12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for November 3, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1534 – England’s Act of Supremacy declares Henry VIII “Supreme Head of the Church of England.”
- 1868 – John Willis Menard becomes the first Black American elected to the U.S. House (Louisiana at-large).
- 1903 – Panama declares independence from Colombia.
- 1911 – Chevrolet Motor Company is founded by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant.
- 1918 – Austria-Hungary signs the Armistice of Villa Giusti, ending its WWI fighting.
- 1936 – Franklin D. Roosevelt wins re-election in a landslide over Alf Landon.
- 1946 – Japan’s postwar constitution is promulgated (now observed as Culture Day).
- 1954 – “Godzilla” premieres in Japan.
- 1957 – Sputnik 2 launches, carrying Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth.
- 1973 – Mariner 10 launches on a mission to Venus and Mercury.
- 1979 – Greensboro massacre: five anti-Klan demonstrators are killed in North Carolina.
- 2014 – One World Trade Center opens for business in Lower Manhattan.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1949 – Larry Holmes, heavyweight boxing champion (76).
- 1952 – Roseanne Barr, comedian/actor and TV producer (73).
- 1957 – Dolph Lundgren, actor/filmmaker (“Rocky IV,” “The Expendables”) (68).
- 1962 – Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve; Steam pioneer (63).
- 1963 – Ian Wright, English footballer/broadcaster (62).
- 1987 – Colin Kaepernick, NFL quarterback and civil-rights advocate (38).
- 1995 – Kendall Jenner, model and TV personality (30).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1793 – Olympe de Gouges, French playwright and revolutionary feminist (45).
- 1954 – Henri Matisse, French modernist painter (84).
- 1990 – Mary Martin, American stage/TV actress (“Peter Pan,” “South Pacific”) (76).
- 1993 – Léon Theremin, Russian inventor of the theremin electronic instrument (97).
- 1998 – Bob Kane, American comic-book artist, co-creator of Batman (83).
- 2014 – Tom Magliozzi, co-host of NPR’s “Car Talk” (77).
- 2015 – Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi politician and opposition leader (71).
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