Today is Wednesday, Nov. 4, the 308th day of 2026 with 57 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Neptune, Saturn and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include humorist Will Rogers in 1879; journalist Walter Cronkite in 1916; actor Doris Roberts in 1925; actor Loretta Swit in 1937; musician Scherrie Payne (Supremes) in 1944 (age 82); former U.S. first lady Laura Bush in 1946 (age 80); actor Ivonne Coll in 1947 (age 79); writer Charles Frazier in 1950 (age 76); actor Markie Post in 1950; comedian/actor Kathy Griffin in 1960 (age 66); actor Ralph Macchio in 1961 (age 65); TV personality Jeff Probst in 1961 (age 65); musician Tim Burton (Mighty Mighty Bosstones) in 1963 (age 63); actor Matthew McConaughey in 1969 (age 57); actor Samantha Smith in 1969 (age 57); musician Sean "Diddy" Combs in 1969 (age 57); actor Steven Ogg in 1973 (age 53); celebrity chef Curtis Stone in 1975 (age 51); actor Heather Tom in 1975 (age 51); actor Travis Van Winkle in 1982 (age 44); actor Jean-Luc Bilodeau in 1990 (age 36); actor Gia Kim in 1992 (age 34); actor Drew Starkey in 1993 (age 33); NBA player Tyrese Maxey in 2000 (age 26).

On this date in history:

In 1879, James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio, patented the first cash register, known as "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier."

In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the steps leading to the tomb of Tutankhamen, ancient Egypt's child-king. Unlike other burial places in the Valley of the Kings, King Tut's tomb was largely untouched by looters.

In 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected the first female governor in the United States.

In 1924, voters overwhelmingly re-elected Calvin Coolidge president of the United States over Charles Davis.

In 1952, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president, ending 20 years of Democratic administrations.

In 1956, Soviet forces entered Budapest to crush an anti-communist revolt in Hungary. UPI correspondent Russell Jones described the conflict as "the murder of a people."

In 1979, Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking about 90 people hostage, 63 of them Americans.

In 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th president of the United States in a landslide victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter.

In 1991, Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines, returned home, ending more than five years of exile in the United States.

In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 73, was assassinated by a Jewish extremist following a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

In 2002, Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston apologized for assigning priests who may have been sexually abusive to parishes where they continued to have access to children.

In 2003, the elevation of a gay Episcopal priest to bishop prompted worldwide opposition, a Kenyan cleric said, "The devil has clearly entered our church."

In 2006, Katharine Jefferts Schori was installed as the first female presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church.

In 2008, Barack Obama, a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois, was the first African American elected president of the United States, taking 338 electoral votes to 161 for Republican John McCain.

In 2016, the Paris Agreement on climate change officially went into effect. One hundred and ninety-seven countries signed the accord promising to keep the global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.

In 2019, more than 450 Oklahoma inmates were released from prison as part of the nation's largest commutation of sentences.

A thought for the day: "If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it." -- American journalist Andy Rooney