November 3 ...

In 1793 Stephen F. Austin was born in Wythe County, VA. He was the principle founder of Texas. In 1796 John Adams was elected the 2nd President of the US. In 1868 Republican Ulysses S. Grant won the presidential election over Democrat Horatio Seymour. In 1896 Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan for the presidency. It was Bryan's first of three defeats for the presidency. In 1900 the first automobile show in the United States opened at New York's Madison Square Garden under the auspices of the Automobile Club of America. In 1903 Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia. In 1908 Republican William Howard Taft was elected president, outpolling William Jennings Bryan; also on this day, Chicago Bears Hall-of-Famer Bronko Nagurski was born in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada. In 1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide election victory over Republican challenger Alfred M. "Alf" Landon. In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik II, the second manmade satellite, into orbit; on board was a dog named "Laika" who was sacrificed in the experiment. In 1964 President Johnson defeated Republican challenger Barry Goldwater in a landslide victory, winning a White House term in his own right. In 1970 Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile. In 1973 the US launched the Mariner 10 spacecraft, which became the first spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury in March 1974. In 1979 five radicals were killed when gunfire erupted during an anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration in Greensboro, NC, after a caravan of Klansmen and neo-Nazis had driven into the area. In 1992 Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd president of the US, defeating President Bush. In Illinois, Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the US Senate. In 2000 four days before Election Day, Texas Gov. George W. Bush found himself being peppered with questions about the revelation that he'd been arrested for driving under the influence in 1976. Bush supporters accused Democrats of "dirty tricks," prompting a denial of involvement from Vice President Al Gore's campaign.