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1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.

1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague.

1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross.

1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.

1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.

1941 – The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action".

1960 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.

1967 – London criminal Jack McVitie is murdered by the Kray twins, leading to their eventual imprisonment and downfall.

1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.

1983 – Over 500,000 people demonstrate against cruise missiles in The Hague, Netherlands.

1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.

1998 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.

1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.

2004 – The Arabic news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a video of Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

1905 – Czar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.

1922 – Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy.

1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing anxiety in some of the audience in the United States.

1944 – Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

1950 – Pope Pius XII witnesses The Miracle of the Sun while at the Vatican.

1960 – Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

1961 – Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise.

1973 – The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus for the second time.

1974 – The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire.

1980 – El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace treaty to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.

1985 – Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.

1987 – In Japan, NEC releases the first 16-bit (fourth generation) video game console, the PC Engine, which is later sold in other markets under the name TurboGrafx-16.

2005 – The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project.

1863 – The Maori Wars resumes as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron begin their Invasion of the Waikato.

1917 – World War I: Battle of Beersheba the "last successful cavalry charge in history".

1926 – Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured.

1940 – World War II: The Battle of Britain ends, the United Kingdom prevents a possible German invasion.

1941 – After 14 years of work, Mount Rushmore is completed.

1941 – World War II: The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors. It is the first U.S. Navy vessel sunk by enemy action in WWII.

1956 – Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1961 – In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb.

1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi and nearly 10,000 Sikhs are killed.

1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.

2000 – Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously crewed since.

2002 – A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas indicts former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to the collapse of his ex-employer.

1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.

1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1611 – William Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1755 – Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon is destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty thousand and ninety thousand people.

1800 – US President John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).

1814 – Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France, in the Napoleonic Wars.

1896 – A picture showing the unclad (bare) breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.

1914 – World War I: the first British Royal Navy defeat of the war with Germany, the Battle of Coronel, is fought off of the western coast of Chile, in the Pacific, with the loss of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth.

1939 – The first rabbit born after artificial insemination is exhibited to the world.

1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography.

1950 – Pope Pius XII claims papal infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.

1952 – Operation Ivy – The United States successfully detonates the first large hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike" ["M" for megaton], in the Eniwetok atoll, located in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The explosion had a yield of 10 megatons.

1954 – The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence.

1959 – In Rwanda, Hutu politician Dominique Mbonyumutwa is beaten up by Tutsi forces, leading to a period of violence known as the wind of destruction.

1963 – The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens.

1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.

1981 – Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.

1982 – Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of their factory in Marysville, Ohio.

1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

1898 – Cheerleading is started at the University of Minnesota with Johnny Campbell leading the crowd in cheering on the football team.

1899 – The Boers begin their 118 day siege of Ladysmith during the Second Boer War.

1917 – The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities".

1930 – Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 – The British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964.

1947 – In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Spruce Goose or H-4 The Hercules; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.

1957 – The Levelland UFO Case in Levelland, Texas, generates national publicity.

1959 – The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway

1960 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd., the Lady Chatterley's Lover case

1965 – Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war.

1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

1984 – Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

1988 – The Morris worm, the first internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT.

2000 – The first resident crew to the ISS docked with their Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft.

1783 – John Austin, a highwayman, is the last person to be publicly hanged at London's Tyburn gallows.

1812 – Napoleon's armies are defeated at the Battle of Vyazma.

1817 – The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal, Quebec.

1838 – The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.

1883 – American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the poet" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves a clue that eventually leads to his capture.

1911 – Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in competition with the Ford Model T.

1913 – The United States introduces an income tax.

1957 – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.

1973 – Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.

1978 – Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1988 – Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries try to overthrow the Maldivian government. At President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's request, the Indian military suppresses the coup attempt within 24 hours.

1997 – The United States of America imposes economic sanctions against Sudan in response to its human rights abuses of its own citizens and its material and political assistance to Islamic extremist groups across the Middle East and Eastern Africa.

1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform.

1890 – City & South London Railway: London's first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.

1922 – In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1955 – After being destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio.

1956 – Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution against the Soviet Union, that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.

1960 – At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community in Tanzania, Dr. Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever observation in non-human animals.

1966 – The Arno River flooded Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of 6.7 m (22 ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of masterpieces of art and rare books.

1979 – Iran hostage crisis begins: a group of Iranians, mostly students, invades the US embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages (53 of whom are American).

