A mere hundred years ago, on Nov. 8, 1909, the original Boston Opera House first opened with a performance of "La Gioconda" by Amilcare Ponchielli.
On this date:
In 1793, the Louvre in Paris, now containing one of the world's richest art collections, became a public museum after two centuries as a royal palace.
In 1837, Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts became the first U. S. college founded exclusively for women.
One hundred fifty years ago, in 1859, philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered a lecture in Boston in which he described abolitionist John Brown, condemned for his raid on Harpers Ferry, Va., as "the new saint awaiting his martyrdom."
In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as president. He was assassinated five months later.
In 1889, Montana became the 41st state.
In 1892, former President Grover Cleveland beat incumbent Benjamin Harrison, becoming the only president to win non-consecutive terms in the White House.
In 1895, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays.
In 1923, Adolf Hitler launched his first attempt at seizing power in Germany with a failed coup in Munich that came to be known as the "Beer-Hall Putsch."
Eighty years ago, in 1929, New York's Museum of Modern Art first opened to the public at its original location in the Heckscher Building on Fifth Avenue, a day after an invitation-only showing.
In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency.
In 1960, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon for the presidency. Sound Bite
In 1966, Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California.
In 1985, a judge overturned Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's conviction for a 1966 triple killing in a Patterson, N.J., bar, freeing the former boxer after 19 years in prison.
In 1987, a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded as crowds gathered in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, for a ceremony honoring Britain's war dead, killing 11 people.
In 1988, Vice President George H. W. Bush won the presidential election, defeating Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.
In 1991, the European Community imposed an economic embargo on Yugoslavia in an effort to halt the civil war
In 1994, midterm elections resulted in Republicans winning a majority in the Senate while at the same time gaining control of the House for the first time in 40 years.
In 1997, Chinese engineers diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam.
In 1999, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators launched landmark talks, giving themselves an ambitious 100-day deadline to craft the broad outlines of a peace agreement. Former President George H.W. Bush was honored in Germany for his role in the fall of the Berlin Wall 10 years earlier. President Bill Clinton participated in a "virtual town hall meeting" on the Internet, answering questions from prescreened online users.
In 2000, a statewide recount of presidential election ballots began in Florida. Vice President Al Gore telephoned Texas Gov. George W. Bush to concede the election, but called back about an hour later to retract his concession.
In 2002, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-British sponsored resolution authorizing the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq and "serious consequences" if Baghdad failed to cooperate. U. S. President George Bush assured a Muslim audience that the United States' war was against a network of terrorists and not against the Islamic religion or Muslim civilization.
In 2003, a suicide bomb attack on an Arab residential compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 18 and wounded 110.
In 2004, thousands of U.S. troops attacked the toughest strongholds of Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq, launching a long-awaited offensive aimed at ending guerrilla control of the city. The U.S. dollar was eliminated from circulation in Cuba. Jason Bay became the first Pittsburgh Pirates player to win the NL Rookie of the Year award, while Oakland shortstop Bobby Crosby took the AL honor.
In 2005, a defense lawyer for one of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was gunned down in Baghdad. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin declared a state of emergency in a bid to quell the nation's worst rioting in decades.
In 2006, U.S. President George Bush introduced former CIA Director Robert Gates as secretary of defense, succeeding Donald Rumsfeld. And, South Dakota voters defeated a ban on virtually all abortions in the state with 56 percent of voters turning down the measure.
In 2007, the U.S. Senate handed George Bush the first veto override of his presidency, voting 79-to-14 in favor of a $23 billion water projects bill. Also in 2007, 34 coal miners were trapped underground by a methane gas leak in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou. Fifty-two others escaped.
In 2008, Indonesia executed three Islamic militants for helping to plan and carry out the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. Florence Wald, a former Yale nursing dean whose interest in compassionate care led her to launch the first U.S. hospice program, died in Branford, Conn., at age 91. A deadly malfunction aboard the nuclear-powered Russian sub K152-Nerpa claimed the lives of 20 civilians and sailors and injured another 25, authorities said. The official report said a fire suppression system discharged gas in the bow of the sub, suffocating the victims while on a sea trial in the Sea of Japan. Also in 2008, the U.N. recommended religious minorities be given 12 seats on the 440-seat Iraqi provincial council but government leaders guaranteed six.
Today's Birthdays: Actress June Havoc is 97. Actor Norman Lloyd is 95. Singer Patti Page is 82. CBS newsman Morley Safer is 78. Singer-actress Bonnie Bramlett is 65. Singer Bonnie Raitt is 60. TV personality Mary Hart is 59. Former Playboy Enterprises chairman and chief executive Christie Hefner is 57. Actress Alfre Woodard is 57. Singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones is 55. Author Kazuo Ishiguro is 55. Rock musician Porl Thompson (The Cure) is 52. Singer-actor Leif Garrett is 48. Chef Gordon Ramsay is 43. Actress Courtney Thorne-Smith is 42. Actress Parker Posey is 41. Rock musician Jimmy Chaney is 40. Actress Roxana Zal is 40. Singer Diana King is 39. Actress Gretchen Mol is 36. Actor Matthew Rhys is 35. Actress Tara Reid is 34. Country singer Bucky Covington is 32. Actress Dania Ramirez is 30. Actress Azura Skye is 28.
Today In Entertainment History November 8
Seventy years ago, in 1939, the play "Life with Father," based on the stories of Clarence Day, opened on Broadway.
In 1965, the soap opera "Days of Our Lives" premiered on NBC.
In 1968, a London court granted Cynthia Lennon a divorce from John Lennon. Jean Terrell replaced Diana Ross in The Supremes.
In 1971, Led Zeppelin released an untitled album that became known as "Led Zeppelin 4." [Or:] The album "Led Zeppelin IV," which included the song "Stairway to Heaven," was released.
In 1995, rapper Flavor Flav was arrested on gun and drug charges while driving a cab in New York City. He had been released from prison two months earlier.
Thought for Today: "Religion is an attempt, a noble attempt, to suggest in human terms more-than-human realities." — Christopher Morley, American author-journalist (1890-1957).
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