1860 – Abraham Lincoln is elected president, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. He received only 40% of the popular vote, but defeated three other candidates.
1861 – Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America, winning with no opposition.
1917 – Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik Party revolutionaries launch a nearly bloodless coup against Russia’s ineffectual Provisional Government and form the world’s first Marxist state.
1962 – The United Nations adopts a resolution condemning South Africa’s racist apartheid policies and calling on members to end economic and military relations with the country.
