Thursday, November 3, 2005

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

November 3rd was another key Election Day starting with the election of our second president, John Adams. It happened on this date in 1796...

In 1868 Republican Ulysses S. Grant won the presidential election over Democrat Horatio Seymour...

28 years later, on November 3, 1896 Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan for the presidency...

Moving into the 20th century, it was on this date in 1908 that William Howard Taft was elected president, defeating William Jennings Bryan (does that name sound familiar ?)...

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected in 1936 in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. "Alf" Landon (with a name like 'Alf' he shouldn't have been elected)...

November 3, 1964 saw President Lyndon Baines Johnson soundly defeating Conservative Republican challenger Barry Goldwater to win a White House term in his own right...

Same date in 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton was elected 42nd president by beating President George H.W. Bush...

All of the above presidential elections took place on November 3rd through the years. We also had some landmark election results of a non-presidential nature...

On November 3, 1992 Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate...

And finally, why wouldn't an ex-wrestler become governor of Minnesota ? Of course the answer to that is he would...and did. Jesse "The Body" Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota...

And so ends our history lesson for today on elections through the years...

More November 3 Memories...

1957) Sun Records releases "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis...

1957) "At The Hop" is released by Danny & the Juniors...

1961) The Boston Patriots beat the Dallas Texans 28-21 at Braves Field when a fan sneaks onto the field and bats away Dallas QB Cotton Davidson's pass into the end zone as time runs out. Officials decide to let the play stand, ending the game (we love the history of those odd little stories that have helped the Patriots win games, my favorite is the guy who cleared a spot on the field for a winning field goal and then there's the 'tuck rule' that helped Tom Brady and the Pats win a game. What a great country)...

1969) The 5th Dimension top the charts with "Wedding Bell Blues"...

1971) Clint Eastwood's "Play Misty For Me" premieres...

1972) James Taylor and Carly Simon are married in Carly's Manhattan apartment (sadly they will separate in 1982 and later divorce)...

1978) "Different Strokes" premieres on NBC-TV...

1988) Geraldo Rivera breaks his nose in an on-camera brawl with skinheads (you can't make this stuff up folks)...

1991) More than 300,000 attend a free concert in San Francisco's Golden State Park in memory of rock promoter Bill Graham. Acts include the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joan Baez, Santana and a reunited Journey...

1994) Susan Smith is arrested for drowning her two young sons, nine days after claiming the children had been abducted...

1995) The Celtics lose to the Bucks 101-100 in the 1st NBA game played at the Fleet Center in Boston...

2001) The Diamondbacks get 21 hits in the first 6 innings to set a World Series record for hits in a game. By winning Game 6 they set up the 7th and final game against the Yankees tomorrow...

Happy Birthday To...

1918) Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Feller...

1933) Michael S. Dukakis...

1947) Shadoe Stevens...

1948) Lulu...

1952) Roseanne Barr...

1953) Dennis Miller...

1954) Adam Ant...

1955) Phil Simms...

Commentary...

Personal Happy Birthday wishes go out to Shadoe Stevens who was my 6 to 9 nightime jock at WRKO in Boston and who I would later reconnect with at ABC and when Shadoe emceed a tribute to the Zombies' Paul Atkinson...

And to Adam Ant who was signed to CBS-UK originally before he broke loose in America. I had the pleasure of buying Adam his first grade-A, American cheeseburger when he landed in New York for the first time and doing promotion with Adam while at CBS International...