1307: The legendary Swiss archer William Tell is said to have shot Hermann Gessler, the Austrian governor of Tyrol, on this day.

1837: In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot to death by a mob while trying to protect his printing shop.

1917: The Bolshevik-led Congress of Soviets comes to power in Russia.

1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected to a record fourth term as president of the United States. Learn more about the Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1989: In New York, former Manhattan borough president David Dinkins becomes the city's first African-American mayor.

1989: In Virginia, Lieutenant Governor Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African-American state governor in American history.

Born:

Leon Trotsky, Russian Marxist (1879)

Albert Camus, French Algerian novelist, essayist, and dramatist (1913)

Billy Graham, American evangelist (1918)

Joan Sutherland, Australian soprano (1926)

Thats cool bill! You have a site where ya get those daily?

That is amazing to see how 'far' we have come...

The first African American governor in 89...wow.

Yeah, I was thinking it would be cool to post it on a daily basis in the History forum.

http://encarta.msn.com/features/onThisDay.asp