Today in History - Nov. 3

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 3, the 307th day of 2009. There are 58 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 3, 1900, the first major U.S. automobile show opened at New York's Madison Square Garden under the auspices of the Automobile Club of America.

On this date:

In 1839, the first Opium War between China and Britain broke out.

In 1852, Japan's Emperor Meiji was born in Kyoto.

In 1909, American journalist James Reston was born in Clydebank, Scotland.

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide election victory over Republican challenger Alfred M. "Alf" Landon.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, the second manmade satellite, into orbit; on board was a dog named "Laika" who was sacrificed in the experiment.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson soundly defeated Republican Barry Goldwater to win a White House term in his own right.

In 1970, Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile.

In 1979, five Communist Workers Party members were killed in a clash with heavily armed Ku Klux Klansmen and neo-Nazis during an anti-Klan protest in Greensboro, N.C.

In 1986, the Iran-Contra affair began to come to light as Ash-Shiraa, a pro-Syrian Lebanese magazine, first broke the story of U.S. arms sales to Iran.

In 1994, Susan Smith of Union, S.C., was arrested for drowning her two young sons, Michael and Alex, nine days after claiming the children had been abducted by a black carjacker.

Ten years ago: Aaron McKinney was convicted of murder in the fatal beating of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. (McKinney and Russell Henderson, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder, are serving life prison sentences.)

Five years ago: President George W. Bush claimed a re-election mandate a day after a record 59 million Americans chose him over Democrat John Kerry; Kerry conceded defeat in make-or-break Ohio rather than launch a legal fight reminiscent of the contentious Florida recount of four years earlier. Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election after a three-week probe into vote fraud found no grounds to invalidate his triumph. Sgt. Charles Jenkins, who'd spent nearly 40 years in North Korea, pleaded guilty to deserting the U.S. Army in 1965. (He served 25 days in jail and was discharged.)