NOVEMBER 5TH

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 5, the 310th day of 2008.
There are 56 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Nov. 5, 1968, Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace.

On this date:

• In 1605, the "Gunpowder Plot" failed as Guy Fawkes was seized before he could blow up the English Parliament.
• In 1872, suffragist Susan B. Anthony defied the law by attempting to vote for President Grant. (She was convicted by a judge and fined $100, but never paid the fine.)
• In 1895, George B. Selden of Rochester, N.Y., received the first U.S. patent for an "improved Road Engine."
• In 1912, Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William Howard Taft.
• In 1940, President Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie.
• In 1946, Republicans captured control of both the Senate and the House in midterm elections.
• In 1974, Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.
• In 1985, Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, died at age 90; he was succeeded by Ezra Taft Benson.
• In 1987, Supreme Court nominee Douglas H. Ginsburg admitted using marijuana several times in the 1960s and '70s, calling it a mistake. (Ginsburg ended up withdrawing his nomination.)
• In 1990, Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born Israeli extremist, was shot to death at a New York hotel. (Egyptian native El Sayyed Nosair was convicted of the slaying in federal court.)

Ten years ago:

• The U.N. Security Council unanimously demanded that Iraq resume cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors immediately.

Five years ago:

• President Bush signed a bill outlawing the procedure known by its critics as "partial-birth abortion"; less than an hour later, a federal judge in Nebraska issued a temporary restraining order against the ban. (In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.)
• Green River serial killer Gary Leon Ridgway pleaded guilty to strangling four dozen women over two decades, most of them near Seattle.
• Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean apologized for urging Democrats to court Southern whites who displayed Confederate flags on their pickup trucks.
• Bobby Hatfield of the musical duo the Righteous Brothers died in Kalamazoo, Mich., at age 63.

One year ago:

• Hollywood writers went on strike, forcing late-night talk shows to immediately start airing reruns.
• Police in major Pakistani cities fired tear gas and clubbed lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule.
• Talk show host Oprah Winfrey promised to "clean house" after a dorm matron was accused of abusing students at Winfrey's school for disadvantaged South African girls.
• Joe Torre was introduced as the new manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, less than three weeks after walking away from the New York Yankees.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actor Chris Robinson is 70.
• Actress Elke Sommer is 68.
• Singer Art Garfunkel is 67.
• Actor-playwright Sam Shepard is 65.
• Singer Peter Noone is 61.
• Actor Nestor Serrano ("24") is 53.
• Actress-comedian Mo Gaffney is 50.
• Actor Robert Patrick is 50.
• Singer Bryan Adams is 49.
• Actress Tilda Swinton is 48.
• Actress Tatum O'Neal is 45.
• Actress Andrea McArdle is 45.
• Rock singer Angelo Moore (Fishbone) is 43.
• Actress Judy Reyes is 41.
• Rock musician Mark Hunter (James) is 40.
• Actor Sam Rockwell is 40.
• Country singers Heather and Jennifer Kinley (The Kinleys) are 38.
• Actor Corin Nemec is 37.
• Rock musician Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) is 37.
• Country singer-musician Ryan Adams is 34.
• Actor Sam Page is 32.
• Actor Jeremy Lelliott is 26.
• Rock musician Kevin Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 21.

Thought for Today:

"Examine what is said, not him who speaks."
An Arab proverb.

"Let's all be careful out there!"