TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: NOV 4
0644 Umar of Arabia is assassinated at Medina and is succeeded as caliph by Uthman.
1493 Christopher Columbus discovers Guadeloupe during his second expedition.
1576 Eighty Years’ War: In Flanders, Spanish defeat Walloon and capture Antwerp
1677 William III and Mary of England wed on William’s birthday.
1798 Congress agrees to pay a yearly tribute to Tripoli, considering it the only way to protect U.S. shipping.
1846 A patent for an artificial leg was granted to Benjamin Palmer.
1845 1st nationally observed uniform election day in US
1854 Florence Nightingale and her nurses arrive in the Crimea.
1862 Dr Richard Gatling patents Gatling machine gun in Indianapolis
1879 African American inventor Thomas Elkins patents refrigerating apparatus
1880 James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio, patented the first cash register.
1922 The entrance to King Tut’s tomb is discovered.
1922 The U.S. Postmaster General orders all homes to get mailboxes or relinquish delivery of mail.
1924 Nellie Tayloe Ross and Miriam Ferguson are elected first and second women governors (Wyoming and Texas).
1939 1st air conditioned automobile (Packard) exhibited, Chicago, Ill
1939 During World War II, the U.S. modified its neutrality stance with the Neutrality Act of 1939. The new policy allowed cash-and-carry purchases of arms by belligerents.
1946 The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is established.
1952 US National Security Agency formed. The NSA as it is popularly known is an intelligence organization that is responsible for monitoring and collecting signal intelligence around the world. The agency was preceded by the Armed Forces Security Agency.
1956 Russian troops attacked Budapest and crushed the Hungarian revolt under Premier Imre Nagy.
1979 At the American Embassy in Teheran, Iran, 90 people, including 63 Americans, are taken hostage by militant student followers of Ayatollah Khomeini. The students demand the return of Shah Mohammad Reza Pablavi, who is undergoing medical treatment in New York City.
1985 Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko announced he was returning to the Soviet Union. He had charged that he had been kidnapped by the CIA.
1992 Carol Moseley Braun becomes the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
1991 Ronald Reagan opened his presidential library in Simi Valley, CA. The dedication ceremony was attended by President Bush and former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon. It was the 1st gathering of 5 U.S. chief executives.
1995 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
1999 The United Nations imposed economic sanctions against the Taliban that controlled most of Afghanistan. The sanctions were imposed because the Taliban had refused to turn over Osama bin Laden, who had been charged with masterminding the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
