Friday-Sunday, November 4-6, 2005

Election Day through the years (part III)...

Our series on Election Day continues as we begin with the presidential election of November 4, 1884, the day that Democrat Grover Cleveland defeated Republican James G. Blaine...

On this date in 1924 Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming was elected the nation's 1st woman governor chosen to serve the remaining term of her husband William who died in office (earlier in the week we mentioned Christine Todd Whitman as a female governor but she did not succeed her spouse, nor was she the 1st. That honor is coming up in our November 5 post)...

Calvin Coolidge was re-elected on November 4, 1924 after completing Warren G. Harding's term after Harding died in office...

Same date, this time in 1952, General Dwight D. Eisenhower won election, the Republican's 1st in 24 years, by defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson. Ike became our 34th president on that day...

1980 saw the Republicans winning a majority of the seats in the Senate and the presidency when Ronald Reagan was elected president in his race with the incumbent, Jimmy Carter...

In my commentary, an interesting footnote on November 4 elections through the years...

More November 4 Memories...

1958) Conway Twitty tops the charts with "It's Only Make Believe"...

1967) Motown releases "I Second That Emotion" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles...

1971) NBA great, Elgin Baylor of the Lakers announces his retirement because of knee problems

1978) Boston plays Boston in their 1st live appearance...

1978) The Talking Heads release "Take Me To The River"...

1979) Militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as the Iranian hostage crisis begins (52 hostages are held for the next 14 months)...

1991) Elected into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Bobby "Blue" Bland, Booker T. & The M.G.'s, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, The Isley Brothers, The Yardbirds and Sam & Dave...

1991) Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Bush help Ronald Reagan dedicate his Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California...

1992) Both the Giants and Jets announce new radio affiliates with Big Blue leaving WNEW (after 32 years) for WOR and The Jets moving from WABC to WFAN...

1995) Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by a right-wing Israeli after speaking at a peace rally in Tel Aviv...

1996) Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter wins the American League Rookie of the Year award, receiving all 28 1st place votes (Jeter hit .314 and emerged as a team leader at the age of 22)...

1996) Michael Jackson announces that he and a "friend", Debbie Rowe, were expecting a child, but he denies that the couple used artificial insemination and that Rowe had been paid to carry the baby (uh yeah, right Michael)...

1999) Aaron McKinney who beat gay college student Matthew Shepard and left him to die on the Wyoming prairie, agrees to serve life in prison without parole and promises never to appeal his conviction...

2001) The Yankee era of dominance ends as the Diamondbacks become the youngest franchise (4 years) to win a World Series by beating the Yankees in 7 games, coming from 2 runs behind in the 9th inning to beat unbeatable closer Mariano Rivera, 3-2 (this ends New York's string of 3 consecutive World Championships)...

Happy Birthday To...

1916) Uncle Walter Cronkite...

1930) Doris Roberts...

1937) Loretta Swit...

1946) First Lady Laura Bush...

1961) Kathy Griffin...

1962) "Survivor" host Jeff Probst...

1969) Matthew McConaughey...

Commentary...

The footnote I teased with earlier on November 4 elections is this: Since Coolidge's election in 1924 the Republicans have not lost an election. The next November 4 presidential election is in 2008...

The last time the Democrats won an election on November 4th was in 1884 when Grover Cleveland defeated Republican challenger James G. Blaine...

Saturday, November 5, 2005...

Election Day through the years (part IV)...

On November 5, 1912 Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating Progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William Howard Taft...

Same date in 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented 3rd term in office beating Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie (sorry but no president should ever be named Wendell)...

In 1946 young (29) Boston Democrat, John F. Kennedy was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and was on his way to the White House...

Nixon was the one on November 5, 1968. It was on that date that Richard Milhous Nixon won the presidency defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and 3rd party candidate George C. Wallace...

Closer to New York, it was the state of Connecticut that elected the 1st woman governor who didn't succeed her husband when Ella Grasso was elected on this date in 1974...

November 5, 1996 saw voters return President Bill Clinton to the White House for a second term when he defeated former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole...

More November 5 Memories...

1935) The game of "Monopoly" was introduced by Parker Brothers Company...

1960) Country/Pop crossover artist Johnny Horton is killed in an auto accident in Texas at 33...

1981) Former Dolphin running back Mercury Morris is sentenced to 20 years for drug trafficing and possession of cocaine (you can run but you can't hide, Mercury)...

1982) The Nets put the Cleveland Cavaliers in the record books when they hand Cleveland their 24th consecutive loss, 99-91...

1989) Pianist Vladimir Horowitz dies at 86...

1990) Jewish Defense League Rabbi Meir Kahane is shot to death after a speech in Manhattan (his assassin, an Egyptian, is later sentenced to life in prison)...

1994) Former President Ronald Reagan discloses that he has Alzheimer's disease...

1994) 45-year old George Foreman becomes boxing's oldest heavyweight champion by knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas...

1998) A study shows strong genetic evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child by his slave, Sally Hemmings...

1999) A U.S. District Court Judge declares Microsoft a monopoly...

Happy Birthday To...

1931) Ike Turner...

1936) Country producer Billy Sherrill...

1940) Elke Sommer...

1941) Art Garfunkel...

1947) Peter Noone...

1952) Basketball Hall of Famer and broadcaster Bill Walton...

1959) Bryan Adams...

1973) Johnny Damon...

Sunday, November 6, 2005...

Election Day through the years (part V)...

November 6th was an important election day dating back to 1860 when former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated 3 other candidates for the U.S. presidency...

On this date in 1861 Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederacy...

In 1888 Benjamin Harrison of Indiana won the presidential election beating incumbent Grover Cleveland in the electoral college even though Cleveland led in the popular vote...

November 6, 1900 was a good day for William B. McKinley who was re-elected when he defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan (who along with Wendell L. Willkie has to be up there for running and losing presidential elections the most number of times)...

In 1928 Republican Herbert Hoover was elected president by beating Alfred E. (not Newman) Smith, former governor of New York...

On November 6th in 1956 President Dwight David Eisenhower was re-elected with a victory over Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson...

This was also a special day for Michael Bloomberg in 2001, the year he won the New York City mayoral race by beating Democrat Mark Green (Bloomberg is up for re-election next tuesday, November 8th)...

More November 6 Memories...

1869) Rutgers beats Princeton 6-4 at New Brunswick, NJ, in the 1st college football game which looked more like soccer than football (there were 25 players on each team and touchdowns were 1 point with no throwing or running with the ball, kicking or batting with hands, feet or head permitted...sounds exciting, eh ?)...

1917) New York allows women the right to vote...

1923) Colonel Jacob Schick patents the 1st electric shaver...

1929) The Providence Steamrollers and Chicago Cardinals play the NFL's 1st night game in Providence with the Cardinals winning 16-0 before 6,000 fans...

1935) Edwin H. Armstrong announces the development of FM broadcasting...

1965) Tonight on "Shindig": The Rolling Stones, Strangeloves and Fontella Bass...

1965) The Animals release "It's My Life"...

1995) Browns owner Art Modell becomes public enemy #1 in Cleveland when he announces plans to move to Baltimore...

1997) Former President George H.W. Bush opens his presidential library at Texas A&M University...

2002) A Beverly Hills jury convicts actress Winona Ryder of stealing $5,500 worth of merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue (Ryder was later placed on 3 years probation)...

Happy Birthday To...

1931) Director Mike Nichols...

1937) Eugene Pitt of The Jive Five...

1946) Sally Field...

1948) Glenn Frey...

1955) Maria Shriver...

1970) Ethan Hawke...