William Makepeace Thackeray completes his novel “Barry Lyndon”

Authorities almost catch the California bandit and infamous stagecoach robber called Black Bart; he manages to make a quick getaway, but drops an incriminating clue that eventually sends him to prison—a handkerchief with a laundry mark.  Black Bart was born Charles E. Boles, probably in the state of New York around 1830. As a young man, […]

As the First World War draws to a close, angry rebels in both Germany and Austria-Hungary revolt on November 3, 1918, raising the red banner of the revolutionary socialist Communist Party and threatening to follow the Russian example in bringing down their imperialist governments. By the last week of October 1918, three of the Central […]

The Soviet Union launches the first animal to orbit the earth into space—a dog nicknamed Laika—aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. Laika, part Siberian husky, lived as a stray on the Moscow streets before being enlisted into the Soviet space program. Laika survived for a few hours as a passenger in the USSR’s second artificial Earth […]

In one of the most crushing victories in the history of U.S. presidential elections, incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr. With more than 60 percent of the popular vote, Johnson turned back the conservative senator from Arizona to secure his first full term in office after succeeding to the presidency after […]

President Richard Nixon goes on television and radio to call for national solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to gather support for his policies; his call for support is an attempt to blunt the renewed strength of the antiwar movement. Pledging that the United States was “going to keep our commitment in Vietnam,” he […]

On November 3, 1982, a truck explodes in the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan, killing an unknown number of people, including Soviet soldiers traveling to Kabul and Afghan civilians. Because the Soviet army limited the information released about the disaster, the full details of the tragedy may never be known. Casualty estimates range from the hundreds […]

On November 3, 1998, former professional wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura is elected governor of Minnesota with 37 percent of the vote. His opponents, seasoned politicians Hubert Humphrey III (son of Lyndon Johnson’s vice-president and the attorney general of Minnesota) and St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman, spent a total of $4.3 million on their campaigns. […]

In the early hours of November 3, 2016, the Chicago Cubs win their first World Series championship since 1908, beating the Cleveland Indians, 8-7, in a thrilling Game 7 delayed by rain. “Let It Reign,” reads the headline in the next day’s Chicago Tribune sports section. The win snaps the “Billy Goat Curse,” one of the more […]