbon Ky)
1793 - Louvre in Paris opens
United States Founding Father Benjamin FranklinUnited States Founding Father Benjamin Franklin 1833 - Train derails at Hightstown NJ; 2 die
1837 - Mount Holyoke Seminary in Mass-1st US college founded for women
1838 - Victor Hugo's "Ruy Blas" premieres in Paris
1842 - Belgium King Leopold I proclaims child labor laws (for 1889)
1861 - Battle of Mount Ivy, KY
1861 - US removes Confederate officials from British steamer Trent
1864 - Abraham Lincoln (R) elected to his 2nd term as American President
1870 - Democratic governor elected in Tennessee
1880 - Sarah Bernhardt, French actress, made US debut at NY's Booth Theater
1883 - English freighter Nisero stranded at Atjeh (crew taken hostage)
1884 - German government recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
1889 - Montana admitted as 41st state of the Union
1892 - Grover Cleveland (D) elected president
1895 - German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen produces and detects electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Röntgen rays
1900 - Theodore Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie" is published
Physicist and Nobel Laureate Wilhelm RöntgenPhysicist and Nobel Laureate Wilhelm Röntgen 1901 - Bloody clashes take place in Athens following the translation of the Gospels into demotic Greek.
1904 - American President Theodore Roosevelt (R) defeats Alton B Parker (D)
1910 - 1st Washington State election in which women could vote
1917 - People's Commissars gives authority to Lenin, Trotsky & Stalin
1917 - Telephone Co runs 1st ad for Army operators, gets 7,000 applicants
1918 - Pro-German supreme commander general Cutters lay-offs
1920 - Actress Edna Lewis Thomas debuts at Putnam Theatre Brooklyn
1920 - Baseball meeting to depose Ban Johnson is set for Nov 12th
1923 - Hitler stages unsuccessful "Beer Hall Putsch" in Muenchen (Munich)
1924 - Austria chancellor Ignaz Seipel, resigns after assassination attempt
1924 - Fortune Theatre opens in London
1926 - George Gershwin's musical "Oh, Kay" premieres in NYC
1928 - George & Ira Gershwin's musical "Treasure Girl" premieres in NYC
1929 - Jean Giraudoux' "Amphitryon '38" premieres in Paris
1929 - NYC Museum of Modern Art opens in Hecksher Building
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler 1930 - Friedrich Wolf's "Die Matrosen von Cattaro" premieres in Berlin
1932 - "Make Mine Music" debuts
1932 - Franklin Roosevelt (D) elected 32nd President for 1st time
1933 - FDR creates Civil Works Administration
1934 - Ford Frick, NL publicity director, is named league president
1937 - The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") opens in Munich.
1938 - 1st black woman legislator, Crystal Bird Fauset of Phila
1938 - A pogrom against the Jews of Germany and Austria takes place in response to the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris.
1939 - Failed assassination attempt on Hitler in Burgerbraukeller, Munich
1939 - H Lindsay & R Crouse' "Life with Father" premieres in NYC
1940 - RAF bombs Munich
1941 - The Albanian Communist Party is founded.
1942 - 1st WW II American expeditionary force lands in Africa (Gold Coast)
1942 - Hitler proclaims fall of Stalingrad from Munich beer hall
1942 - Operation Torch; began as US and British forces under Eisenhower land in French North Africa
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1942 - Vichy-France drops diplomatic relations with US
1944 - 25,000 Hungarian Jews are loaned to Nazis for forced labor
1944 - Last German troops at Walcheren surrenders
1945 - "Girl from Nantucket" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 12 performances
1945 - Riverboat sinks off Hong Kong; kills 1,550
1946 - Jean-Paul Sartre's "La Putain Respecteuse" premieres in Paris
1947 - Bradman scores his 99th 1st-class cricket century, 100 SA v Victoria
1950 - 1st jet-plane battle ever, in Korean War
1950 - Boston Red Sox 1B Walt Dropo wins AL Rookie of Year
1950 - Walt Dropo of Boston Red Sox selected AL Rookie of Year
1951 - NY Yankee Catcher Yogi Berra wins 1st of his 3 MVP awards
1953 - Salazar's party wins all parliamentary seats in Portugal
1954 - AL approves Philadelphia A's move to Kansas City
1956 - UN demands USSR leave Hungary
1957 - Great Britain performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
Writer Jean-Paul SartreWriter Jean-Paul Sartre 1958 - "Maria Golovin" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 5 performances
1959 - KJTV (now KGET) TV channel 17 in Bakersfield, CA (NBC) 1st broadcast
