Today is Thursday, Nov. 6, the 311th day of 2008. There are 55 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, Nov. 6, the 311th day of 2008. There are 55 days left in the year. On this date in 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeats three other candidates for the presidency: John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.

In 1888, Benjamin Harrison wins the presidential election, defeating incumbent Grover Cleveland with enough electoral votes, even though Cleveland led in the popular vote. In 1893, composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky dies in St. Petersburg, Russia, at age 53. In 1900, President McKinley is re-elected, beating Democrat William Jennings Bryan. In 1906, Republican Charles Evans Hughes is elected governor of New York, defeating newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. In 1928, in a first, the results of Herbert Hoover’s election victory over Democrat Alfred E. Smith are flashed onto an electric wraparound sign on the New York Times building. In 1944, British official Lord Moyne is assassinated in Cairo, Egypt, by members of the Zionist Stern gang. In 1956, President Eisenhower wins re-election, defeating Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson. In 1976, Benjamin L. Hooks is chosen to be the new executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, succeeding Roy Wilkins. In 1977, 39 people are killed when an earthen dam bursts, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls College in Georgia.

November 6, 1983: Only two World War I veterans of more than two dozen who formed a “bottle club” after they returned home to Youngstown survive. Either Leon J. Linberger, 90, or Anthony J. Shaefer, 86, will get to open the bottle of champagne that the group bought almost seven decades earlier.

Dr. Leonard P. Caccamo is retiring as director of medical education at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

The Most Rev. James W. Malone, 63, bishop of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese, is one of 10 men nominated to be president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

November 6, 1968: Veteran Youngstown Congressman Michael J. Kirwan wins his 17th term in office, making him the seventh ranking representative by length of service. Following his victory, Kirwan announces that it would be his last; he’ll retire in 1970.

Atty. Vincent Gilmartin, a Democrat, unseats incumbent Frank Anzellotti for Mahoning County prosecutor.

James E. O’Brien, director of Mahoning County Welfare Department since 1965, resigns and will return to Pittsburgh as director of the Brashear Association, a neighborhood program.

November 6, 1958: Mahoning County voters renew a 1 mill levy for welfare assistance by a vote of 59,079 to 39,011. Passage assures the county of having enough money to meet welfare demands for the rest of the year.

David Savasten 17, of 708 Cohasset Drive, Youngstown, wins an $800 scholarship from the Ford Motor Co. for a story he wrote about a visit to the company’s wind tunnel that appeared in the Vindicator.

Democratic Sen.-elect Stephen M. Young credits former President Harry S. Truman, who campaigned in Ohio, with boosting Young to victory over incumbent Republican John W. Bricker.

November 6, 1933: About 600 coal miners who have been off the job for five weeks return to work at the Sharon Coal & Limestone Co. near Sharon in Mercer County.

A stiff east wind has pushed the waters of the Niagara River back into Lake Erie leaving very little water to flow over Niagara Falls. The Niagara Gorge is 20 feet below normal.

George Rhodes, 68, a caretaker at Hope Cemetery in Salem, is struck and killed by two cars outside the cemetery. The second car, which ran over him, left the scene.