On this day: November 5
Guy Fawkes is caught red-handed, Susan B. Anthony votes, George Foreman becomes the oldest Heavyweight Champion ever, Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death, and tragedy strikes Fort Hood, all on this day.
1605: The arrest of Guy Fawkes, found guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder during a search of the Palace of Westminster in London, foils Robert Catesby's plot to destroy the House of Lords and all within it, including King James I of England. Most of Catesby's conspirators flee from London as they learn of the plot's discovery, trying to enlist support along the way. Catesby is shot and killed in a battle while fleeing and eight of the survivors, including Fawkes, would be tried and convicted on Jan. 27, 1606, and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
1605: The arrest of Guy Fawkes, found guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder during a search of the Palace of Westminster in London, foils Robert Catesby's plot to destroy the House of Lords and all within it, including King James I of England. Most of Catesby's conspirators flee from London as they learn of the plot's discovery, trying to enlist support along the way. Catesby is shot and killed in a battle while fleeing and eight of the survivors, including Fawkes, would be tried and convicted on Jan. 27, 1606, and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
1872: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time, and is later fined $100. True to her word in court, where she declared, "I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty," she never paid the fine for the rest of her life.
1872: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant is easily elected to a second term in office, garnering 55.6 percent of the vote compared to his opponent, Horace Greeley, who earned 43.8 percent of the popular vote. Grant garnered 286 electoral votes to what would have been 66 electoral votes for Greeley, but Greeley died on Nov. 29, 1872, just 24 days after the election and before any of the electors from the six states Greeley won (Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Maryland) could cast their votes. Most of Greeley's electors cast their votes for other Democrats. Grant (left) is seen here on a campaign poster with his running mate, U.S. Sen. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts.
1895: George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
1905: Actor Joel McCrea, best known for roles in movies such as "The Most Dangerous Game," "Sullivan's Travels," "The Palm Beach Story" and "The Virginian," is born in South Pasadena, Calif.
1911: Actor and singing cowboy Roy Rogers, who, along with his wife Dale Evans, his horse Trigger, and his dog Bullet, was featured in more than 100 movies and "The Roy Rogers Show," is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He's seen here at the 1989 Oscars with Evans.
1912: Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson defeats Republican incumbent President William Howard Taft and Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party candidate and former President Theodore Roosevelt to become U.S. president. Wilson wins a large majority in the Electoral College and 41.8 percent of the popular vote, while his nearest rival, Roosevelt, wins only 27.4 percent, followed by Taft with 23.2 percent. Also running was Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party of America, who got 6 percent of the popular vote. This was the last election in which a candidate who was not a Republican or Democrat came second in either the popular vote or the Electoral College, and the first election in which all 48 states of the contiguous United States participated.
1913: Actress Vivien Leigh, best known for her role as Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind" and Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire," is born in Darjeeling, Bengal, India.
1925: Secret agent Sidney Reilly, often considered the first "super-spy" of the 20th century, is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union, whose undercover agents had lured him to Russia. Reilly, a Jewish Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard, the British Secret Service Bureau and later the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), is alleged to have spied for at least four nations. He had been sentenced to death by a 1918 Soviet tribunal for his participation in a counter-revolutionary plot against the Bolshevik government.
1931: Musician Ike Turner, best known for his 1960s work with his then-wife Tina Turner in the Ike & Tina Turner revue, is born in Clarksdale, Miss.
1940: U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt wins an unprecedented third term in office, defeating Republican candidate businessman Wendell Willkie by capturing 54.7 percent of the popular vote and 449 electoral votes compared to Willkie's 44.8 percent and 82 electoral votes. The ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951 would make this election the only occasion in American history in which a candidate was elected to a third term as president. Roosevelt would go on to win election to a fourth term in 1944, before dying less than three months into that term.
1941: Singer-songwriter Art Garfunkel, best known for being one-half of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel with Paul Simon, is born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City.
1942: Musician, playwright, actor and composer George M. Cohan, who wrote more than 500 songs during his lifetime, including the standards "Over There," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "The Yankee Doodle Boy" and "You're a Grand Old Flag," dies of cancer at the age of 64 in New York City. His life and music were depicted in the Academy Award-winning James Cagney film "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
1943: The Vatican's Saint Peter's Basilica (seen here in 2004) is bombed by an Italian aircraft, damaging several windows and a mosaic and causing severe damage to the Vatican's train station and water-system. The attack was the only breach of Vatican neutrality during World War II.
1943: Actor and playwright Sam Shepard, best known for roles in movies such as "The Right Stuff" and "Black Hawk Down," is born in Fort Sheridan, Ill.
1946: John F. Kennedy is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of 29, ganering nearly 72 percent of the vote in Massachusetts' strongly Democratic 11th Congressional district.
1952: Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Walton, who led the UCLA Bruins to two national titles in the early 1970s and went onto success in the NBA, winning an MVP award and two championships, once each with the Portland Trail Blazers and the Boston Celtics, is born in La Mesa, Calif.
1958: Actor Robert Patrick, best known for roles in movies such as "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "Last Action Hero" and "Fire in the Sky," is born in Marietta, Ga.
