In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.
In 1869, in the first formal intercollegiate football game, Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4.
In 1917, the Bolshevik revolution began in Russia. Because it took place under the old czarist calendar, it is known as the October Revolution.
In 1921, the cult of Rudolph Valentino was launched with the release of his silent film "The Sheik," which despite negative reviews immediately caught the attention of women across the United States.
In 1928, Herbert Hoover was elected U.S. president.
In 1952, the United States exploded the world's first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
In 1956, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was re-elected by a wide margin.
In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term, winning 49 states.
In 1986, U.S. intelligence sources confirmed a report that the United States secretly sold arms to Iran to secure the release of seven U.S. hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
In 1995, world leaders gathered in Jerusalem for the funeral of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
In 2009, the U.S. unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate in 26 years.
In 2011, controversial Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned in the midst of an acute debt crisis.
In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term. Federal finance reports showed campaign expenditures broke the $2 billion mark, making the election the most expensive in U.S. history. In 2013, Avigdor Lieberman, who had resigned as Israel's foreign minister because of an investigation of alleged corruption, was acquitted and said: "This chapter is behind me. I am now focusing on the challenges ahead." (Lieberman became foreign minister again five days later.)
A thought for the day: "So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall." -- Roald Dahl
