Today in History: South Africans voted in their first all-race local government elections

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 1:

1755 - Lisbon earthquake kills more than 50,000 in Portugal.

1894 - Vaccine for diphtheria announced by Dr Émile Roux of Paris.

1894 – Death of Russian Emperor Alexander III.

1922 - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk takes Constantinople from Mehmed VI, proclaiming the Republic of Turkey and bringing an end to the Ottoman Empire.

1957 – The Mackinac Bridge, at the time the world’s longest suspension bridge between anchorages, opens.

1995 – South Africans voted in their first all-race local government elections.

1996 – Former Sri Lankan president Junius Jayewardene died aged 90.

1999 – NFL’s Chicago Bears Hall-of-Fame running back Walton Payton dies.

2004 – Industrialist Lord Hanson, who built the industrial group Hanson Plc into one of the Britain’s most powerful companies, died aged 82.

2007 – Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the U.S. bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb, code named “Little Boy” on Japan on Aug. 6, 1945, died at age 92.

2011 – Hundreds of taxis protest in front of Romania’s Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest.

2012 – Fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

2015 – Uzbek President Islam Karimov meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a rare high-level U.S. encounter with the autocratic ruler and frequent target of human rights criticism.

2015 – Kenyans Mary Keitany and Stanley Biwott win women’s and men’s divisions of New York City Marathon.

(Reuters)