1. AP US History This Day in American History November 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. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates.

2. AP US History This Day in American History November 6
1861 – Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America. He ran without opposition, and the election simply confirmed the decision that had been made by the Confederate Congress earlier in the year.

3. AP US History This Day in American History November 6
1963 – In the aftermath of the November 1 coup that resulted in the murder of President Ngo Dinh Diem, Gen. Duong Van Minh, leading the Revolutionary Military Committee of the dissident generals who had conducted the coup, takes over leadership of South Vietnam.

4. AP US History This Day in American History November 6
the Toccoa Falls Dam in Georgia gives way and 39 people die in the resulting flood.