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Today in History 11/07 (Magic Johnson)

Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers circa 1991 (© Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)(1991) NBA star Magic Johnson announces he’s HIV-positive
The gifted and popular Lakers basketball star stuns the world when he reveals he’s HIV-positive and that he’s retiring immediately from the sport. The 32-year-old promises to use his celebrity to raise AIDS awareness, and Johnson will go on to do precisely that.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr. is an American retired professional basketball player and current president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. He played point guard for the Lakers for 13 seasons. After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.
Born: Aug 14, 1959 (age 59) · Lansing, MI
Height: 6′ 9″
Net worth: $600 million USD (2016)
Spouse: Cookie Johnson (m. 1991)
Children: Andre Johnson (Son) · Earvin Johnson III (Son) · Elisa Johnson (Daughter)
Education: Michigan State University (1977 – 1979) · Everett High School
Highlights
  • 1984: In the 1984–85 regular season, Johnson averaged 18.3 points, 12.6 assists, and 6.2 rebounds per game and led the Lakers into the 1985 NBA Finals, where they faced the Celtics again.

  • 1985: Johnson again averaged a double-double in the 1985–86 NBA season, with 18.8 points, 12.6 assists, and 5.9 rebounds per game.

  • 1988: In the 1988–89 NBA season, Johnson’s 22.5 points, 12.8 assists, and 7.9 rebounds per game earned him his second MVP award, and the Lakers reached the 1989 NBA Finals, in which they again faced the Pistons.

  • 1990: Mike Dunleavy became the Lakers’ head coach in 1990–91, when Johnson had grown to be the league’s third-oldest point guard.

  • 1991: In 1991, Johnson married Earlitha “Cookie” Kelly in a small wedding in Lansing which included guests Thomas, Aguirre, and Herb Williams.

  • 2006: In 2006, ESPN.com rated Johnson the greatest point guard of all time, stating, “It could be argued that he’s the one player in NBA history who was better than Michael Jordan.”

Magic Johnson (with Nancy Pelosi)
In 2003, Johnson met with Nancy Pelosi to discuss federal assistance for those with AIDS.
wiki/Magic_Johnson
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(1991) NBA star Magic Johnson announces he’s HIV-positive.
Also on this day,

1492 | A fireball ‘omen’ falls from the sky as Meteorite strikes Earth
A boy just outside the walled village of Ensisheim, in what will one day be Alsace, France, witnesses a huge fireball fall from the sky and plunge a metre deep into a field. Locals, who view the meteorite as a good omen, will chisel pieces of the heavenly stone for themselves until a local official orders them to stop.
1917 | Lenin seizes power in Russia during ‘October Revolution’
Vladimir Lenin and Bolshevik forces begin to seize power of the Russian state with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on October 25—according to their Julian calendar. Soon after, they will adopt the Gregorian calendar, and the anniversary of the ‘October Revolution’ will be marked in November. The revolution will lead to the creation of the Soviet state, which will remain in power for more than 70 years.
1944 | FDR wins an unprecedented fourth term as US president
Democratic incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats GOP candidate Thomas Dewey and becomes the only president in history to win four terms. Roosevelt had concealed his failing health during the campaign. He will die three months after he’s sworn into office.

Today in History 11/07/17

President Franklin Roosevelt, circa 1944 (© Harold M. Lambert/Lambert/Getty Images)(1944) FDR wins an unprecedented fourth term as US president
Democratic incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats GOP candidate Thomas Dewey and becomes the only president in history to win four terms. Roosevelt had concealed his failing health during the campaign. He will die three months after he's sworn into office.
The United States presidential election of 1944 was the 40th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1944. Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic nominee, sought his fourth term in office; he defeated Republican Thomas E. Dewey in the general election.
Election year: Nov 07, 1944

Electoral College 1944
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes those won by Roosevelt/Truman, red denotes states won by Dewey/Bricker. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1944
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Today in History 10/12 (Christopher Columbus)

