November 8: First African American Senator elected, Florida recounts 2000 election ballots

November 8, 10:14 PMPortland History ExaminerNatalie Leavitt

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Portland History Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Maine Fast Fact: Portland was originally named Machigonne by the Native Americans meaning “Great Knee” but was renamed Casco when the city was settled by the British in 1632.

Births:

• 1836: Milton Bradley, American game manufacturer, inventor of the paper cutter, born in Vienna, Maine
• 1847: Bram Stoker, Irish writer, author of the novel Dracula
• 1900: Margaret Mitchell, American writer, author of the novel Gone with the Wind
• 1949: Bonnie Raitt, American singer
• 1952: Jerry Remy, American baseball player, commentator; Alfre Woodward, American actress
• 1961: Leif Garrett, American singer and actor
• 1966: Gordon Ramsay, British chef and reality television personality
• 1967: Courtney Thorne-Smith, American actress
• 1968: Parker Posey, American actress
• 1970: Tom Anderson, co-founder of MySpace
• 1975: Tara Reid, American actress
• 1985: Jack Osbourne, English television personality, son of Ozzy Osbourne

Deaths:

• 1674: John Milton, English writer, author of the epic poem Paradise Lost
• 1978: Norman Rockwell, American painter and illustrator, known for his illustrations on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post for more than 40 years

History:

• 1837: Mary Lyon establishes Mount Holyoke Female Seminary which later becomes Mount Holyoke College.
• 1889: Montana is admitted as the 41st state.
• 1892: Black and white American trade unionists unite in a four-day general strike known as the New Orleans general strike; Former President Grover Cleveland beats incumbent Benjamin Harrison for the presidency, the only president to win non-consecutive terms.
• 1895: Wilhelm Rontgen discovers the X-ray.
• 1923: Adolph Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government, known as the Beer-Hall Putsch.
• 1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected the 32nd president.
• 1933: President Franklin Roosevelt establishes the Civil Works Administration, designed to create jobs for the more than 4 million unemployed during the Great Depression.
• 1960: John F. Kennedy is elected 35th President of the United States when he defeats Richard M. Nixon.
• 1965: The death penalty is abolished in the United Kingdom.
• 1966: Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke is elected to the U.S. Senate, the first African American to be elected to the Senate.
• 1971: Led Zeppelin’s album Led Zeppelin IV is released which includes the song “Stairway to Heaven.”
• 1987: A bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland as crowds gather for a ceremony honoring Britain’s war dead, killing 11 people.
• 1988: Vice President George H.W. Bush defeats Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis and is elected president.
• 2000: Florida begins to recount presidential election ballots; Vice President Al Gore calls Texas Governor George W. Bush to concede the election but calls back an hour later and retracts his concession.

November 8 is Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom, the second Sunday of November and the Sunday nearest to November 11, the anniversary of the end of World War I at 11 a.m. in 1918. English royalty lay wreaths of poppies at war memorials and a two-minute silence is held, which represents the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 when the gunfire of World War I ended.