On this day in 1860, Abraham Lincoln becomes the first member of the new Republican Party to win the Presidency. Lincoln gained only 40 percent of the popular vote, but the Democratic Party is solidly split between northern candidate Stephen Douglas and southern candidate John C. Breckinridge.

On this day in 1917, Bolshevik Party members under Vladimir Lenin launch a bloodless coup against the Russian provisional government. Within 2 days, the Bolsheviks have established a new government with Lenin as its leader. It is the birth of the Soviet Union.

On this day in 1962, the United Nations passes a resolution condemning South Africa's government policy of racial segregation. But the policy, called "apartheid" (the Afrikaan word for "apartness"), will remain in effect for another 31 years.

Nov. 7 is a big date for minorities winning elected office....
1916 - Jeanette Rankin (Montana), 1st woman in Congress
1989 - Douglas Wilder (Virginia), 1st African American governor
1989 - David Dinkins, first African American mayor of NYC
2000 - Hillary Clinton, first alien life form elected to the US Senate

On this day in 2000, Al Gore has 250 electoral votes in the Presidential election, George W. Bush has 246, but Oregon, Wisconsin and Florida are "too close to call." Oregon and Wisconsin are declared for Gore within the next couple of days, but he is still short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. All hinges on Florida's 25 electoral votes. Bush has a narrow lead on election night, but its close enough to trigger an automatic recount. What follows is 5 weeks of recounts, demands for more recounts, legal battles, and "hanging chads", before the Supreme Court orders an end to the process, and Gore concedes the election.

On this day in 1991, basketball superstar Ervin "Magic" Johnson stuns the world when he announces he is retiring because he is HIV-positive. He is one of the first major celebrities to announce he is infected, and his announcement also breaks the mold that AIDS is strictly a problem for homosexuals.

On this day in 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen is conducting experiments on cathode rays when he notices a glow on his chemically coated screen. Not knowing the origin of the glow, he dubs the light x-rays. Further experiments show Roentgen the x-rays can pass through human tissue, but not harder substances like bone. They can also be photographed. Within 2 years, doctors are using x-rays identifying bullets and broken bones in casualties of the Balkan War. In 1901, Roentgen receives the first Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery, but it won't be until the 1950's that further research reveals the cancerous nature of x-rays.

On this day in 1939, German Chancellor Adolph Hitler commemorates the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch - his first, failed attempt to rise to power - with a speech to some of his old guard National Socialist Party members. 12 minutes after leaving the stage, a bomb explodes on the podium, killing 7 and wounding dozens more. Hitler, however, is untouched, and the next day Nazi newspapers blame British agents for the explosion, even implicating Prime Minister Chamberlain. A German carpenter and communist is eventually convicted of actually placing the bomb, and the Germans trick 2 British secret agents into a meeting, where they are captured and accused of conceiving the plan. All 3 would spend WWII in a concentration camp.

On this day in 1970, Tom Dempsey kicks a 63-yard field goal on the game's last play to lift the New Orleans Saints to a 19-17 win over the Detroit Lions. Born with no toes on his right (dominant) foot, NFL rules allow Dempsey to wear a flat-toe'd shoe, and the huge (about 270 pounds) Dempsey can swing that shoe like the mallet of a sledgehammer. The FG breaks the NFL record for longest FG by 7 yards, and will last for 43 years.

Seven years after the kick, the rules committee, pushed by Cowboys owner Tex Schramm, passes a rule stating that all kicking shoes must conform to the normal contours of the human foot, but Commissioner Pete Rozelle enacts a grandfather clause that allows Dempsey to keep using his flat shoe.

On this day in 1989, East German authorities open the gates of the Berlin Wall, permitting free travel between the east and west sectors of the city for the first time in more than 30 years. Over the next 24 hours, celebrating Berliners will begin to spontaneously dismantle the wall itself.


On this day in 1938, the Nazis launch what would later be called "Kristallnacht" - The Night of Broken Glass. It is a 24-hour campaign of terror against Jewish citizens of Germany and Austria, marked mostly by the windows of Jewish-owned businesses being smashed. About 7,500 businesses and homes are damaged, and about 100 Jews killed. About 30,000 Jewish men are arrested, and many sent to concentration camps. They were released upon promising to leave the country.

On this day in 1965, a 230-volt transmission line near Ontario, Canada is tripped, causing numerous connecting lines to fail. What follows is the largest single power disruption in US history. The Great Northeast Blackout plunges 8 states into darkness, at the height of rush hour in NYC. In that city alone, an estimated 800,000 people are trapped in elevators and subways. Power is restored by morning.

I've heard that one. There was also a story that a touring group of students from the University of Alabama had to be rescued from an Empire State Building escalator, but I can't confirm that.