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Today in history: November 6

Celebrity birthdays, highlights in history, plus more facts about this day
/ Source: The Associated Press

Today is Monday, Nov. 6, the 310th day of 2006. There are 55 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 6, 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates for the presidency.

On this date:

In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederacy.

In 1888, Benjamin Harrison won 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 died in St. Petersburg, Russia, at age 53.

In 1900, President McKinley was re-elected, beating Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

In 1906, Republican Charles Evans Hughes was 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 Alfred E. Smith were flashed onto an electric sign outside the New York Times building.

In 1944, British official Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo, Egypt, by members of the Zionist Stern gang.

In 1956, President Eisenhower won re-election, defeating Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson.

In 1976, Benjamin L. Hooks was chosen to be the new executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, succeeding Roy Wilkins.

In 1986, former Navy radioman John A. Walker Jr., the admitted head of a family spy ring, was sentenced in Baltimore to life imprisonment.

Ten years ago: A day after being re-elected, President Clinton threw a party on the White House lawn; that same day, he received resignations from the secretaries of state, defense, energy and commerce. A cyclone struck southeastern India, claiming an estimated 1,000 lives.

Five years ago: Billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg won New York City’s mayoral race, defeating Democrat Mark Green. The Federal Reserve slashed its federal funds rate, the key benchmark for overnight loans, by a half-point to 2 percent, its lowest level in 40 years. Baseball owners voted 28-2 to eliminate two major league teams by the 2002 season. Playwright Anthony Shaffer, who’d written the thriller “Sleuth,” died in London at age 75.

One year ago: An overnight tornado killed 25 people in southwestern Indiana. In a clear jab at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, President Bush, in Brazil, called on Latin Americans to boldly defend strong democratic institutions. French President Jacques Chirac promised arrests, trials and punishment in the wake of urban unrest that had spread to central Paris.

Today’s Birthdays: Director Mike Nichols is 75. Country singer Stonewall Jackson is 74. Singer Eugene Pitt (The Jive Five) is 69. Singer P.J. Proby is 68. Country singer Guy Clark is 65. Actress Sally Field is 60. Pop singer-musician Glenn Frey (The Eagles) is

58. Singer Rory Block is 57. Jazz musician Arturo Sandoval is 57. California’s first lady, broadcast journalist Maria Shriver, is 51. Actress Lori Singer is 49. Actor Lance Kerwin is 46. Rock musician Paul Brindley (The Sundays) is 43. Rock singer Corey Glover is 42. Actor Peter DeLuise is 40. Actress Kelly Rutherford is 38. Actor Ethan Hawke is 36. Actress Thandie Newton is 34. Model-actress Rebecca Romijn is 34. Actress Nicole Dubuc is 28. Actress Mercedes Kastner is 17.

Thought for Today: “Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church or robbing a bank, but never to being bores.” — Elsa Maxwell, American socialite (1883-1963).