On This Day:
Sunday November 3, 2013 This is the 307th day of the year, with 58 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: SOS The "SOS" (...---...) distress signal was adopted at the Second International Radio Telegraphic Conference in Berlin, Germany in 1906. According to the 1918 Marconi Yearbook of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony, "This signal [SOS] was adopted simply on account of its easy radiation and its unmistakable character. There is no special signification in the letters themselves, and it is entirely incorrect to put full stops between them." All the popular interpretations of SOS - Save our Ship, Save our Souls, or Send Out Succor - are simply not valid. The earlier and original distress call for shipping (as used by the Titanic) was CQD.
Holidays Panama: National Day.
Feast day of St. Rumwald, St. Malachy of Armagh, St. Amicus, St. Winifred or Gwenfrewi, St. Martin de Porres, and St. Pirminus.
Dominica: Independence Day (from Great Britain 1978).
Japan: Culture Day.
Micronesia, Federated States of: Independence Day (from United States 1986).
Events 1493 - Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage, sighted Dominica in the West Indies.
1507 - Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint Lisa Gherardini, the "Mona Lisa."
1631 - The first Protestant missionary, Reverend John Eliot, arrived in Boston. He was the first to try to convert Native Americans to Christianity.
1794 - Thomas Paine was released from a Parisian jail with the help of U.S. ambassador James Monroe.
1839 - The first Opium War between China and Britain began.
1868 - Ulysses S. Grant was elected 18th President of the United States of America.
1883 - The U.S. Supreme Court declared Native American Indians to be "dependent aliens."
1896 - Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan to become the 25th President of the United States of America.
1900 - The first U.S. automobile show was held at Madison Square Garden.
1903 - Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia.
1908 - Republican William Howard Taft was elected President of the United States of America, defeating William Jennings Bryan.
1914 - Mary Phelps Jacob received the first patent for a brassiere. She marketed it under the name of Caresse Crosby.
1916 - Eugene O'Neill's first play debuted in New York City, the one-act "Bound East for Cardiff."
1927 - Turkey adopted the Roman alphabet or Latin alphabet, discontinuing the use of Arabic.
1936 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide election victory over Republican challenger Alfred M. "Alf" Landon.
1942 - The Battle of El Alamein in the North African desert ended, with British field marshal Bernard Montgomery victorious. Nine thousand German and Italian soldiers were captured and the Axis fled Africa.
1957 - The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 with the dog Laika, the first living creature in space, on board.
1964 - President Lyndon Johnson defeated Republican Barry Goldwater in the election.
1969 - The Public Broadcasting System debuted when a few local educational TV channels united.
1975 - The North Sea pipeline, the first underwater pipeline, was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
1979 - The Greensboro Massacre occurred: five members of the Communist Workers' Party, participating in an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, were shot to death in broad daylight by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis.
1986 - A Lebanese magazine, "Ash-Shiraa," reported that the United States had been secretly selling arms to Iran in hopes of securing the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
1992 - Bill Clinton was elected 42nd President of the United States of America, defeating President George Bush.
1992 - Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
1998 - Former pro wrestler Jesse ("The Body) Ventura" was elected governor of Minnesota.
2004 - Hamid Karzai was officially declared the winner of Afghanistan's first presidential election.
2005 - Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, pleaded not guilty to a five-count felony indictment in the CIA leak case.
Births 1718 - John Montague, 4th Earl of Sandwich, inventor of the "sandwich" and for whom the Sandwich Islands of Hawaii are named.
1793 - Stephen Austin, American founder of Texas; capital city of Austin named for him.
1794 - William Cullen Bryant, American poet and editor.
1801 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian operatic composer.
1801 - Karl Baedeker, German travel guidebook publisher.
1901 - Leopold III, Belgian king 1934-51.
1908 - Bronko Nagurski, pro football player and wrestler.
1952 - Rosanne Barr, American comedian.
1953 - Dennis Miller, American comedian, political and social commentator, and television personality.
1954 - Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard), an English pop singer of the 1980s.
Deaths 1926 - Annie Oakley, American markswoman and wild west show entertainer.
1949 - Solomon R. Guggenheim, American art collector and philanthropist.
1954 - Henri Matisse, French painter and leader of the Fauvist movement.
1998 - Bob Kane, American comic book artist and writer, creator of Batman.
2006 - Paul Mauriat, French orchestra leader, specializing in light music.
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