1959 - Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba's Nes Destour party wins every seat
1960 - JFK (Sen-D-Mass) beats VP Richard Nixon (R) to become 35th US president
1961 - Whitey Ford is voted Cy Young Award winner over Warren Spahn
1962 - Canada government orders changing nickel back to round shape
1964 - IMF grants Great Britain credit of $1 billion
1964 - KUPK TV channel 13 in Garden City, KS (ABC) begins broadcasting
1964 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Tall City Golf Open
1964 - Orioles Frank Robinson unanimous choice as AL MVP
1965 - "Days of Our Lives" premieres on TV
1965 - British Indian Ocean Territory formed
1966 - Edward W Brooke (Rep-R-Mass) becomes 1st black elected to Senate
1966 - Frank Robinson selected AL MVP
1966 - Movie actor Ronald Reagan elected Governor of California
US President & Actor Ronald ReaganUS President & Actor Ronald Reagan 1966 - Pres Johnson signs anti-trust immunity to AFL-NFL merger
1967 - 1st local British radio station begins broadcasting (Radio Leicester)
1967 - Silver hits record $1.951 an ounce in London
1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 - Cynthia Lennon is granted a divorce from John
1970 - Tom Dempsey of New Orleans Saints kicks NFL record 63 yard field goal
1973 - Nevada approves pari-mutuel betting on Jai Alai
1974 - British Lord ('Lucky') Lucan disappears
1974 - Ted Bundy victim Debi Kent disappears in Salt Lake City, Utah
1975 - Nick Bockwinkle beats Verne Gagne in St Paul, to become NWA champ
1976 - A series of earthquakes spreads panic in the city of Thessaloniki, which is evacuated.
1977 - Manolis Andronikos, a Greek Archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
1978 - Tom Stoppard's "Night & Day" premieres in London
1979 - Bernard Slade's "Romantic Comedy" premieres in NYC
1979 - ABC broadcasts "Iran Crisis: American Held Hostage" with Frank Reynolds (forerunner to "Nightline")
Playwright Tom StoppardPlaywright Tom Stoppard 1979 - The Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) is formed.
1980 - Voyager 1 space probe discovers 15th moon of Saturn
1981 - Christian Democrats looses Belgium parliamentary election
1981 - Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Mazda Japan Golf Classic
1983 - Martha Layne Collins (D) elected 1st female governor of Kentucky
1983 - STS-9 vehicle again moves to launch pad
1983 - W Wilson Goode (D) elected 1st black mayor of Philadelphia
1984 - 1st-class cricket debut of Wasim Akram, 2 months before his 1st Test
1984 - Anna Fisher becomes 1st "mom" to go into orbit
1984 - STS 51-A mission launches
1985 - Atlantis moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS 61-B mission
1986 - "Song & Dance" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 474 performances
1987 - Australia beat England by 7 runs to win cricket World Cup
1987 - IRA bomb attack in Enniskillen, North Ireland, 11 killed
1987 - Yuko Moriguchi wins LPGA Mazda Japan Golf Classic
1988 - 900 die as earthquake hits China
1988 - Arco Arena in Sacramento CA opens, Sac Kings lose to Seattle, 97-75
1988 - George W H Bush (R) beats Mike Dukakis (D) for presidency
1988 - Rafael Fernandez Colón elected as president of Puerto Rico
1989 - Cubs Jerome Walton wins the NL Rookie of Year
1989 - David Dinkins elected 1st black mayor of NYC
1989 - Douglas Wilder elected 1st US black governor (Virginia)
1989 - Hong Kong's MTR Lam Tin Station comes into service.
1990 - "6 Degrees of Separation" opens at Vivian Beaumont NYC for 496 perfs
1990 - 100,000 additional US troops are sent to Persian gulf
Baseball Player Darryl StrawberryBaseball Player Darryl Strawberry 1990 - Darryl Strawberry signs 5-year contract with LA Dodgers
1990 - Gina Marie Tolleson of USA, 21, crowned 40th Miss World
1990 - Saddam fires his army chief & threatens to destroy Arabian peninsula
1991 - Carol Burnette Show premieres on CBS-TV
1991 - Paul Coffey sets NHL defensman soring mark with 311th goal
1992 - "Solitary Confinement" opens at Nederlander Theater NYC for 25 perfs
1992 - 300,000 demonstrate against racism in Berlin
1992 - Betsy King wins LPGA Mazda Japan Golf Classic
1994 - Cleveland Cavaliers 1st game at Gund Arena, lose to Hous Rockets, 100-98
1994 - Haitian government of Smarck Michel forms
1997 - Tampa Bay Devil Rays name their 1st manager Larry Rothschild
1997 - Horse Racing Breeders' Cup Champs: Countess Diana, Elmhurst, Ajina, Spinning World, Favorite Trick, Chief Bearhart, Skip Away
1998 - Japan Golf Classic
2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 - The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".
