Following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 4:
1921 – Japanese Prime Minister Takashi Hara was assassinated by a rightist fanatic.
1942 – British troops defeated the Germans under General Erwin Rommel at El Alamein in Egypt after a 12-day battle during World War Two.
1979 – Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and captured 90 hostages; 52 were held captive for 444 days.
1980 – The Republican Ronald Reagan was elected U.S. president, defeating the incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.
1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
1997 – Jenny Shipley forced New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger to step down as head of the National Party, clearing the way for her to become the country’s first woman prime minister.
2002 – China and the 10 member states of the ASEAN group signed a deal to create the biggest free trade zone on earth, encompassing more than 1.7 billion people.
2003 – Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency, sacked three ministers and gave herself more powers in a political fight with the prime minister.
2008 – Best-selling U.S. author Michael Crichton, who wrote such novels as “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park” and created the popular TV drama “ER,” died.
2008 – Democrat Barack Obama won a gruelling two-year struggle for the White House, beating Republican John McCain to become the first black president in U.S. history.
2015 – Pakistan factory collapses in Lahore, killing at least 18 and leaving scores trapped.
(Reuters)