All Souls Day

On this day in history (personal favorites) -

• 1889 - North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states
• 1898 - Cheerleading is started at the University of Minnesota (football)
• 1920 - KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the result of the U.S. presidential election.
• 1930 - Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia
• 1936 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established
• 1936 - The British Broadcasting Corp initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, high-definition (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.
• 1959 - After being struck in the face with an ice hockey puck, goalkeeper Jacques Plante returns to play wearing a protective mask for the first time in professional play
• 1983 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King Jr Day
• 1865 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States is born. The good and the bad -
  Known as a "good fellow," Harding enjoyed being liked more than he prized being a good leader. Most historians regard Harding as the worst President in the nation's history. In the end, it was not his corrupt friends, but rather, Harding's own lack of vision that was most responsible for the tarnished legacy. Decidedly conservative on trade and economic issues, Harding favored pro-business government policies. He allowed Andrew Mellon to push through tax cuts for the rich, stopped antitrust actions, and opposed organized labor. Harding advocated civil rights for all Americans including African Americans in a 1921 speech. He suggested appointing African Americans to federal positions and was willing to sign an anti-lynching bill. Harding also advocated the establishment of an international commission to improve race relations between Whites and African Americans. However, severe political opposition prevented any of these initiatives.