On This Day

On Nov. 18, 1978, more than 900 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones participated in a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.

On Nov. 15, 1940, German bombers completed a 10-hour blitz on Coventry, which killed over 500 people and destroyed the city’s cathedral.

On Nov. 15, 1969, a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington, D.C., against the Vietnam War.

On Nov. 14, 1851, Herman Melville’s epic narrative of the great white whale debuted on the American literary scene, meeting mixed reviews and tepid sales.

On Nov. 14, 1889, journalist Nellie Bly set out to circle the globe, seeking to beat the fictional record set by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days.”

On Nov. 10, 1982, the controversial Vietnam Veterans Memorial near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was opened to its first visitors.

On Nov. 9, 1938, Nazi storm troopers launched a coordinated attack against Jewish communities, destroying property and shipping thousands to concentration camps.

On Nov. 8, 1895, German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen’s experiments with cathode rays led him to discover X-rays, a feat that earned him the first-ever Nobel Prize for Physics.

On Nov. 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in one of the closest and most contentious presidential elections in American history.

On Nov. 7, 1991, Lakers guard Magic Johnson held a press conference to reveal that he was HIV-positive. The announcement raised awareness of HIV/AIDS, particularly that it could be spread through heterosexual sex.

On Nov. 7, 1917, Bolshevik forces entered the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg and overthrew the government that had been in place for eight months. The Bolshevik Revolution resulted in the formation of a communist nation.

On Nov. 9, 1965, a power station failure caused a blackout in much of the northeastern U.S. and parts of Ontario.

On Nov. 5, 1872, 48 years before the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony and a group of women in Rochester, N.Y., cast votes in the presidential election.

On Nov. 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellar of the House of Lords guarding barrels of gunpowder, exposing a plot to kill the king.

On Nov. 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, tried to assassinate President Truman in hopes of bringing their country closer to independence.

On Nov. 1, 1952, the United States conducted its first test of a thermonuclear weapon, beginning a new era of nuclear weapons.

On Oct. 31, 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by two Sikh security guards.

On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of grievances against the Catholic Church onto the door of a chapel in Wittenberg, Germany; his “Ninety-five Theses” became the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.

On Oct. 30, 1938, many Americans believed Orson Welles’ radio broadcast adaptation of H. G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” was reporting an actual alien invasion.

On Oct. 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange closed down 12 percent for the second straight day, signaling the end of the bull market of the 1920s and the beginning of the Great Depression.

On Oct. 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was officially unveiled to the public by President Grover Cleveland.

On Oct. 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, which established the laws under which Prohibition would be enforced.

On Oct. 27, 1973, a 1.4 kg chondrite-type meteorite crashed through a garage roof in Canon City, Colo.

On Oct. 27, 312, on the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine had a vision assuring him of victory in the name of the Christian God. As emperor, Constantine served as a patron for the church, contributing to its rapid growth in the fourth century.

On Oct. 27, 1904, the first rapid transit subway, the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), opened in New York City.

On Oct. 26, 1881, Wyatt Earp and his brothers, with Doc Holliday, engaged the McLaury and Clanton brothers in a bloody gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.

On Oct. 26, 1994, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty establishing normalized relations between the two countries.

On Oct. 25, 1854, British Lt. Gen. Lord Cardigan led a disastrous cavalry charge made famous by Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

On Oct. 25, 1971, the United Nations General Assembly voted to admit mainland China (the People’s Republic of China) and expel Taiwan (the Republic of China).

On Oct. 24, 1861, after 112 days of construction, Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph, rendering the 18-month-old Pony Express obsolete.