Moments in Time: Bandit Black Bart
The History Channel
On Nov. 3, 1883, California bandit and stagecoach robber Black Bart, born Charles E. Boles and famous for his daring as well as his habit of occasionally leaving short poems at the scenes of his crimes, held up his last stagecoach. While he initially made a quick getaway, he was done in by the handkerchief with a laundry mark he'd inadvertently dropped and spent four years in San Quentin prison.
On Nov. 4, 1928, Arnold Rothstein, a legendary New York gambler with a fortune estimated at about $50 million, was shot during a poker game at Manhattan's Park Central Hotel. He died in the hospital two days later without revealing the name of his assassin, though the fellow gambler who'd invited him to the game was tried for the crime, and acquitted.
On Nov. 5, 2024, former President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in office, becoming the first president to serve nonconsecutive terms since 1892.
On Nov. 6, 1977, the Toccoa Falls Dam in Georgia collapsed just hours after a volunteer fireman inspected it and found everything in order, with 39 people dying in the resulting flood.
On Nov. 7, 1943, Roberta Joan Anderson, now known to the world as Joni Mitchell and dubbed the greatest female guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, was born in Fort MacLEOd, Alberta, Canada. She cemented her status in the music world as a composer rather than performer, with David Geffen of Geffen Records noting in 1994 that, "Even though we lost money on every one of her records, we always treated Joni as one of the most important artists in the world."
On Nov. 8, 1970, Tom Dempsey, a professional football kicker, though he was born with no toes on his right foot, launched a 63-yard field goal in his custom shoe and set a new NFL record, beating the previous record by seven yards.
On Nov. 9, 1956, French philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre, a long-time admirer of the Soviet Union, denounced both the USSR and its communist system following the Soviet invasion of Hungary.
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