Random News and Notes 3 November

It’s Election Day. GO F*CKING VOTE!

On this date:

• 1493 – Christopher Columbus arrives at the Caribbee Isles (Dominica) during his second expedition.
• 1507 – Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint Lisa Gherardini (“Mona Lisa”).
• 1529 – The first Parliament for five years opens in England and the Commons put forward bills against abuses amongst the clergy and in the church courts.
• 1794 – Thomas Paine is released from a Parisian jail with help from the American ambassador James Monroe. He was arrested for having offended the Robespierre faction.
• 1813 – American troops destroy the Indian village of Tallushatchee in the Mississippi Valley.
• 1868 – Ulysses S. Grant elected the 18th president of the United States.
• 1883 -The U.S. Supreme Court declares American Indians to be “dependent aliens.”
• 1883 – A poorly trained Egyptian army, led by British General William Hicks, marches toward El Obeid in the Sudan—straight into a Mahdist ambush and massacre.
• 1883 – Charles E. Boles, AKA Black Bart, Rob’s his last stage after he drops an incriminating clue that eventually sends him to prison—a handkerchief with a laundry mark.
• 1892 – First automatic telephone exchange goes into operation in La Porte, Indiana.
• 1896 – William McKinley is elected 25th president of the United States.
• 1903 – Panama, with the backing of the US Government, declares independence from Columbia.
• 1912 – The first all-metal plane flies near Issy, France, piloted by Ponche and Prinard.
• 1918 – The German fleet at Kiel mutinies. This is the first act leading to Germany’s capitulation in World War I.
• 1948 – The Chicago Tribune jumps the gun and mistakenly declares New York Governor Thomas Dewey the winner of the previous days’ presidential race against incumbent Harry S. Truman in a front-page headline: “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
• 1957 – The Soviet Union launches the first animal to orbit the earth into space—a dog nicknamed Laika—aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. She survives only a few hours before dying of panic and overheating.
• 1964 – Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the slain president John F. Kennedy, is elected as a senator from New York.
• 1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson is elected the 36th president of the United States.
• 1964 – For the first time, residents of Washington, D.C., are allowed to vote in the U.S. presidential election.
• 1967 – The Battle of Dak To begins in Vietnam’s Central Highlands; actually a series of engagements, the battle would continue through Nov. 22.
• 1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon, speaking on TV and radio, asks the “silent majority” of the American people to support his policies and the continuing war effort in Vietnam.
• 1973 – NASA launches Mariner 10, the first probe to reach Mercury.
• 1979 – Ku Klux Klansmen and neo-Nazis kill five and wound seven members of the Communist Workers Party during a “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro, NC; the incident becomes known as the Greensboro Massacre.
• 1982 – A truck explodes in the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan, killing an unknown number of people, including Soviet soldiers traveling to Kabul and Afghan civilians. Because the Soviet army limited the information released about the disaster, the full details of the tragedy may never be known.
• 1986 – The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports the U.S. has secretly been selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven American hostages being held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon, in what later became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.
• 1992 – Arkansas Governor Bill (William Jefferson) Clinton is elected 42nd president of the United States.
• 1992 – Dianne Feinstein, the former mayor of San Francisco, makes history when she wins election to the U.S. Senate. The first woman to represent the state of California in the upper chamber, she joins a record number of women winning seats in Congress that year, earning 1992 the label “Year of the Woman.”
• 1998 – Former professional wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura is elected governor of Minnesota with 37 percent of the vote.
• 2016 – The Chicago Cubs win their first World Series championship since 1908, beating the Cleveland Indians, 8-7, in a thrilling Game 7 delayed by rain. The win snaps the “Billy Goat Curse,” one of the more infamous sports curses, and baseball’s longest World Series title drought.

We start the news with a sad note. LTC Robert K Brown has passed. Brown served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1957 and again from 1964 to 1985. He was a Green Beret, served with Special Forces in Vietnam, and retired from the US Army as a lieutenant colonel. You may know him as the founder and original publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine.

Robert K Brown was 93.

Requiescat in pace.

There are a couple of election day notes to pass along. First, in Westchester county NY, there are issues with ballot tally machines. Apparently, the ballots are too thick for the machines to count. Yeah, I made the same face.

The Board of Elections in Westchester is holding on to any ballot that has been cast but not scanned so it can be counted when the issues are resolved.

Meanwhile, in Florida, historic flooding has forced the relocation of some polling places in Brevard county. Torrential rains dumped up to 30 inches near Palm Bay in Brevard County over 57 hours, shattering records and triggering rare Flash Flood Emergencies along Florida’s east coast. Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in seven counties, leading to at least 19 polling locations relocated for Tuesday’s election in areas like Brevard and Indian River.

Voters should check their local supervisor of elections or the state website, as polls stay open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Anyone in line when the polls close is allowed to vote.

Speaking of historic flooding, heavy rains pushed the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, to its second-highest level on record at 16.81 feet Sunday night, sweeping homes off foundations and causing over $38 million in damage. This followed another major flood just over a week earlier, with impacts spreading to Arizona, New Mexico, and beyond. The flooding caused at least one death in Arizona.

There have been widespread evacuations and road closures due to the trillions of gallons of rain that have fallen.

Four UH-60M Black Hawks from the 2-158th Assault Helicopter Battalion flew over for the Seahawks-Bears Monday Night Football game at Lumen Field in Seattle. The first three passed safely, but pyrotechnics near a video screen erupted just as the last one crossed, with videos showing the fireworks striking it. The helicopter flew on without visible damage.

The incident raised questions about coordination between flight crews and pyrotechnic teams. No official statements have confirmed details, though the formation completed its pass and departed safely.

Two helicopters collided while attempting to land near Mount Everest in Nepal’s Solukhumbu district on the morning of November 3, 2026. An Indian tourist was killed and several others, including a New Zealand passenger and both pilots, were injured in the incident at the Pheriche helipad.

One of the choppers (Fishtail Air) was carrying passengers/tourists. It had been operating in the area supporting trekkers. The other (Air Dynasty) was on a cargo flight.