TODAY IN HISTORY
In 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party was elected President of the United States as he defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.
In 1861, James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was born in Almonte, Ontario, Canada.
In 1928, in a first, the results of Republican Herbert Hoover’s presidential election victory over Democrat Alfred E. Smith were flashed onto an electric wraparound sign on the New York Times building.
In 1947, “Meet the Press” made its debut on NBC; the first guest was James A. Farley, former postmaster general and former Democratic National Committee Chair; the host was the show’s co-creator, Martha Rountree.
In 1977, 39 people were killed when the Kelly Barnes Dam in Georgia burst, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls College.
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan won re-election by a landslide over former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic challenger who won just one state, his native Minnesota.
In 1990, about one-fifth of the Universal Studios backlot in southern California was destroyed in an arson fire.
In 2001, billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg won New York City’s mayoral race, defeating Democrat Mark Green.
In 2012, President Barack Obama easily won re-election, vanquishing Republican former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney 332 electoral votes to 206.
In 2014, the march toward same-sex marriage across the U.S. hit a roadblock when a federal appeals court upheld laws against the practice in four states: Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. (A divided U.S. Supreme Court overturned the laws in June 2015.)
In 2015, President Barack Obama rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, declaring it would undercut U.S. efforts to clinch a global climate change deal at the center of his environmental legacy.
In 2016, FBI Director James Comey abruptly announced that Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges related to newly discovered emails from her tenure at the State Department.
In 2018, Democrats seized the House majority in the midterm elections, but Republicans gained ground in the Senate and preserved key governorships.
In 2019, Democrats announced that they would launch public impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump the following week.
In 2020, the federal agency that oversees U.S. election security pushed back at unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud from President Donald Trump and others, saying that local election offices had detection measures that “make it highly difficult to commit fraud through counterfeit ballots.”
In 2022, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Pat Benatar and Eminem were among those inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
BIRTHDAYS
Actor June Squibb is 94.
Singer P.J. Proby is 85.
Actor Sally Field is 77.
Singer Rory Block is 74.
Jazz musician Arturo Sandoval is 74.
TV host Catherine Crier is 69.
News correspondent and former California first lady Maria Shriver is 68.
Actor Lori Singer is 66.
Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan is 59.
Rock singer Corey Glover is 59.
Actor Brad Grunberg is 59.
Actor Peter DeLuise is 57.
Actor Kelly Rutherford is 55.
Author Colson Whitehead is 54.
Actor Ethan Hawke is 53.
Chef/TV judge Marcus Samuelsson is 53.
Actor Thandiwe Newton (formerly Thandie) is 51.
Model-actor Rebecca Romijn is 51.
Actor Zoe McLellan is 49.
Actor Nicole Dubuc is 45.
Actor Taryn Manning is 45.
Retired NBA star Lamar Odom is 44.
Actor Patina Miller is 39.
Actor Katie Leclerc is 37.
Singer-songwriter Ben Rector is 37.
Singer-songwriter Robert Ellis is 35.
Actor Emma Stone is 35.
U.S. Olympic swimming gold medalist Bobby Finke is 24.
