Today in History the following were elected President of the United States: 1844 James K. Polk; 1872 Ulysses S. Grant is elected to a second term; 1912 Woodrow Wilson; 1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to serve a record third term; 1968 Richard Nixon; and in 1996 Bill Clinton is elected to serve a second term.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

November 5 is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 56 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

1138 - Ly Anh Tong becomes Emperor of Vietnam at the age of two years, starting a 37-year reign.

1530 - The St. Felix's Flood destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands.

1605 – The Gunpowder Plot to blow up the English Parliament fails. Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators are arrested, ending the plot led by Robert Catesby.

1688 – Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Brixham. James II of England is prevented from meeting him in battle because many of his officers and men desert to the other side.

1743 - Coordinated scientific observations of the planet Mercury are organised by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle.

1757 - Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Rossbach.

1811 - Priest José Matías Delgado begins El Salvador's 1811 independence campaign.

1831 - Nat Turner, American slave rebellion leader, is tried, convicted and sentenced to death in Virginia.

1838 - The Federal Republic of Central America begins to dissolve when Nicaragua breaks away.

1844 - James K. Polk is elected President of the United States.

1854 - Crimean War: The Battle of Inkerman takes place.

1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln removes George B. McClellan as commander of the Union army for the second, and final, time.

1872 – Susan B. Anthony defies the ban on female suffrage (voting), by voting in the United States Presidential election; In the election, Ulysses S. Grant is elected to a second term.

1895 - George B. Selden is granted the first US patent for an automobile.

1911 - After declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29, Italy takes control of Tripoli and Cyrenaica in present-day Libya.

1912 – Woodrow Wilson is elected President of the United States. William Taft, in finishing third (behind Theodore Roosevelt running for the Progressive Party), scores the worst-ever result of a US President seeking re-election.

1913 - Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, the Prince-Regent, who becomes Ludwig III of Bavaria.

1914 - World War I: France and the British Empire declare war on the Ottoman Empire.

1916 – The Kingdom of Poland is proclaimed.

1917 – The provisional government of Estonia is overthrown, in the run-up to the October Revolution in Russia, which is so named because of the Julian Calendar in use in Russia at the time.

1940 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to serve a record third term as President of the United States.

1942 – World War II: The United Kingdom wins the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt.

1943 - World War II: Bombing of the Vatican.

1945 – Colombia joins the UN.

1967 – A train crash at Hither Green, in Southeast London, kills 49 people.

1968 – Richard Nixon is elected President of the United States, over Hubert H. Humphrey.

1970 - Vietnam War: The US Military Assistance command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years, at 24.

1982 - The Itaipu Dam is opened on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. São Paulo is among the places that it supplies electricity to.

1987 – Anti-Apartheid activist Govan Mbeki is released after 24 years in prison.

1990 – Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after giving a speech in a New York City hotel.

1994 – President Ronald Reagan announces that he has Alzheimer's disease in order to raise public awareness of the disease.

1994 - George Foreman wins the Heavyweight World Boxing Title, 20 years after his win in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.

1995 - André Dallaire attempts to kill Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien.

1996 – Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari dismisses Benazir Bhutto's government, and dissolves Pakistan's National Assembly.

1996 – Flooding is caused in thinly-inhabited parts of Iceland, after the volcano under the Grimsvotn ice cap erupts.

1996 – Bill Clinton is elected to serve a second term as President of the United States, defeating Senator Bob Dole.

2003 - Green River Killer Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of murder.

2006 – Saddam Hussein is found guilty of crimes against humanity. He is sentenced to death.

2007 - China's first lunar satellite, Chang'e 1, goes into orbit around the Moon.

2009 – United States Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan goes on a shooting rampage, killing 13, and wounding 30 people at Fort Hood, Texas. It is the worst mass shooting ever to take place at a US military base.

2013 - The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (Magalyaan) is successfully launched by the ISRO.

2013 - US Elections: Democrat Bill de Blasio is elected Mayor of New York City over Joseph Lhota; Democrat Terry McAuliffe is elected Governor of Virginia over Ken Cuccinelli; Republican Chris Christie is re-elected Governor of New Jersey over Barbara Buono.

2017 - Sutherland Springs church shooting: 26 people are killed in a shooting in at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

2017 - Paradise Papers: The Süddeutsche Zeitung publishes 13.4 million documents leaked from offshore firm Appleby, revealing business dealings (including controversial tax arrangements) of celebrities, politicians (and their close associates), major companies and business leaders. The documents are shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.