On Oct. 31, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation making Nevada the 36th state, eight days before the presidential election.

In 1913, the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile highway across the United States, was dedicated.

In 1941, work was completed on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, begun in 1927.

In 1950, Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols became the first African American to play in an NBA game. Lloyd would go on to play for nine seasons, winning an NBA championship in 1955 with the Syracuse Nationals.

In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990, bound from New York to Cairo, crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.

In 2011, the United Nations estimated that world population had reached seven billion people.