This Day in History: Nov. 4

On this day, Nov. 4 …

1980: Republican Ronald Reagan wins the White House as he defeats President Jimmy Carter.

Also on this day:

• 1862: Inventor Richard J. Gatling receives a U.S. patent for his rapid-fire Gatling gun.
• 1922: The entrance to King Tutankhamen’s tomb is discovered in Egypt.
• 1955: Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young dies in Newcomerstown, Ohio, at age 88.
• 1956: Soviet troops move in to crush the Hungarian Revolution.

• 1979: The Iran hostage crisis begins as militants storm the United States Embassy in Tehran, seizing its occupants; for some of them, it would be the start of 444 days of captivity.

Former Presidents, from left, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon in the courtyard during the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Nov. 4, 1991. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander)

• 1991: Ronald Reagan opens his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif.; President George H.W. Bush and former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford and Richard Nixon all attend — the first-ever gathering of five past and present U.S. chief executives.
• 1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by a right-wing Israeli minutes after attending a festive peace rally.
• 2001: Hurricane Michelle roars across Cuba, forcing the government to shut down power for much of the communist island and evacuate 750,000 people. 
• 2001: The Arizona Diamondbacks win their first World Series by beating the New York Yankees 3-2 in Game 7.
• 2007: King Tutankhamen’s face is unveiled for the first time to the public more than 3,000 years after the pharaoh was buried in his Egyptian tomb.

• 2008: Democrat Barack Obama is elected the first Black president of the United States, defeating Republican John McCain. 
• 2008: California voters approve Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage, overturning a state Supreme Court decision that gave gay couples the right to wed just months earlier.