Reagan defeats Carter by a landslide

4th November, 1980

Rebublican Governor of California and former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan won the United States presidential election. He defeated incumbent Democrat president Jimmy Carter by a massive margin (with the final eventual polls showing a 489 - 49 win in Reagan's favour) to become the 40th President of the United States. At the time, Ronald Reagan was America's oldest president at the age of 69. He named George Bush, a former CIA boss, as his Vice President. Reagan was officially inaugrated in January 1981. This was the full cabinet that Reagan named in his first administration:-

Vice President: George H.W. Bush
Secretary of State: Alexander Haig
Secretary of the Treasury: Donald Regan
Secretary of Defense: Caspar Weinberger
Attorney General: William F. Smith
Secretary of the Interior: James G. Watt
Secretary of Agriculture: John Rusling Block
Secretary of Commerce: Howard M. Baldridge, Jr
Secretary of Labor: Raymond J. Donovan
Secretary of Health & Human Services: Richard S. Schweiker
Secretary of Education: Terrel Bell
Secretary of Housing & Urban Development: Samuel R. Pierce, Jr
Secretary of Transport: Drew Lewis
Secretary of Energy: James B. Edwards
Chief of Staff: James Baker
Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency: Anne M. Burford
Director of Office of Management & Budget: David A. Stockman
U.S. Trade Representative: William E. Brock III

Voting

Republicans were already clear leaders at the half way stage, with key victories in the east, mid-west and south states. Their stronghold in the west states were still to come, with predictions of safe votes well on course. Before retiring to his home in the Pallasades for polling day, Reagan made his final speech of the election campaign alongside his wife Nancy from a shopping centre car park in San Diego, in front of 30,000 supporters:

"In eight years here as your governor," he said, "I learned to have faith in you, the people and I envision a leadership as President taking government off your backs and turning you loose to do what I know you can do best."

President Carter's defeat was largely blamed on the energy and petrol queues crisis, aswell as his failure to negotiate the release of hostages still held in the U.S. Embassy at Tehran (as Skully mentioned above). He became the first incumbent President to be defeated since Herbert Hoover lost to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. An hour after phoning Reagan to congratulate him, President Carter drove from the White House to a Washington hotel to address his supporters:

He told them: "I can stand here and say it doesn't hurt." Putting on a brave smile he added: "The people of the United States have made their choice and I accept that decision."

Policies, later years and legacy in brief

President Reagan made strong changes, including heavy tax cuts and increased spending on defense. In his first year, he survived an assassination attempt. In 1983, he approved the U.S. invasion of Grenada and increased CIA operations in Nicaragua, despite strong opposition from Congress.

He was re-elected by a landslide in 1984 and began arms-control talks with the USSR that led to the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987. He remained extremely popular right till the end of his term in 1989 despite the scandal over US arms sales to Iran that provoked worldwide criticism.

In 1994 he announced he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He died ten years later aged 93.

Ronald Reagan made several famous quotes, some of which I've long listed among my favourites:-

"My fellow Americans. I'm pleased to announce that I've signed legislation outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes." - Reagan joking during a mike check before his Saturday radio broadcast...

"I hope you're all Republicans." - Reagan speaking to surgeons as he entered the operating room following a 1981 assassination attempt!

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

"Think of it... war breaks out and nobody turns up.."

"It's enough to make you wonder sometimes if we're on the right planet..."



Links to further reading below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates...192279.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan

1605 – The arrest of Guy Fawkes, found during a search of the Palace of Westminster, foils Robert Catesby's plot to destroy the House of Lords and all within it.

1743 – Coordinated scientific observations of the transit of Mercury are organized by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle.

1831 – Nat Turner, American slave leader, is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Virginia.

1895 – George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

1925 – Secret agent Sidney Reilly, the first "super-spy" of the 20th century, is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union.

1943 – The Bombing of the Vatican, during World War II.

1967 – The Hither Green rail crash in the United Kingdom kills 49 people. Survivors include Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees.

2006 – Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for the role in the massacre of the 148 Shi'as in 1982.

2007 – China's first lunar satellite, Chang'e 1 goes into orbit around the Moon.

1528 – Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot in Texas.

1917 – World War I: Third Battle of Ypres ends: After three months of fierce fighting, Canadian forces take Passchendaele in Belgium.

1935 – First flight of the Hawker Hurricane.

1935 – Parker Brothers acquires the forerunner patents for Monopoly from Elizabeth Magie.

1943 – World War II: the Soviet Red Army recaptures Kiev. Before withdrawing, the Germans destroy most of the city's ancient buildings.

1944 – Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

1962 – Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1971 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.

1985 – In Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the 19th of April Movement seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, eventually killing 115 people, 11 of them Supreme Court justices.

1986 – Sumburgh disaster – A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes 2.5 miles east of Sumburgh Airport killing 45 people. It is the deadliest civilian helicopter crash on record.

1995 – The Rova of Antananarivo, home of the sovereigns of Madagascar from the 16th to 19th centuries, is destroyed by fire.

1999 – Australians vote to keep the Head of the Commonwealth as their head of state in the Australian republic referendum.