On This Day: November 3

Updated November 3, 2013, 1:29 pm

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On Nov. 3, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. ''Alf'' Landon.

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On Nov. 3, 1903, Walker Evans, the American photographer best known for his portrayal of America during the Great Depression, was born. Following his death on April 10, 1975, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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On Nov. 3, 1868, Republican Ulysses S. Grant won the presidential election over Democrat Horatio Seymour.

On This Date

1839 The first Opium War between China and Britain broke out.
1903 Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia.
1908 Republican William Howard Taft was elected president, outpolling William Jennings Bryan.
1911 The Chevrolet Motor Car Co. was founded in Detroit by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant.
1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. "Alf" Landon.
1957 The Soviet Union launched into orbit Sputnik 2, the second manmade satellite; a dog on board named Laika was sacrificed in the experiment.
1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson soundly defeated Republican challenger Barry Goldwater to win a White House term in his own right.
1970 Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile.
1986 A Lebanese magazine broke the story of U.S. arms sales to Iran, a revelation that escalated into the Iran-Contra affair.
1992 Democrat Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd president of the United States, defeating President George H.W. Bush.
1992 Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
1994 Susan Smith of Union, S.C., was arrested for drowning her two young sons, nine days after claiming the children had been abducted by a black man. (Smith is serving life in prison.)
2004 Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election.
2005 Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, pleaded not guilty to a five-count felony indictment in the CIA leak case. (Libby was convicted, but President George W. Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence.)
2009 Maine residents narrowly voted down a same-sex marriage law.
2010 The Federal Reserve announced a plan to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds over the next eight months in an attempt to boost lending and stimulate economy.

Historic Birthdays

48 Annibale Carracci 11/3/1560 - 7/15/1609
Italian artist
43 Stephen Austin 11/3/1793 - 12/27/1836
American founder of Republic of Texas
83 William Cullen Bryant 11/3/1794 - 6/12/1878
American poet
57 Karl Baedeker 11/3/1801 - 10/4/1859
German publisher
33 Vincenzo Bellini 11/3/1801 - 9/23/1835
Italian composer
75 Edward White 11/3/1845 - 5/19/1921
American jurist
55 Marcelino Menendez 11/3/1856 - 5/19/1912
Spanish historian
83 Joseph Martin 11/3/1884 - 3/6/1968
American politician
81 Leopold III 11/3/1901 - 9/25/1983
Belgian king (1934-51)
75 Andre Malraux 11/3/1901 - 11/23/1976
French novelist
86 James Reston 11/3/1909 - 12/6/1995
American columnist