On this date in history:

In 1864, amid the U.S. Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as president. He was assassinated five months later.

In 1889, Montana was admitted to the union as the 41st state.

In 1895, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays.

In 1923, Adolf Hitler led a failed attempt to overthrow the German government in what has become known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler was quickly arrested and charged with treason.

In 1932, voters elected Franklin D. Roosevelt as the 32nd president of the United States, defeating incumbent President Herbert Hoover.

In 1933, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt set up the Civil Works Administration as an emergency Depression agency to provide jobs for the unemployed.

In 1942, as World War II raged on, more than 400,000 Allied soldiers invaded North Africa.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy won the U.S. presidential election, defeating Richard Nixon. Kennedy was the 35th president.

In 1965, the United Kingdom formally abolishes the death penalty as Royal Assent is given to the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965.

In 1973, the right ear of John Paul Getty III, who had been kidnapped four months earlier, was delivered, along with a ransom note, to a daily newspaper. The ransom was reluctantly paid, with Getty III found alive at a gas station in southern Italy.

In 1974, Ted Bundy attempted and failed to abduct 18-year-old Carol DaRonch in the parking lot of a Utah mall. Her testimony resulted in his conviction for kidnapping, landing him in jail until his escape in 1977. He later killed more than 30 people and was executed in 1989.

In 1985, a judge overturned Rubin Hurricane Carter's conviction for a 1966 triple killing in a Patterson, N.J., bar, freeing the former boxer after 19 years in prison.

In 1988, U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush was elected as the 41st president of the United States.

In 1994, in a stunning upset, Republican candidates swept the general election, regaining control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress. It marked the first time in 40 years the Republicans controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

In 2005, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin declared a state of emergency in a bid to quell the nation's worst rioting in decades.

In 2011, remains of U.S. soldiers were mishandled and body parts were lost at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, a scathing Washington report concluded. Three senior officials at the base were disciplined following an 18-month investigation.

In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded, smashed into the Philippines, causing death and destruction on island after island. The death toll rose into the thousands, with hundreds of people injured and missing and tens of thousands displaced. On Jan. 3, 2014, government officials said at least 6,166 people had been killed and 28,626 injured.

In 2016, voters elected businessman Republican Donald Trump to be president over Democrat Hillary Clinton. He became the first U.S. president with no prior military or government experience.

In 2018, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history to date, the Camp Fire, broke out in Northern California's Butte County. The blaze would go on to kill 85 people and cause more than $16 billion in damage.

In 2023, the European Space Agency released the first images from its Euclid space telescope, which was designed to observe deep space in the hopes of unlocking the mysteries of the universe.

Copyright 2024 by United Press International