November 4

This Day in History

Also on This Day

Lead Story
Soviets put brutal end to Hungarian revolution, 1956
American Revolution
Patriot, politician and physician William Shippen dies, 1801
Automotive
Iranian students storm U.S. embassy in Tehran, leading to oil embargo, 1979
Civil War
Rebels attack Yankee supply base at the Battle of Johnsonville, 1864
Cold War
Soviets crush Hungarian revolt, 1956
Crime
One of New York's most notorious gamblers is shot to death, 1928
Disaster
Heavy rain leads to flooding in New England, 1927
General Interest
Entrance to King Tut's tomb discovered, 1922
Iranians storm U.S. embassy, 1979
Yitzhak Rabin assassinated, 1995
Barack Obama elected as America's first black president, 2008
Hollywood
Dances with Wolves debuts, 1990
Literary
T.S. Eliot wins Nobel Prize in literature, 1948
Music
Anne Murray earns a #1 pop hit with "You Needed Me", 1978
Old West
Will Rogers is born in Oklahoma, 1879
Presidential
Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Todd, 1842
Sports
End of an era for the Yankees, 2001
Vietnam War
South Vietnamese battle communists along the Cambodian border, 1969
U.S. hands over air base to the Vietnamese Air Force, 1970
World War I
Poet Wilfred Owen killed in action , 1918
World War II
Gen. Sir John Dill dies, 1944

General Interest

Nov 4, 2008:

Barack Obama elected as America's first black president

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On this day in 2008, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeats Senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first African American elected to the White House. The 47-year-old Democrat garnered 365 electoral votes and nearly 53 percent of the popular vote, while his 72-year-old Republican challenger captured 173 electoral votes and more than 45 percent of the popular vote. Obama's vice-presidential running mate was Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, while McCain's running mate was Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, the first female Republican ever nominated for the vice presidency.

Obama, who was born in 1961 in Hawaii to a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, graduated from Harvard Law School and was a law professor at the University of Chicago before launching his political career in 1996, when he was elected to the Illinois State Senate. He was re-elected to that post in 1998 and 2000. In March 2004, he shot to national prominence by winning the U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Illinois, and that July he gained further exposure when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, which included his eloquent call for unity among "red" (Republican) and "blue" (Democratic) states. That November, Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in a landslide.

On February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois, Obama officially announced his candidacy for president. A victory in the Iowa caucuses in January 2008 made him a viable challenger to the early frontrunner, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, whom he outlasted in a grueling primary campaign to claim the Democratic nomination in early June 2008.

During the general-election campaign, as in the primaries, Obama's team worked to build a following at the grassroots level and used what his supporters viewed as the candidate's natural charisma, unique life story and inspiring message of hope and change to draw large crowds to his public appearances, both in the United States and on a campaign trip abroad. His team also worked to bring new voters--many of them young or black, both demographics they believed favored Obama--to become involved in the election. Additionally, the campaign was notable for its unprecedented use of the Internet for organizing constituents and fundraising. According to The Washington Post: "3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less."

In terms of campaign issues, Obama pledged to get the United States out of the war in Iraq and expand health care, among other promises. A crushing national financial crisis in the months leading up to the election shifted the country's focus to the economy, and Obama and McCain each attempted to show he had the best plan for economic improvement.

On November 4, more than 69.4 million Americans cast their vote for Obama, while some 59.9 million voters chose McCain. (Obama was the first sitting U.S. senator to win the White House since John Kennedy in 1960.) Obama captured some traditional Republican strongholds (Virginia, Indiana) and key battleground states (Florida, Ohio) that had been won by Republicans in recent elections. Late that night, the president-elect appeared before a huge crowd of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park and delivered a speech in he which acknowledged the historic nature of his victory (which came 143 years after the end of the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery): "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer… It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America."

Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. On November 6, 2012, he defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term in the White House.

Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

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This Week in History, Nov 4 - Nov 10

Nov 04, 1922
Entrance to King Tut's tomb discovered
Nov 04, 1979
Iranians storm U.S. embassy
Nov 04, 1995
Yitzhak Rabin assassinated
Nov 04, 2008
Barack Obama elected as America's first black president
Nov 05, 1556
Mughal victory assures Akbar's ascension
Nov 05, 1605
King James learns of gunpowder plot
Nov 05, 1912
Wilson wins landslide victory
Nov 05, 1930
An American Nobel Prize in Literature
Nov 05, 1990
Jewish extremist assassinated in New York
Nov 06, 1860
Abraham Lincoln elected president
Nov 06, 1917
Canadians take Passchendaele
Nov 06, 1917
Bolsheviks revolt in Russia
Nov 07, 1885
Canada's transcontinental railway completed
Nov 07, 1940
Tacoma Bridge collapses
Nov 07, 1944
FDR reelected a record third time
Nov 07, 1989
Two African American firsts in politics
Nov 08, 1793
Louvre Museum opens
Nov 08, 1923
Beer Hall Putsch begins
Nov 08, 1994
The Republican Revolution
Nov 09, 1906
Roosevelt travels to Panama
Nov 09, 1923
Nazis suppressed in Munich
Nov 09, 1956
Sartre renounces communists
Nov 09, 1965
The Great Northeast Blackout
Nov 10, 1928
Hirohito crowned in Japan
Nov 10, 1975
Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior
Nov 10, 1995
Playwright and activist hanged in Nigeria

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