MIKE GRACIA

Communist East Germany opened its borders, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany on this day in 1989.

On this day in 1965, the great Northeast blackout occurred as
several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power
failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.

   
TIM MAGUIRE

John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson won the election 
on this day in 1960, defeating incumbent Vice President and  
Republican nominee Richard Nixon, who would later go on
to be the 37th President of the United States. This was the
first election in which all fifty states participated, and the
last in which the District of Columbia did not.

Newley elected President John F. Kennedy meets
with Richard M. Nixon following the election.

On this day in 1966, Ronald Reagan was elected to his first term as Governor of California with 57.65% of the vote. He left office in 1975, declining to run for a third term.

On this day in 1940, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) was
reelected president of the United States for a record third time, 
handily defeating his Republican challenger, Thomas Dewey
(right), the governor of New York. 
    
     
     
      
     
      
 

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 2000, America’s Presidential vote faced limbo. There
was no winner named until more than a month later.

A Florida election official tries to figure out a voter’s intentions.

Also on this day in 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton made history when
she became the first president’s wife to win public office. The state
of New York elected her to the U.S. Senate. (New York).

Hillary Rodham Clinton is sworn in as a United States Senator by
Vice President Al Gore in the Old Senate Chamber, as President
Clinton and daughter Chelsea look on, January 3, 2001.

The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington
state collapsed during a windstorm on this day in 1940. The third
longest suspension span in the world opened to traffic on July 1,
1940.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge as it looks today.