Associated Press

On Nov. 12, 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., and gave the green light to traffic.

In 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began.

In 1975, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas retired, ending a record 36-year term.

In 2018, Stan Lee, the Marvel Comics writer and publisher who revolutionized the comic book and developed characters for Hollywood, died at age 95.

In 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency rejected President Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud, saying that the election was “the most secure in American history.”