The way it was: Today in history
Throwback Thursday: A look back at events on November 3.
During Operation Harvest Festival (Erntefest) special SS and police unites shot 18,000 Jews just outside the Majdanek concentration camp outside the city of Lublin in eastern Poland. Those killed included prisoners from Majdanek as well as other prisoners and forced labor from other camps in the city. The deaths were the largest number at a single location during the Holocaust.
Man O'War - 1947
As visitors look on, legendary thoroughbred Man O’War lies in state in a casket lined with his racing colors at owner Samuel Riddle’s Faraway Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, November 3, 1947. Man O’War won 20 of the 21 races he started.
Abortive revolt - 1950
Blanca Canales, a leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in Jayuya, is fingerprinted prior to entering the jail in Ponce, Puerto Rico, November 3, 1950.
Police and Nationalists fought for hours in the streets of Jayuya during the abortive revolt in Puerto Rico. Canales was captured and jailed as the police rounded up Nationalists on the Island.
Attack on Truman - 1950
U.S. Marshals lead Carmen Torresola, wife of Griselio Torresola, to a van on her way to the Women’s House of Detention after her arraignment in Federal Court on charges of conspiring to harm a public official, in New York City, November 3, 1950.
Puerto Rican Nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman as he napped at his temporary residence at Blair House in Washington, D.C., on November 1. Griselio was killed in a gun battle with police and Collazo wounded. Truman was unharmed. Deputy Marshal James Egan is at left, and Deputy Marshal Al Gibson is at right.
Helen Keller - 1953
Helen Keller, 73, who is blind and deaf, guides her hand over President Dwight Eisenhower’s face as her companion Polly Thomson communicates the president’s comments by sign language on Keller’s palm on November 3, 1953.
First dog in space - 1957
On November 3, 1957 the Soviet Union sent the first living creature ever to go into space onboard Sputnik II, the stray dog named Laika. Meant as a test for how safe space travel was for humans, it sadly lead to Laika’s death a few hours after launch.
According to Time magazine, the original reports that Laika died painlessly after about a week in orbit were untrue. It was learned in 2002, that Laika died a few short hours after launch from stress and overheating, likely due to a malfunction in the thermal control system. Though the Sputnik II launch kept Russia in the lead in the space race, it was a suicide mission from the start for poor Laika since the technology hadn’t yet advanced enough for a return trip.
Gambino collapses - 1958
Ambulance attendants assist Carlo Gambino, who attended the Aapalachin summit of American mafia in New York in 1957, after he collapsed at the start of a hearing in New York City on November 3, 1958, to determine whether he should be deported.
State troopers apprehended 63 men out of approximately 100 mobsters who had attended the mob meeting, but no convictions came out of it. The convention and apprehension of so many crime figures proved the existence of organized crime however.
Mysterious whirring sound - 1961
Young Terry Binkowski, left, listens on the earphones of an oscilloscope used by a Griffiss Air Force Base team that attempted to solve the mystery of a whirring sound that the Eugene Binkowski family says haunts its suburban home in Schenectady, New York on November 3, 1961. Terry’s brother, Robert, watches from the rights as a member of the Air Force crew keeps his eyes on the meters.
Coup in South Vietnam - 1963
Holding fixed bayonet, a military policeman of the newly installed regime in South Vietnam, watches crowd of civilians in Saigon on November 3, 1963. This was aftermath of the coup that overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem.
Diem and his younger brother surrendered November 2 and were promised exile after a coup that began November 1, but instead were executed in the back of an APC by officers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
Allende's inauguration - 1970
Newly inaugurated president of Chile Salvador Allende waves as he walks through the street from Congress to the Cathedral in Santiago, November 3, 1970.
Maya Angelou - 1971
Maya Angelou, a multi-talented ex-Arkansan, has been hired as Hollywood’s first black woman movie director, November 3, 1971. She’ll write the script and music, as well as direct “Caged Bird,” which is based on her best-selling 1969 autobiography. She’s been a professional singer, dancer, writer, composer, poet, lecturer, editor, and San Francisco streetcar conductorette.
Carter elected president - 1976
President-elect Jimmy Carter waves to supporters as he is surrounded by family members at a hotel in Atlanta, on November 3, 1976. Carter won the presidential election by 297 electoral votes to 241 for incubment Gerald Ford. Standing next to him is his wife, Rosalynn, and their daughter Amy Lynn, far right. The others are unidentified.
Indira Gandhi funeral - 1984
Indira Gandhi’s son, Rajiv (2nd R), his wife Sonia (4th R) and their daughter Priyana (3rd R) watch the coffin of the slain Indian Prime Minister during the cremation ceremony on November 3, 1984 in India. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by two of her Sikh bodyguards, October 31, 1984. Rajiv Gandhi became India’s youngest prime minister after his mother’s death. He was later assassinated in 1991.
Carol Moseley Braun - 1992
Senator-elect Carol Moseley Braun declares her victory as the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate on November 3, 1992 in Chicago. She called her campaign a step toward a new diversity in government.
D.C. sniper trial - 2003
A note found near the shooting scene of Conrad Johnson on October 23, 2003 in Aspen Hill, Maryland is displayed on a screen during the trial of Washington D.C. area sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad in Courtroom 10 at the Virginia Beach Circuit Court in Virginia Beach, Virginia, November 3, 2003. Muhammad was on trial in a capital murder case for the shooting death of Dean Meyers, 53, at a gas station in Manassas, Virginia on October 9, 2002.
George W. Bush elected - 2004
London’s Evening Standard newspaper carries a headline proclaiming victory for George W. Bush in the U.S. presidential election, November 3, 2004. The White House claimed victory in the election for George W. Bush, but his opponent, Democrat candidate John Kerry, had yet to concede defeat.
"Scooter" Libby - 2005
Lewis “Scooter” Libby (C), Vice President Dick Cheney’s former top aide, leaves the Federal courthouse as his defense attorney Ted Wells (L) speaks to the press on November 3, 2005 in Washington, D.C.
Libby pled not guilt to charges of making false statements, perjury and obstruction of justice, related to the disclosure of the covert identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson. The charges forced his resignation. He was convicted on four of five counts in the indictment.