Today in History: November 3

1600: Richard Hooker, whose Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie will go on to play a decisive role in Anglican theological and political thought, dies at Bishopsbourne, Kent.

1783: John Austin becomes the last person to be publicly hanged at London’s Tyburn Gallows.  No, this is a different John Austin.

1817: The Bank of Montreal, Canada’s oldest, opens for business in a small building on the Rue St. Paul under the leadership of a retired grocer.  As BMO Financial Group, it now has over 1,000 branches and is actually headquartered in Toronto.

1838: The world’s top-selling English-language newspaper, the Bombay Times & Journal of Commerce (now the Times of India) is founded.

1883: Bandit-poet Charles “Black Bart” Boles robs his 28th and last Wells Fargo stage.  He drops a handkerchief at the scene which will eventually lead to his capture in San Francisco by company detectives.

1911: William C. Durant, who had lost control of fledgling General Motors the year before, partners with famed French auto racer Louis Chevrolet to create a new automobile company, which will itself later become part of GM.

1954: Toho Film Company Ltd. releases the first installment of one of the world’s great film franchises, when Gojira (U.S. title Godzilla) erupts out of the water to ravage Tokyo.

1966: The California Court of Appeals says schoolteacher Michael Odorizzi can get to go to a jury on his claim that his resignation from the Bloomfield School District was invalid due as a result of duress and undue influence.

1998: Jesse “The Body” Ventura becomes the first actor from the 1978 film Predator to be elected to a major political office, when he is elected Governor of Minnesota.