1959: Singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, whose best-known songs include "Summer of '69," "Heaven," "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" and the Grammy-winning "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," is born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
1960: Country singer Johnny Horton, whose best-known songs include "The Battle of New Orleans" and "North to Alaska," dies at the age of 35 in a car crash in Milano, Texas.
1960: Actor Ward Bond, known for the Western TV series "Wagon Train" and for supporting roles in movies such as "The Searchers," "The Quiet Man," "It Happened One Night," "It's a Wonderful Life," "The Maltese Falcon," "Bringing Up Baby," "Gone with the Wind," "Rio Bravo" and "The Grapes of Wrath," dies of a heart attack at the age of 57 in Dallas, Texas. Bond is seen here alongside John Wayne, with whom he made 23 movies with, in 1951's "Operation Pacific."
1960: Actress Tilda Swinton, best known for roles in movies such as "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Michael Clayton," the last of which earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, is born in London, England.
1963: Actress Tatum O'Neal, who would become the youngest person ever to win a competitive Academy Award in 1974 at the age of 10 for her performance opposite her father, Ryan O'Neal, in "Paper Moon," is born in Los Angeles. O'Neal is also known for roles in the movies "The Bad News Bears" and "Little Darlings" and the TV show "Rescue Me."
1968: Republican Richard M. Nixon wins the presidency, carrying 32 states and earning 43.4 percent of the vote to defeat Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace, who received 42.7 percent and 13.5 percent of the vote, respectively.
1974: Ella T. Grasso is elected governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman in the United States to win a governorship without succeeding her husband.
1979: Cartoonist Al Capp, best known for the satirical comic strip "Li'l Abner," dies from emphysema at the age of 70 in South Hampton, N.H.
1984: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the NFL had exceeded antitrust limits in attempting to stop the Oakland Raiders from moving to Los Angeles. Owner Al Davis had been seeking to move the team from Oakland, Calif., to Los Angeles since 1980, despite a unanimous vote by league owners against the move and an injunction filed by the NFL. In May 1982, a jury found in favor of Davis and the Los Angeles Coliseum, clearing the way for the team to move to Los Angeles for the 1982 season.
1989: The comedy-drama film "Steel Magnolias," starring Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts, premieres in New York City. Roberts would receive her first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film.
1991: Actor Fred MacMurray, best known for his roles in the film noir movie "Double Indemnity" and as the paternal Steve Douglas, the widowed patriarch on the sitcom "My Three Sons," dies of pneumonia at the age of 83 in Santa Monica, Calif.
1994: In a handwritten letter to the American people, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan discloses that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease the month before. Reagan would die of pneumonia, brought on by Alzheimer's disease, nearly 10 years later.
1994: George Foreman, 45, becomes boxing's oldest heavyweight champion when he knocks out Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas.
1995: André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada, breaking into his residence armed with a three-inch-long knife and attempting to enter the prime minister's bedroom. He is thwarted when the prime minister's wife locks the door. Justice Paul Bélanger later concurs with the defense attorney's argument that Dallaire, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, had been delusional at the time of the break-in. The judge rules that Dallaire was guilty of attempted murder, but that he could not be held criminally responsible for his actions.
1996: U.S. President Bill Clinton wins a second term over former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot, earning 49.2 percent of the popular vote to Dole's 40.7 percent and Perot's 8.4 percent. Clinton also dominated the electoral vote, beating Dole 379 to 159.
1998: Scientists publish a genetic study that shows strong DNA evidence that President Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child (Eston Hemings) of one of his slaves, Sally Hemings.
2003: Green River Killer Gary Ridgway pleads guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder as part of a plea bargain that would spare him execution in exchange for his cooperation in locating the remains of his victims and providing other details. Ridgway (seen here in a 1982 mugshot) murdered numerous women and girls, most of whom were also alleged prostitutes, in Washington state during the 1980s and 1990s, earning his nickname when the first five victims were found in the Green River.
2003: The sci-fi action movie sequel "The Matrix Revolutions," starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving, opens in theaters. The movie, the third in "The Matrix" movie franchise, was released six months following "The Matrix Reloaded" and would earn $427 million worldwide.
2004: The computer animated superhero movie "The Incredibles" opens in theaters. The movie, the sixth film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, follows a family of superheroes hiding their powers and living a quiet suburban life who are forced into action to save the world. The movie received critical acclaim and performed highly at the box office, grossing $631 million during its original theatrical run.
2006: Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death for crimes committed against residents of Dujail, Iraq, in 1982, following a failed assassination attempt against Hussein. Specific charges included the murder of 148 people, torture of women and children and the illegal arrest of 399 others. Husseim would be hanged on Dec. 30, 2006.
2007: The Writers Guild of America goes on strike. More than 12,000 film, television, and radio writers working in the United States would join the strike, which eventually halted production at most Hollywood studios, and would last until Feb. 12, 2008.
2009: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old U.S. Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, kills 13 and wounds 29 at Fort Hood, located just outside Killeen, Texas, in the deadliest mass shooting at a United States military installation. Hasan is shot and taken into custody by responding officers and is now paralyzed from the waist down.
