WEDNESDAY, Nov. 4, 2026

1576-Eighty Years' War: In Flanders, the Spanish defeat the Walloons and capture Antwerp

1841-The first wagon train arrives in California after a five-and-a-half-month, 1,730-mile journey over the Sierra Nevada from Missouri

1845-First nationally observed uniform election day in the United States, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November

1862-American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling patents the hand-cranked Gatling machine gun in Indianapolis

1879-African American inventor Thomas Elkins patents the Refrigerating Apparatus

1922-Howard Carter discovers the intact tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in Egypt

2008-Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate John ㄷrecCain