Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 7, the 311th day of 2023. There are 54 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 7, 2013, shares of Twitter went on sale to the public for the first time; by the closing bell, the social network was valued at $31 billion. (The company would go private again in October 2022 after Elon Musk purchased it for $44 billion.)

On this date:

In 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

In 1940, Washington state's original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed "Galloping Gertie," collapsed into Puget Sound during a windstorm just four months after opening to traffic.

In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Republican Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon was reelected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.

In 1973, Congress overrode President Richard Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive's power to wage war without congressional approval.

In 1989, L. Douglas Wilder won the governor's race in Virginia, becoming the first elected Black governor in U.S. history; David N. Dinkins was elected New York City's first Black mayor.

In 1991, basketball star Magic Johnson announced that he had tested positive for HIV, and was retiring.

In 2001, the Bush administration targeted Osama bin Laden's multi-million-dollar financial networks, closing businesses in four states, detaining U.S. suspects and urging allies to help choke off money supplies in 40 nations.

In 2011, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, of involuntary manslaughter for supplying a powerful anesthetic implicated in the entertainer's 2009 death. (Murray was sentenced to four years in prison; he served two years and was released in October 2013.)

In 2012, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake killed at least 52 people in western Guatemala.

In 2015, the leaders of China and Taiwan met for the first time since the formerly bitter Cold War foes split amid civil war 66 years earlier; Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou hailed the meeting in Singapore as a sign of a new stability in relations.

In 2017, Twitter said it was ending its 140-character limit on tweets that had defined the social media outlet for its first decade, and would allow nearly everyone 280 characters to get their message across.

In 2018, a gunman killed 12 people at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks, California, before taking his own life as officers closed in.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden clinched victory over President Donald Trump as a win in Pennsylvania pushed Biden over the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes. Trump refused to concede.

Today's Birthdays: Former U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota is 93. Actor Dakin Matthews is 83. Singer Johnny Rivers is 81. Former supermodel Jean Shrimpton is 81. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 80. Former CIA Director David Petraeus is 71. Jazz singer Rene Marie is 68. Actor Christopher Knight (TV: "The Brady Bunch") is 66. Rock musician Tommy Thayer (KISS) is 63. Actor Julie Pinson is 56. Rock musician Greg Tribbett (Mudvayne) is 55. Actor Michelle Clunie is 54. Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is 53. Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is 51. Actors Jeremy and Jason London are 51. Actor Yunjin Kim is 50. Actor Adam DeVine is 40. Rock musician Zach Myers (Shinedown) is 40. Actor Lucas Neff is 38. Rapper Tinie Tempah is 35. Rock singer Lorde is 27.