November 7 ...

In 1837 in Alton, IL, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot to death by a mob of slavery supporters while trying to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time. In 1848 Zachary Taylor was elected president in the first US presidential election held in every state on the same day. In 1893 the state of Colorado granted its women the right to vote. In 1914 The New Republic magazine was printed for the first time. In 1916 Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress. In 1917 Russia's Bolshevik Revolution began as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky. In 1944 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Republican Thomas E. Dewey. In 1962 Richard M. Nixon, having lost California's gubernatorial race, held what he called his "last press conference," telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore"; also on this day, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt died in New York City. In 1972 President Richard Nixon won a second term as president, defeating Democratic Senator George McGovern in a landslide. In 1973 Congress overrode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive's power to wage war without congressional approval. In 1996 NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor. In 1998 John Glenn returned to Earth aboard the space shuttle Discovery, visibly weak but elated after a nine-day mission. In 2000 George W. Bush and Al Gore faced off for the presidency, with Florida's disputed electoral votes eventually emerging as critical; also on this day, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first First Lady to win public office, defeating Republican Rick Lazio for a US Senate seat from New York.