Today in History: November 7, Twitter was taken public

Today in History

Today is Monday, Nov. 7, the 311th day of 2022. There are 54 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 7, 2013, shares of Twitter went on sale to the public for the first time; by the closing bell, the social network was valued at $31 billion. (The company would go private again in October 2022 after Elon Musk purchased the social media platform for $44 billion.)

On this date:

In 1917, Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

In 1940, Washington state’s original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed “Galloping Gertie,” collapsed into Puget Sound during a windstorm just four months after opening to traffic.

In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Republican Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon was reelected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.

In 1973, Congress overrode President Richard Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive’s power to wage war without congressional approval.

In 1989, L. Douglas Wilder won the governor’s race in Virginia, becoming the first elected Black governor in U.S. history; David N. Dinkins was elected New York City’s first Black mayor.

In 1991, basketball star Magic Johnson announced that he had tested positive for HIV, and was retiring. (Johnson would go on to play again, in the NBA and the Olympics.)

In 2001, the Bush administration targeted Osama bin Laden’s multi-million-dollar financial networks, closing businesses in four states, detaining U.S. suspects and urging allies to help choke off money supplies in 40 nations.

In 2011, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, of involuntary manslaughter for supplying a powerful anesthetic implicated in the entertainer’s 2009 death. (Murray was sentenced to four years in prison; he served two years and was released in October 2013.)

In 2015, the leaders of China and Taiwan met for the first time since the formerly bitter Cold War foes split amid civil war 66 years earlier; Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou hailed the meeting in Singapore as a sign of a new stability in relations.

In 2018, a gunman killed 12 people at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks, California, before apparently taking his own life as officers closed in; the victims included a man who had survived the mass shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden clinched victory over President Donald Trump as a win in Pennsylvania pushed Biden over the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes; the victory followed more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in ballots. Trump refused to concede, threatening further legal action on ballot counting. Chanting “This isn’t over!” and “Stop the steal,” Trump supporters protested at state capitols across the country, echoing Trump’s baseless allegations that the Democrats won by fraud.

Ten years ago: One day after a bruising election, President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur) both pledged to seek a compromise to avert looming spending cuts and tax increases that threatened to plunge the economy back into recession. A 7.4-magnitude earthquake killed at least 52 people in western Guatemala.

Five years ago: Democrats Ralph Northam in Virginia and Phil Murphy in New Jersey were the winners in their states’ gubernatorial elections. President Donald Trump arrived in South Korea, saying efforts to curb the North’s nuclear weapons program would be “front and center” of his two-day visit. Former star baseball pitcher Roy Halladay died when the small private plane he was flying crashed into the Gulf of Mexico; the 40-year-old was an eight-time All-Star for the Blue Jays and Phillies. Twitter said it was ending its 140-character limit on tweets and allowing nearly everyone 280 characters to get their message across.

One year ago: Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi survived an attack by armed drones on his residence in Baghdad; officials said seven of his security guards were wounded. Dean Stockwell, a former child actor who gained new success in middle age in the sci-fi series “Quantum Leap,” died at 85. Eighty-three-year-old M.J. “Sunny” Eberhart of Alabama strode into the record books as the oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail. John Artis, who was wrongly convicted with boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter in a triple murder case made famous in a song by Bob Dylan and a film, died at his Virginia home at age 75.

Today’s Birthdays: Former U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota is 92. Actor Barry Newman is 84. Actor Dakin Matthews is 82. Singer Johnny Rivers is 80. Former supermodel Jean Shrimpton is 80. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 79. Former CIA Director David Petraeus is 70. Jazz singer Rene Marie is 67. Actor Christopher Knight (TV: “The Brady Bunch”) is 65. Rock musician Tommy Thayer (KISS) is 62. Actor Julie Pinson is 55. Rock musician Greg Tribbett (Mudvayne) is 54. Actor Michelle Clunie is 53. Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is 52. Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is 50. Actors Jeremy and Jason London are 50. Actor Yunjin Kim is 49. Actor Adam DeVine is 39. Rock musician Zach Myers (Shinedown) is 39. Actor Lucas Neff is 37. Rapper Tinie (TY’-nee) Tempah is 34. Rock singer Lorde is 26.

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