Daily Calendar for November 4th, 2020

The Old Farmer's Almanac daily calendar gives you quick reference for the significant events on any day throughout the year.

Will Rogers Day

Will Rogers, a great American humorist, was born in what would become Oklahoma in 1879. Starting life on a large ranch in Indian territory, Rogers was part Cherokee. He was taught by a former slave how to use a lasso as a tool to work Texas longhorn cattle. He became a rope-tricking cowboy and all-around entertainer and his rope tricks eventually led to a career on Broadway and in the movies. Rogers later became a popular broadcaster and syndicated newspaper columnist. Rogers died in a plane crash in Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935. Will Rogers had a folksy persona and some of his best quotes are still timeless. Here's a few that you should enjoy: "I don't make jokes, I just watch the government and report the facts." "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." "We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by." "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

Every Year

• Will Rogers Day

1570s

• Born 1575: Guido Reni (artist)

1840s

• Born 1841: Benjamin F. Goodrich (manufacturer)

• 1842: Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd were married

• Died 1847: Felix Mendelssohn (composer)

1870s

• 1873: The Royal Montreal Golf Club (oldest golf club in North America) was founded

• 1877: An earthquake shook New York state, New England, and eastern Canada

• 1877: An earthquake rang bells in the Notre Dame basilica in Montreal

• Born 1879: Will Rogers (humorist)

• 1879: The first cash register was patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio

1880s

• 1884: Grover Cleveland elected president of the U.S.

1900s

• 1909: Sergei Rachmaninoff's first piano recital in the U.S., Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts

1910s

• Born 1916: Walter Cronkite (newscaster)

• Born 1918: Art Carney (actor)

1920s

• Born 1929: Doris Roberts (actress)

• Born 1929: Shakuntala Devi (computational genius)

1930s

• Born 1937: Loretta Swit (actress)

1940s

• Born 1946: Laura Bush (U.S. First Lady)

• 1948: T. S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize for literature

1950s

• Died 1950: Grover Cleveland Alexander (baseball player)

• 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president of the U.S.

• Died 1955: Cy Young (baseball player)

1960s

• Died 1961: Albert Franklin Yeager (horticulturist)

• Born 1961: Ralph Macchio (actor)

• Born 1962: Jeff Probst (host of Survivor)

• Born 1969: Matthew McConaughey (actor)

• Born 1969: Sean "Diddy" Combs (singer, record producer)

1980s

• 1980: Ronald Reagan elected president of U.S.

• Died 1982: Dominique Dunne (actress)

2000s

• 2003: The biggest ever solar flare, sunspot 486, saturated X-ray detectors onboard GOES satellites for 11 minutes. It was estimated to be an X40-class solar flare

• 2008: Senator Barack Obama was elected U.S. president. This marked the first time in U.S. history that an African American was elected to the position

• Died 2008: Michael Crichton (author)

2010s

• 2010: EPOXI spacecraft flew by comet Hartley 2

• Died 2011: Andy Rooney (news commentator)