It happened today – this day in history – November 7

1492: A meteorite strikes a wheat field near the village of Ensisheim in Alsace, France.

1800: It becomes illegal for women in Paris to wear trousers without a police permit.

1820: James Monroe is re-elected as president of the US.

1848: Gen Zachary Taylor is elected president of the US.

1867: Birth of scientist Marie Curie in Warsaw.

1872: Cargo ship Mary Celeste sails from Staten Island for Genoa. It is mysteriously found abandoned adrift four weeks later.

1879: Birth of Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Yelizavetgrad.

1893: Colorado accepts female suffrage.

1908: Outlaw Butch Cassidy (Robert Parker) is shot dead aged 42 by Bolivian soldiers.

1913: Birth of author Albert Camus in Algeria.

1914: The German colony of Kiaochow Bay and its centre at Tsingtao are captured by Japanese forces.

1916: Woodrow Wilson is re-elected president of the US.

1917: Lenin and the Bolsheviks seize power, capture the Winter Palace and overthrow the provisional government to proclaim the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. On the same day, the British capture Gaza, Palestine, from the Turks.

1918: Kurt Eisner overthrows the Wittelsbach dynasty in the Kingdom of Bavaria as a revolutionary uprising spreads throughout Germany.

1919: German MP Hugo Haase is murdered aged 56.

1921: Hungary passes a law invalidating the Habsburg line of succession to the throne.

1935: Lidj Jasu, emperor of Ethiopia, dies aged 39.

1936: The Battle of Madrid begins during the Spanish Civil War.

1940: Igor Stravinsky’s Symfonie in C premieres in Chicago.

1944: Franklin D Roosevelt is re-elected President of the United States for a record fourth term.

1949: King Faruk disbands the Egyptian parliament.

1951: Frank Sinatra marries his second wife, actress Ava Gardner.

1963: Singles chart:

1. You’ll Never Walk Alone – Gerry and The Pacemakers
2. She Loves You – The Beatles
3. Blue Bayou – Roy Orbison
4. Sugar And Spice – The Searchers
5. Do You Love Me? – Brian Poole and The Tremeloes
6. Be My Baby – The Ronettes
7. Let It Rock – Chuck Berry
8. I (Who Have Nothing) – Shirley Bassey
9. Then He Kissed Me – The Crystals
10. If I Had A Hammer – Trini Lopez

1965: Album chart:

1. The Sound Of Music – Original Soundtrack
2. Out Of Our Heads – The Rolling Stones
3. Help! – The Beatles
4. Mary Poppins – Original Soundtrack
5. Almost There – Andy Williams
6. Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan
7. Mann Made – Manfred Mann
8. Ev’rything’s Coming Up Dusty – Dusty Springfield
9. Look At Us – Sonny And Cher
10. Hollies – The Hollies

1967: At EMI Studios in Abbey Road, The Beatles finish recording the George Harrison song Blue Jay Way.

1968: Police open fire on students in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, demanding the restoration of democracy and guarantees of freedom, killing three.

TV from tonight (Thursday)

1972: Richard Nixon wins an overwhelming victory in the US presidential elections for a second term in the White House.

1974: Sandra Rivett, the English nanny to John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, is allegedly bludgeoned to death by Lord Lucan, who disappears, never to be conclusively seen again.

1975: Dr Tiede Herrema, a Dutch industrialist kidnapped by the IRA more than a month before, is freed.

1980: Actor Steve McQueen dies aged 50.

1989: East German leader Egon Krenz prepares to choose a new government after mass resignations of Communist ministers amid pro-democracy protests.

1990: Mary Robinson becomes the first female president of Ireland.

1991: NBA legend Magic Johnson announces he has the HIV virus and retires from the LA Lakers. On the same day, Guitarist Izzy Stradlin quits Guns n Roses.

2000: Hilary Clinton becomes the only First Lady to win elective office in US history when she becomes a senator for New York. On the same day, the presidential election between George W Bush and Al Gore is inconclusive with the Supreme Court eventually resolving the issue in Bush’s favour.

2001: Concorde resumes flying after a 15-month hiatus.

2004: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day “state of emergency” as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

2011: Boxer Joe Frazier dies of liver cancer aged 67.

2012: A woman dies, and 19 others are injured, after scaffolding collapses outside a Linkin Park concert in Cape Town, South Africa.

2014: AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd, has a charge of attempting to arrange a murder dropped in New Zealand, but still faces charges of drugs possession and making threats to kill which prevent him from taking part in the band’s upcoming world tour.

2016: Singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen died at the age of 82 at his home in Los Angeles.

2017: Opera soprano Audrey Luna sings the highest-ever note at the Met Opera in New York, A above high C.

2018: US president Donald Trump fires Attorney General Jeff Sessions and appoints Matthew Whitaker in his place. On the same day, actress Emma Thompson is made a Dame of the British Empire by Prince William at Buckingham Palace.

BIRTHDAYS: Jean Shrimpton, model, 78; Joni Mitchell (Roberta Anderson), singer-songwriter, 77; Luigi Riva, Italian football legend, 76; Lucinda Green, equestrian/journalist, 67; John “Jellybean” Benitez, producer, 63; John Barnes, footballer, 57; Clint Mansell, guitarist, (Pop Will Eat Itself) 57; David Guetta, DJ, 53; Sharleen Spiteri, singer, songwriter (Texas) 53; Neil Hannon, singer-songwriter (Divine Comedy) 50; Rio Ferdinand, football pundit, 42; Tinie Tempah (Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu), rapper, 32; David De Gea, goalkeeper, 30; Lorde (Ella Yelich-O’Connor), singer-songwriter, 24.