Engraving from 1876 depicting Christopher Columbus approaching San Salvador in 1492 (© Universal History Archive/Getty Images)(1492) Columbus, having sailed the ocean blue, arrives in North America
Rodrigo de Triana shouts from his lookout atop his ship the ‘Pinta’ that he’s spotted land after five weeks of an open-ocean crossing. The Italian leader of this Spanish-funded voyage, Christopher Columbus, will name the area of their first North American landfall ‘San Salvador.’
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. He led the first European expeditions to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, initiating the permanent European colonization of the Americas.
Lived: Oct 31, 1451 – May 20, 1506 (age 54)
Height: 6′ 0″
Spouse: Filipa Moniz Perestrelo (m. 1479)
Partner: Beatriz Enríquez de Arana (1487 – 1506)
Children: Ferdinand Columbus (Son) · Diego Columbus (Son)
Buried: Seville Cathedral
Highlights
  • 1479: Christopher Columbus married Filipa Moniz Perestrelo in 1479.

  • 1492: During his first voyage in 1492, the brisk trade winds from the east, commonly called “easterlies”, propelled Columbus’s fleet for five weeks, from the Canary Islands to The Bahamas.

  • 1493: On 13 January 1493, Columbus made his last stop of this voyage in the New World, in the Bay of Rincón at the eastern end of the Samaná Peninsula in northeast Hispaniola.

  • 1500: Columbus’s strained relationship with the Spanish crown and its appointed colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and removal from Hispaniola in 1500, and later to protracted litigation over the benefits that he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown.

  • 1502: Accompanied by his brother Bartolomeo and his 13-year-old son Fernando, he left Cádiz on 11 May 1502, with his flagship Santa María and the vessels Gallega, Vizcaína, and Santiago de Palos.

  • 1506: On 20 May 1506, aged probably 54, Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain.

Christopher Colombus map. Lisbon, workshop of Bartolomeo and Christopher Colombus, c.1490
“Columbus map”, drawn c. 1490 in the Lisbon workshop of Bartolomeo and Christopher Columbus
wiki/Christopher_Columbus
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(1492) Columbus, having sailed the ocean blue, arrives in North America.
Also on this day,

1810 | 1st Oktoberfest as wedding party in Munich launches a Bavarian beer fest
Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen throw a wedding party, and all of Munich, Germany is invited. The party is a hit, and festivities will be repeated a year later, starting an annual tradition of suds, song, and sauerkraut called Oktoberfest.
1979 | ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’ answers the ultimate question…
Douglas Adams’ novel based on his radio show spoofs the sci-fi genre with a humorous, surreal travelogue. Adams will publish four more books in the ‘increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Trilogy.’ The franchise will also include stage shows , comic books, a TV series, computer game, and movie.
2000 | Terrorists attack an American navy ship, USS Cole, docked in Yemen
Upwards of 700 pounds of explosives blast a 40-by-60-foot hole into the port side of the USS Cole as it’s docked in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors will die and 40 are wounded in the bombing of the US Navy vessel, and authorities will suspect the terrorist group al-Qaeda is behind the attack.

Today in History 10/12/17

Experts examine the USS Cole on October 13, 2000, after a powerful explosion ripped a hole in the US Navy destroyer (© Dimitri Messinis/AP)(2000) Terrorists attack an American navy ship docked in Yemen
Upwards of 700 pounds of explosives blast a 40-by-60-foot hole into the port side of the USS Cole as it's docked in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors will die and 40 are wounded in the bombing of the US Navy vessel, and authorities will suspect the terrorist group al-Qaeda is behind the attack.
The USS Cole bombing was a terrorist attack against the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole on 12 October 2000, while it was being refueled in Yemen's Aden harbor. Seventeen American sailors were killed and 39 injured in the deadliest attack against a United States naval vessel since 1987.
Date: Oct 12, 2000
USS Cole after attack
USS Cole after the attack

wiki/USS_Cole_bombing
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