Electric Razor

November 6, 1928

Colonel Jacob Schick patents his first electric razor. Schick went on to form the Schick Dry Shaver, Inc. razor company and has become known as "The Father of Electric Razors."
The patent application stated, "The invention is designed to provide a shaving implement that does not require the usual prior application of lather, or its equivalent to the face as the cutting of the hair can be done while the face and hairs are comparatively dry."

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Killed

November 6, 1908

The notorious outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, are trapped by Bolivian officials and reportedly killed in the ensuing gun battle around 2 a.m. that night. Although, there are many claims that these were not them and that they survived.

Packard Automobile

November 6, 1899

James and William Packard take their first automobile for a test drive on the streets of Warren, Ohio.
James Packard, an engineer, was dissatisfied with the Winton car owned by Winton investor George Lewis Weiss. When he sent suggestions for improvements to the manufacturer of the Winton, they said if he thought he could build a better car, he should do so - so he did! He and his brother William partnered with Weiss to form the Packard Motor Car Company.
Packards were the first car to offer factory-installed air conditioning (1939).

The Only Third-Party U.S. President

November 6, 1860

Abraham Lincoln (Republican) is elected.
He was the 16th U.S. president, with Hannibal Hamlin serving as his vice president.
His victory was due to his support in the North and West, with no ballots cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states. He won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states, receiving 1,866,452 votes (39.8%) of the total in a four-way race, carrying the free Northern states, along with California and Oregon.
The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by northern states opposed to the expansion of slavery. While they opposed the expansion of slavery, they did not call for ending it in the southern states.

Columbus Discovers Smoking

November 6, 1492

Christopher Columbus first notes in his journal the smoking of tobacco by the Indians. He and his crew had been given tobacco as a gift the previous month, but didn't know what to do with it, until they witnessed, "men and women with a half-burnt weed in their hands, being the herbs they are accustomed to smoke."
The sailors who tried it, soon found themselves addicted. Upon returning to Spain, one of the sailors who took up smoking, Rodrigo de Jerez, was jailed by the Spanish Inquisition, for it was believed that only the Devil could blow smoke from his mouth and nose. By the time he was released seven years later, smoking tobacco had caught on in Europe.

Sally Field

Born November 6, 1946

American Oscar-Emmy-winning actress. TV: Gidget (1965-66, title role), The Flying Nun (1967-70, title roll), and Sybil (1976, Emmy as Sybil). Film: Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993).

Jonathan Harris (Jonathan Charasuchin)

Born November 6, 1914 d. 2002

American actor. TV: Lost in Space (1965-68, Dr. Zachary Smith).
The Zachary Smith character in Lost in Space was originally intended to be a temporary villain, but Harris began rewriting his lines and ad-libbing his scenes making his character a flamboyant, self-serving coward. The character caught on with fans and became a central part of the show.

Inventor of Basketball

James Naismith

Born November 6, 1861 d. 1939

Canadian-American gym instructor. He invented basketball while an instructor for the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts (1891). A few years later basketball was banned by the YMCA, which claimed not enough people could play at one time.
He invented the game of basketball after being given two weeks to create a game that:
• Would provide an "athletic distraction" to calm rowdy boys.
• Could be played indoors.
• Not take up too much room.
• Keep track athletes in shape.
• Fair for all players.
• Not too rough.
To reduce physical contact, players were required to pass the ball instead of running with it. Dribbling wasn't introduced until 1901 and didn't become popular until the 1950s with improvements to the shape of the balls.
Naismith also tried to reduce physical contact by locating the goals above the players' heads so they could not guard it. The goals were to have an opening parallel to the floor so that they would require a soft, lobbing toss to score. Naismith asked a janitor for a pair of boxes, but he returned with a pair of peach baskets, thus the name "basket ball". The players had to use a ladder to retrieve the ball from the basket. Eventually, they poked a small hole in the basket so they could use a stick to retrieve the ball.

John Philip Sousa

Born November 6, 1854 d. 1932

American bandmaster. The March King, bandmaster of the U.S. Marine Band. He and J.W. Pepper developed a type of bass tuba now known as the sousaphone. Music: The Stars and Stripes Forever (1897, National March of the USA), Semper Fidelis (1888, Official March of the U.S. Marine Corps), and The Liberty Bell (1893, theme for Monty Python's Flying Circus).

Adolphe Sax

Born November 6, 1814 d. 1894

Belgian instrument maker. He patented the saxophone (1846). He spent much of life in legal battles over his musical patents and died in poverty.