Today is Saturday, Nov. 7, the 311th day of 2009. There are 54 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky. On this date: In 1874, the Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly. In 1893, the state of Colorado granted its women the right to vote. In 1916, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress. In 1940, in Washington state, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed "Galloping Gertie," collapsed during a windstorm. In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey. In 1962, Richard 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." In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 1972, President Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern. Continued... |