Today in History: November 16, Oklahoma wins statehood

Today in History Today is Wednesday, Nov. 16, the 320th day of 2022. There are 45 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 16, 1914, the newly created Federal Reserve Banks opened in 12 cities. On this date: In 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state of the union. In 1933, the United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations. In 1960, Academy Award-winning actor Clark Gable died in Los Angeles at age 59. In 1961, House Speaker Samuel T. Rayburn died in Bonham, Texas, having served as speaker since 1940 except for two terms. In 1982, an agreement was announced in the 57th day of a strike by National Football League players. In 1989, six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her daughter were slain by army troops at the University of Central America Jose Simeon Canas in El Salvador. In 1991, former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards won a landslide victory in his bid to return to office, defeating State Rep. David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader. In 2001, investigators found a letter addressed to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont containing anthrax; it was the second letter bearing the deadly germ known to have been sent to Capitol Hill. In 2004, President George W. Bush picked National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to be his new secretary of state, succeeding Colin Powell. In 2006, Democrats embraced Nancy Pelosi as the first female House speaker in history, but then selected Steny Hoyer as majority leader against her wishes. In 2018, a U.S. official said intelligence officials had concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (jah-MAHL’ khahr-SHOHK’-jee). In 2020, President-elect Joe Biden warned of dire consequences if President Donald Trump and his administration continued to refuse to coordinate with his transition team on the coronavirus pandemic and kept blocking briefings on national security policy issues and vaccine plans; Biden told reporters, ‘œMore people may die if we don’t coordinate.’� Ten years ago: Former CIA Director David Petraeus told Congress that classified intelligence showed the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was a terrorist attack, but that the Obama administration withheld the suspected role of al-Qaida affiliates to avoid tipping them off. Five years ago: Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken became the first member of Congress to be caught up in a wave of allegations of sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior, after a Los Angeles radio anchor accused him of forcibly kissing her and groping her during a 2006 USO tour. (Franken would resign weeks later.) The federal bribery trial of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey ended with the jury hopelessly deadlocked on all charges. (Federal prosecutors decided not to retry him.) Jose Altuve of the World Champion Houston Astros won the American League Most Valuable Player award; Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins was the winner in the National League. One year ago: Hospitals in Michigan and Minnesota reported a wave of COVID-19 patients not seen in months as beds were filled with unvaccinated people and health care leaders warned that staff were being worn down by yet another surge. American journalist Danny Fenster, who spent nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, arrived back in the United States after former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson helped negotiate his release. The U.S. Census Bureau announced that Hartville, Missouri, was now the closest town to the center of U.S. population distribution. Michelle Wu was sworn in as Boston’s first woman and first person of color elected mayor in the city’s long history.