Today’s highlights

On Nov. 6, 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party was elected President of the United States as he defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.

On this date

1861: James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was born in Almonte, Ontario, Canada.

1888: Republican presidential candidate Benjamin Harrison won the electoral vote over incumbent Democrat Grover Cleveland, despite Cleveland gaining 90,000 more total votes; it would be the last time the popular vote winner would lose the election until 2000.

In 1947, “Meet the Press,” the longest-running television show in America, made its debut on NBC; the host was the show’s co-creator, Martha Rountree.

1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower won reelection, defeating Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson II for the second time.

1977: 39 people were killed when the Kelly Barnes Dam in Georgia burst, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls College.

1984: President Ronald Reagan easily won reelection over former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic challenger who won just one state.

2012: President Barack Obama won reelection, vanquishing Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Sally Field is 78. Jazz musician Arturo Sandoval is 75. Author Michael Cunningham is 72. Journalist-author Maria Shriver is 69. Author Colson Whitehead is 55. Actor Ethan Hawke is 54. Actor Emma Stone is 36.