Once Upon A Time – November 4 – 1879 – African American Inventor Thomas Elkins Patents The Refrigerating Apparatus

1576 – Eighty Years’ War: In Flanders, Spanish defeat Walloon and capture Antwerp

1841 – First wagon train arrives in California

1845 – First nationally observed uniform election day in the United States, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November

1862 – American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling patents the hand cranked Gatling machine gun in Indianapolis

1879 – African American inventor Thomas Elkins patents the Refrigerating Apparatus

1922 – Howard Carter discovers the intact tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun in Egypt

2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate John McCain

MORE HISTORICAL EVENTS

NOVEMBER 4 IN FILM & TV

2001 – “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” 1st film adaptation of the book series by J. K. Rowling starring Daniel Radcliffe, premieres in London (Titled “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in some markets)

NOVEMBER 4 IN MUSIC

1876 – Johannes Brahms’ 1st Symphony in C premieres in Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden

NOVEMBER 4 IN SPORT

1987 – NBA announces 4 new franchises; Charlotte & Miami for 1988 & Minneapolis & Orlando for 1989

1879 – James Ritty patents first cash register, to combat stealing by bartenders in his saloon in Dayton, Ohio

1963 – John Lennon utters his infamous line at a Royal Variety Performance “Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And for the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry…” in London

FAMOUS WEDDINGS

1773 – American seamstress Elizabeth Griscom (Betsy Ross) weds American upholster John Ross at Huggs Tavern in Gloucester City, New Jersey

1817 – German composer Carl Maria von Weber (30) weds opera singer Caroline Brandt

1842 – American socialite Mary Todd (23) weds Illinois Congressman and lawyer Abraham Lincoln (33) in Springfield, Illinois