2004 - War in Iraq: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
Iraqi President Saddam HusseinIraqi President Saddam Hussein 2011 - The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passed 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), the closest known approach by an asteroid of its brightness since 2010 XC15 in 1976.
1656 - Edmond Halley was born. Halley, an astronomer-mathmatician, was the first to calculate the orbit that was named after him. The comet makes an appearance every 76 years. 1793 - The Louvre Museum, in Paris, opened to the public for the first time. 1805 - The "Corps of Discovery" reached the Pacific Ocean. The expedition was lead by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. The journey had begun on May 14, 1804, with the goal of exploring the Louisiana Purchase territory. 1880 - French actress Sarah Bernhardt made her American stage debut in "Adrienne Lecouvreur" in New York City. 1887 - Doc Holliday died at the age of 35. The gun fighting dentist died from tuberculosis in a sanitarium in Glenwood Springs, CO. 1889 - Montana became the 41st U.S. state. 1895 - Wilhelm Roentgen while experimenting with electricity discovered the scientific principle involved and took the first X-ray pictures. 1910 - William H. Frost patented the insect exterminator. 1923 - Adolf Hitler made his first attempt at seizing power in Germany with a failed coup in Munich that came to be known as the "Beer-Hall Putsch." 1933 - The Civil Works Administration was created by executive order by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The organization was designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed people in the U.S. 1939 - "Life With Father" premiered on Broadway in New York City. 1942 - The U.S. invaded Morocco and Algeria. 1942 - During World War II, Operation Torch began as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa. 1950 - During the Korean conflict, the first jet-plane battle took place as U.S. Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shot down a North Korean MiG-15. 1954 - The American League approved the transfer of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team to Kansas City, MO. 1956 - After turning down 18,000 names, the Ford Motor Company decided to name their new car the "Edsel," after Henry Ford's only son. 1959 - Elgin Baylor of the Minneapolis Lakers, scored 64 points and set a National Basketball Association scoring record. 1965 - The soap opera "Days of Our Lives" debuted on NBC-TV. 1966 - Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote. 1966 - Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California. 1979 - The program, "The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage", premiered on ABC-TV. The show was planned to be temporary, but it evolved into "Nightline" in March of 1980. 1979 - U.S. Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Mac Mathias (R-MD) introduced legislation to provide a site on the National Mall for the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 1980 - Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California announced that they had discovered a 15th moon orbiting the planet Saturn. 1981 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek asserted that Egypt was "an African State" that was "neither East nor West". 1985 - A letter signed by four American hostages in Lebanon was delivered to The Associated Press in Beirut. The letter, contained pleas from Terry Anderson, Rev. Lawrence Jenco, David Jacobsen and Thomas Sutherland to President Reagan to negotiate a release. 1986 - Vyacheslav M. Molotov died at age 96. During World War II, Molotov ordered the mass production of bottles filled with flammable liquid later called the "Molotov cocktail." 1987 - A bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, at a ceremony honoring Britain's war dead. Eleven people were killed. 1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered more troop deployments in the Persian Gulf, adding about 150,000 soldiers to the multi-national force fighting against Iraq. 1991 - The European Community and Canada imposed economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an attempt to stop the Balkan civil war. 1992 - About 350,000 people rallied in Berlin against racist violence. 1993 - Five Picasso paintings and other artwork were stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, Sweden. The works were valued at $52 million. 1997 - Chinese engineers diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. 2000 - In Florida, a statewide recount began to decide the winner of the 2000 U.S. presidential election. 2000 - Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report that absolved the government of wrongdoing in the 1993 seige of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas. 2001 - The "Homage to Van Gogh: International Artists Pay Tribute to a Legend" exhibit opened at the Appleton Museum of Art in Florida.
1889 Montana became the 41st state. 1892 Former president Grover Cleveland beat incumbent Benjamin Harrison and became the only president to win nonconsecutive terms in the White House. 1923 Adolf Hitler attempted, and failed, to seize control of the German government in the Beer Hall Putsch. 1960 John F. Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon for the presidency of the United States. 1966 Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first African American to be elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. 1994 After a 40-year Democrat domination, the Republican Party gained control of the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as a Senate majority.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/nov08.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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