On This Day November 5

1994
Oldest Heavyweight Boxing champion: 45-year-old George Foreman KOs Michael Moorer in the 10th round of the title fight.

1992
Bobby Fischer beats Boris Spassky (10 games to 5) and takes the $5,000,000 prize in their chess rematch.

1975
UFO abduction: Travis Walton and seven other Arizona loggers are abducted and held for five days by UFO's. Their story won a National Enquirer prize of $5,000 and provided the basis for the movie Fire in the Sky (1993).

1946
First NBA player to shatter a backboard: Chuck Connors (who went on to star in TV's The Rifleman), playing for the Boston Celtics, shatters one during the pre-game warm-up; it broke due to improper installation.

1930
First American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature: Sinclair Lewis wins for his novel Babbitt (1922).

1915
First plane catapult launch from a ship at sea: A U.S. Navy AB-2 is launched from the USS North Carolina.

1911
First airplane flight across the U.S.: Calbraith P. Rodgers arrives in Pasadena, California. He had started from Sheepshead Bay, New York on September 17th.

1781
Continental Congress: John Hanson is elected president of the Continental Congress. For this, he is sometimes referred to as the first U.S. president.

1767
The first of the Farmer's Letters by John Dickinson appear, expressing opposition to the Townshend Acts of 1767.

1733
Freedom of the Press: The first issue of John Peter Zenger's Weekly Journal is published. Its criticisms of the governor of New York caused Zenger to be arrested for libel. His acquittal helped establish freedom of the press in America.

1605
Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is arrested for setting up 20 barrels of gunpowder in an attempt to blow up King James I and the English Parliament. He and his fellow conspirators were then tried and executed.

1963
Tatum O'Neal, American Oscar-winning actress. Film: Paper Moon (1973, Oscar - the youngest person ever to win one).

1959
Bryan Adams, Canadian singer, songwriter. Songs: Summer of '69, Cuts Like a Knife, and Run to You.

1957 d. 1984
Jon-Erik Hexum, actor. He accidentally killed himself by firing a gun loaded with blanks into his head while filming the TV series Cover Up. He wasn't aware that the wadding fired from blanks is deadly at point blank range. TV: Voyagers! (1982-83, time traveler Phineas Bogg) and Cover Up (1984, Mac Harper).

1947
Peter "Herman" Noone, English singer, with Herman's Hermits. Music: I'm Into Something Good (1964, #1 in UK), Mrs Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter (1965, #1), I'm Henry VII, I Am (1965, #1), and There's a Kind of Hush (1967).

1943
Sam Shepard, American Obie-winning playwright, actor. Plays: Curse of the Starving Class (1977, Obie), Fool For Love (1984, Obie), and True West (1985, Obie). Film: The Right Stuff (1983, as Chuck Yeager).

1942
Paul Simon, American singer, formerly teamed with Art Garfunkel. Music: recorded 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (1975, #1).

1931
Ike Turner, American singer, guitarist, with wife Tina. Music: Proud Mary.

1913 d. 1967
Vivien Leigh, British Oscar-winning actress. Film: Gone with the Wind (1939, Oscar, Scarlett O'Hara) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, Oscar).

1912 d. 1976
Paul Dehn, British Oscar-winning playwright, screenwriter. He wrote four Planet of the Apes sequels and co-scripted Goldfinger (1964).

1911 d. 1998
Roy Rogers (Leonard Franklin Slye), American singing cowboy, who appeared in movies and TV with Dale Evans and Trigger. TV: The Roy Rogers Show.

1893 d. 1986
Raymond Loewy, French inventor, designer, the father of streamlining. He designed the U.S. Postal Service logo.

1857 d. 1944
Ida M. Tarbell, American author. Writings: The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904), for which Pres. Teddy Roosevelt called her a "muckraker."

1855 d. 1926
Eugene Victor Debs, American labor organizer, first president of the American Railway Union (1893) and founder of the Social Democrat Party of America (1897).

1850 d. 1919
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American poet. "Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone" is from her poem Solitude.

2000 b. 1899
Jimmie Davis, American politician, two-time governor of Louisiana (1944-48, 1960-64), and Country Music Hall of Famer. Music: You Are My Sunshine and Where the Old Red River Flows.

1979 b. 1909
Al Capp (Alfred Gerald Caplin), American cartoonist, creator of Li'l Abner (1934).

1975 b. 1888
Annette Kellerman, Australian swimmer, actress. She starred in the first sex-shocker movie, A Daughter of the Gods (1916). Earlier, in 1907, she had been arrested for wearing a one-piece bathing suit at a Boston beach.

1962 b. 1873
Howard Roger Garis, American children's author, creator of the Uncle Wiggily the rabbit stories and board game.

1960 b. 1884
Mack Sennett (Michael Sinnott), American director, producer, actor, creator of the Keystone Kops.

1942 b. 1878
George M. Cohan, American playwright, songwriter. Music: Over There, You're a Grand Old Flag and I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy.

1914 b. 1846
Henry Gannett, American geographer, "Father of American Mapmaking." He co-founded the National Geographic Society (1883).

November 5

Events

Birthdays

Deaths