Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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20081776 Club

Obama wins the presidency; the Illinois senator is the first African American elected to the office

Joe Biden takes the vice presidency over Sarah Palin as John McCain loses the race to succeed George W. Bush.

With George W. Bush barred by the Twenty-second Amendment from seeking a third term, Americans voted on November 4, 2008. Barack Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain of Arizona, taking 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173, with 270 needed to win. Joe Biden won the vice presidency over McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, and Obama became the first African American elected president of the United States…

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More from November 4
1924

Wyoming elects Nellie Tayloe Ross governor; the widow who said no never campaigned

A month after her husband's death, voters give her 55 percent of the ballots against Republican E. J. Sullivan.
1962

Tightrope flies from Johnston Island, and Operation Fishbowl is finished

A low-yield device on an XM-33 Strypi rocket ends the Atomic Energy Commission's high-altitude test series in the Pacific.
1979

Students storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran and seize hostages; they want the Shah sent home

Hundreds of students blindfold Marines and embassy staff and march them before photographers, with Washington's decision to shelter the exiled Shah as their stated grievance.
19391776 Club
The old embargo is repealed, but buyers must pay on the spot and haul the goods away themselves, and the Customs Service is ordered to enforce it.
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2011

Atlantis clears the tower; the shuttle program's last mission is airborne

Ferguson, Hurley, Magnus and Walheim lift off from Complex 39A at 11:29 a.m., hauling 9,400 pounds of supplies to the space station.
2001

Atlantis lifts off with Quest airlock; station finally has its own door to open space

Astronauts Gernhardt and Reilly will bolt the 6.5-ton steel-and-aluminum chamber into place across three spacewalks, giving the station a hatch usable by both American and Russian suits.
1995

Discovery lifts off at last; woodpecker damage and a mid-count signal flag had held it back

Six hours after launch, the crew deploys TDRS-G, the last first-generation tracking satellite, raised toward geostationary orbit by the Inertial Upper Stage.
2013

Cassini turns its camera toward Earth; Saturn's shadow makes it possible

Imaging leader Carolyn Porco positioned the spacecraft to catch the sun eclipsed by Saturn, putting Earth in the frame 1.44 billion kilometers away, and millions look up and wave.
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