November 8
Today in America's Present
1701 | Civil Rights: William Penn presents the Charter of Privileges, guaranteeing religious freedom for the colony of Pennsylvania.
1731 | African-American author, surveyor, and farmer Benjamin Banneker was born.
1731 | Benjamin Franklin opens the first library in the American colonies, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1789 | Elijah Craig distilled from corn, creating Bourbon for the first time.
1830 | General and educator Oliver Otis Howard was born.
1833 | A train derails at Hightstown, New Jersey, killing two people. Also onboard are Cornelius Vanderbilt and former President John Quincy Adams.
1837 The first college for women, Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts was founded.
1861 | Civil War: The Battle of Mount Ivy, Kentucky.
1836 | Entrepreneur Milton Bradley was born.
1864 | POTUS: Republican President Abraham Lincoln was re-elected.
1881 | Anthropologist Frank Speck was born.
1887 | Emile Berliner was granted a patent for a gramophone.
1887 | Gunfighter Doc Holliday died.
1889 | Statehood: Montana was granted statehood.
1892 | POTUS: Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected President.
1893 | Author Francis Parkman died.
1897 | Journalist Dorothy Day was born.
1898 | Civil Rights: Democrats riot in Phoenix, Arizona, to prevent a Republican clerk from counting votes.
1900 | Author Margaret Mitchell was born.
1904 | POTUS: Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was re-elected.
1904 | Entrepreneur Harvey Hubbell received a patent for an electric attachment plug.
1908 | Journalist Martha Gellhorn was born.
1914 | Entrepreneur Peter Mondavi was born.
1923 | Engineer Jack Kilby was born.
1927 | Civil Rights: Anti-Filipino riots begin in Yakima Valley, Washington.
1932 | POTUS: Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was elected President.
1934 | Psychologist James Mark Baldwin died.
1935 | Film: “Mutiny on the Bounty” debuted.
1942 | WWII: U.S. forces launch Operation Torch to liberate North Africa.
1945 | Poet Alice Notley was born.
1949 | Civil Rights: The Englewood, Illinois, race riots start.
1949 | Film: “All The King’s Men” debuted.
1949 | Musician Bonnie Raitt was born.
1950 | Korean War: In the world’s first jet-to-jet dogfight, a USAF jet shoots down a North Korean fighter.
1954 | Musician Ricky Lawson was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1956 | Film: “The Ten Commandments” debuted.
1960 | POTUS: Democrat John F. Kennedy was elected President.
1960 | Entrepreneur Otto Frederick Rohwedder died.
1965 | TV: “Days of Our Lives” debuted.
1966 | Congress: Republican Edward Brooke becomes the first popularly elected African-American U.S. Senator.
1966 | POTUS: Democrat President Johnson signed an anti-trust immunity wavier for a AFL-CIO merger.
1970 | MySpace founder Tom Anderson was born.
1970 | Author Napoleon Hill died.
1973 | Journalist David Muir was born.
1983 | Cleric Mordecai Kaplan died.
1988 | POTUS: Republican George H. W. Bush was elected President.
1999 | Admiral Francis D. Foley died.
2005 | Author David Westheimer died.
2014 | POTUS: Democrat President Obama doubles U.S. military deployment to Iraq.
2016 | POTUS: Republican Donald Trump was elected President.