Today is Wednesday, Nov. 7, the 311th day of 2018. There are 54 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 7, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Republican Thomas E. Dewey.

On this date:

In 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln replaced replace Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac with Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside.

In 1874, the Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly.

In 1916, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress, winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1917, Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

In 1940, Washington state’s original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed “Galloping Gertie,” collapsed into Puget Sound during a windstorm just four months after opening to traffic.

In 1962, Richard M. Nixon, having lost California’s gubernatorial race, held what he called his “last press conference,” telling reporters, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”

In 1967, Carl Stokes was elected the first black mayor of a major city — Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.

In 1973, Congress overrode President Richard Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive’s power to wage war without congressional approval.

In 1980, actor Steve McQueen died in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, at age 50.

In 1991, basketball star Magic Johnson announced that he had tested positive for HIV, and was retiring. (Despite his HIV status, Johnson has been able to sustain himself with medication.)

In 2001, the Bush administration targeted Osama bin Laden’s multi-million-dollar financial networks, closing businesses in four states, detaining U.S. suspects and urging allies to help choke off money supplies in 40 nations.

Ten years ago: In his first news conference since being elected president, Barack Obama called on Congress to extend unemployment benefits and pass a stimulus bill. The government reported the unemployment rate had soared to 6.5 percent in October 2008, up from 6.1 percent just a month earlier. General Motors Corp. reported a $2.5 billion loss in the third quarter while Ford Motor Co. said it had lost $129 million. A school in Haiti collapsed, killing some 90 people. Mieczyslaw Rakowski, Poland’s last communist-era party chairman and prime minister, died in Warsaw at age 81.

Five years ago: Seeking to calm a growing furor, President Barack Obama told NBC News he was “sorry” Americans were losing health insurance plans that he repeatedly had said they could keep under his health care law, but he stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place. The Food and Drug Administration announced it was requiring the food industry to phase out artery-clogging trans fats. Shares of Twitter went on sale to the public for the first time; by the closing bell, the social network was valued at $31 billion. A Russian spacecraft carrying the Olympic torch and three astronauts docked with the International Space Station ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

One year ago: Democrats Ralph Northam in Virginia and Phil Murphy in New Jersey were the winners in their states’ gubernatorial elections. Voters in Maine approved a measure allowing them to join 31 other states in expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. President Donald Trump arrived in South Korea, saying efforts to curb the North’s nuclear weapons program would be “front and center” of his two-day visit. Former star baseball pitcher Roy Halladay died when the small private plane he was flying crashed into the Gulf of Mexico; the 40-year-old was an eight-time All-Star for the Blue Jays and Phillies. Twitter said it was ending its 140-character limit on tweets, and allowing nearly everyone 280 characters to get their message across.

Today’s Birthdays: Former U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn., is 88. Actor Barry Newman is 80. Singer Johnny Rivers is 76. Former supermodel Jean Shrimpton is 76. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 75. Former CIA Director David Petraeus is 66. Jazz singer Rene Marie is 63. Actor Christopher Knight (TV: “The Brady Bunch”) is 61. Rock musician Tommy Thayer (KISS) is 58. Actress Julie Pinson is 51. Rock musician Greg Tribbett (Mudvayne) is 50. Actress Michelle Clunie is 49. Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is 46. Actors Jeremy and Jason London are 46. Actress Yunjin Kim is 45. Actor Adam DeVine is 35. Rock musician Zach Myers (Shinedown) is 35. Actor Lucas Neff is 33. Rapper Tinie (TY’-nee) Tempah is 30. Rock singer Lorde is 22.