Today in History: November 6, Abraham Lincoln wins presidency

Today is Friday, Nov. 6, the 310th day of 2026. There are 55 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 6, 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party was elected president of the United States as he defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.

Also on this date:

In 1861, an unopposed Jefferson Davis was elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederate States of America, after serving much of the year as its provisional president.

In 1888, Republican presidential candidate Benjamin Harrison won the electoral vote over incumbent Democrat Grover Cleveland, despite Cleveland gaining 90,000 more total votes; it would be the last time the popular vote winner would lose the election until 2000.

In 1947, “Meet the Press” made its debut on NBC; the host was the show’s co-creator, Martha Rountree, and it would become the longest-running television program in the United States.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower won reelection, defeating Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson II for the second time.

In 1977, 39 people, mostly students, were killed when the Kelly Barnes Dam in Georgia burst, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls College.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan won reelection by a landslide over former Vice President Walter Mondale. The Democratic challenger won just one state, his native Minnesota.

In 2018, the U.N. Human Rights Office reported that more than 200 mass graves containing the remains of thousands of victims had been discovered in areas formerly controlled by the Islamic State group in Iraq.

In 2012, President Barack Obama won reelection, vanquishing Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.

In 2022, a passenger plane crashed into Lake Victoria as it approached an airport in Tanzania, killing 19 people aboard.

In 2025, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi announced she would not seek reelection to the U.S. House, closing out a career as the first woman in the speaker’s office and one of the era's most influential American politicians.

.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Sally Field is 80. Jazz musician Arturo Sandoval is 77. Author Michael Cunningham is 74. Journalist-author Maria Shriver is 71. Author Colson Whitehead is 57. Actor Ethan Hawke is 56. Actor Thandiwe (tan-DEE’-way) Newton is 54. Model-actor Rebecca Romijn (roh-MAYN’) is 54. Actor Taryn Manning is 48. Actor Emma Stone is 38. Comedian-actor Bowen Yang is 36. Actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin is 29. MLB All-Star baseball player Alejandro Kirk is 28. Olympic swimming gold medalist Bobby Finke is 27.