November 4 in history

1429  Joan of Arc liberated Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier.

1677  The future Mary II of England married William, Prince of Orange. They would later jointly reign as William and Mary.

1783  Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 receives its première performance in Linz, Austria.

1825  Erie Canal was completed with Governor DeWitt Clinton performing the Wedding of The Waters ceremony in New York Harbour.

 

1853 Map of New York canals including the Erie Canal

1839  Newport Rising took place, the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain.

1861 The University of Washington opened in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial University.

1890 London‘s first deep-level tube railway opened between King William Street and Stockwell.

1916 – Ruth Handler, American businesswoman and inventor of the Barbie doll, was born.

1922  British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamun‘s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924  Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming was elected as the first female governor in the United States.

1930 Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup.

1937  Loretta Swit, American actress, was born.

1939  Shakuntala Devi, Indian calculating prodigy, was born.

1950 Charles Frazier, American author, was born.

1955 Vienna State Opera reopened with a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s Fidelio.

1966 Two-thirds of Florence was submerged as the Arno river flooded; this and the contemporaneous flood of the Po River in northern Italy, this led to 113 deaths, 30,000 made homeless, and the destruction of numerous Renaissance artworks and books.

19551995  Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.

2008  Barack Obama became the first African-American to be elected President of the United States.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

October 26 in history

On October 26:

1825 The Erie Canal opened a passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie.

1865 Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman, was born.

 

1881 The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1883 Napoleon Hill, American Writer and Philosopher, author of Think and Grow Rich, was born.

1905 Norway became independent from Sweden.

1916 French President François Mitterrand was born.

1942 The Women Jurors’ Act allowed women to sit on juries in New Zealand.

1947 Hillary Rodham Clinton, 67th United States Secretary of State was born.

1965 The Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).

The Beatles in 1964. Clockwise (from top-left): John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison

1977 The last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.

1999 Britain’s House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain’s upper chamber of Parliament.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.