MOMENTS IN TIME

• On Nov. 5, 1994, George Foreman, age 45, becomes boxing's oldest heavyweight champion when he defeats 26-year-old Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas. Foreman dedicated his upset win to "all my buddies in the nursing homes and all the guys in jail."

• On Nov. 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency.

• On Nov. 7, 1895, physicist William Conrad Rontgen becomes the first person to observe X-rays in the lab. It was initially believed that X-rays were harmless to skin, until an assistant who had worked extensively with X-rays and radiation died of skin cancer.

• On Nov. 7, 1940, only four months after its completion, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, also known as "Galloping Gertie" for its tendency to undulate in the wind, suffers a spectacular collapse. Due to the vertical dipping and weaving, tourists had treated the bridge as a roller-coaster ride.

• On Nov. 9, 1961, record-store manager Brian Epstein goes to a Liverpool nightclub called the Cavern to hear the Beatles. Two months later, he became their manager and helped them land their first record deal.

• On Nov. 10, 1925, actor Richard Burton is born Richard Jenkins, the 12th of 13 children of a South Wales coal miner. He received a strong musical education from a singing teacher named Philip Burton and won a scholarship to Oxford. In gratitude, he later adopted his former teacher's last name as his stage name.

• On Nov. 11, 1918, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, World War I ends. The "War to End All Wars" left 9 million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded. At least 5 million civilians died from disease, starvation or exposure.