On this day: November 1
The Sistine Chapel's ceiling is unveiled, the National Weather Service makes its first forecast, the U.S. explodes its first hydrogen bomb, and Honda opens its first U.S. factory, all on this day.
1950: Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola (pictured) and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman at Blair House, the official state guest host for the president, which was serving as Truman's home while the White House was being renovated. On the street outside the residence, Torresola mortally wounds a White House policeman, Leslie Coffelt, who returns fire before dies and kills Torresola. Collazo, as a co-conspirator in a felony that turned into a homicide, would be found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1952. Truman, who was taking a nap upstairs in Blair House during the shooting, would later commute his sentence to life in prison.
