On this date in history:

In 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States.

In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

In 1869, in the first formal intercollegiate football game, Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4.

In 1921, the cult of Rudolph Valentino was launched with the release of his silent film The Sheik, which despite negative reviews immediately caught the attention of women across the United States.

In 1928, Republican Herbert Hoover was elected 31st president of the United States, defeating Democrat Al Smith.

In 1956, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was re-elected by a wide margin.

In 1965, a formal agreement between the United States and Cuba allows Cubans who want to leave the island nation for America to do so. More than 250,000 Cubans had taken advantage of this opportunity by 1971.

In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term, winning 49 states.

In 1985, members of the 19th of April Movement took over the Palace of Justice in Bogota, Colombia. The leftist guerrillas would kill more than 100 people (11 of whom where Supreme Court Justices) by the time the siege ended.

In 2009, the U.S. unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate in 26 years.

In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term. Federal finance reports showed campaign expenditures broke the $2 billion mark, making the election the most expensive in U.S. history.

In 2013, Avigdor Lieberman, who had resigned as Israel's foreign minister because of an investigation of alleged corruption, was acquitted and said: This chapter is behind me. I am now focusing on the challenges ahead. Lieberman became foreign minister again five days later.

Copyright 2017 by United Press International