| On this date in: |
| 1889 | Montana became the 41st state. |
| 1892 | Former President Grover Cleveland beat incumbent Benjamin Harrison, becoming the only president to win non-consecutive terms in the White House. |
| 1923 | Adolf Hitler launched his first attempt to seize power with a failed coup in Munich, Germany, that came to be known as the Beer-Hall Putsch. |
| 1960 | Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon in the presidential election.
 | President-elect John F. Kennedy |
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| 1966 | Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1966 | Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first African-American to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote. |
| 1971 | The album "Led Zeppelin IV," which included the song "Stairway to Heaven," was released. |
| 1987 | A bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded as crowds gathered in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, for a ceremony honoring Britain's war dead, killing 11 people. |
| 1988 | Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidential election, beating Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. |
| 1994 | Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years and won a majority in the Senate in midterm elections. |
| 1997 | Chinese engineers diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. |
| 2000 | A statewide recount of presidential election ballots began in Florida. Vice President Al Gore telephoned Texas Gov. George W. Bush to concede the election, but called back about an hour later to retract his concession. |
| 2004 | Thousands of U.S. troops attacked strongholds of Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq. |
