more events on November 2
-
2000
First resident crew arrives at the International Space Station.
-
1984
Serial killer Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the US since 1962.
-
1983
President Ronald Reagan signs a bill establishing Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
-
1976
Jimmy (James Earl) Carter elected the 39th president of the United States.
-
1972
Samantha Womack, English actress, singer, director (TV and stage); best known for her roles as Mandy Wilkins in Game On and Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders.
-
1963
South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated.
-
1961
k.d. lang, Grammy-winning Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter, actress, social activist (“Constant Craving”).
-
1960
A British jury determines that Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence is not obscene.
-
1959
Charles Van Doren confesses that the TV quiz show 21 is fixed and that he had been given the answers to the questions asked him.
-
1952
Maxine Nightingale, British R&B and soul singer (“Right Back Where We Started From”).
-
1949
Lois McMaster Bujold, science fiction and fantasy author (The Mountains of Morning; Paladin of Souls); her many awards include four Hugos for best novel, which ties Robert A. Heinlein’s record.
-
1948
Harry S Truman is elected the 33rd president of the United States.
-
1947
Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose flies for the first and last time.
-
1943
The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in Bougainville ends in U.S. Navy victory over Japan.
-
1942
Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower arrives in Gibraltar to set up an American command post for the invasion of North Africa.
-
1938
Queen Sofia of Spain (1975– ).
-
Pat Buchanan, American conservative political commentator, syndicated columnist, author; a senior advisor to presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan.
-
Jay Black, lead singer of the group Jay and the Americans (“Come a Little Bit Closer,” “This Magic Moment”).
-
1936
Rose Bird, first female Chief Justice of California (1977-87); also the first Chief Justice in California history to be removed from office by voters.
-
The first high-definition public television transmissions begin from Alexandra Palace in north London by the BBC.
-
1932
Melvin Schwartz, physicist who won the Nobel Prize for work on neutrinos.
-
1929
Richard Taylor, Nobel Prize-winning physicist who proved the existence of quarks.
-
1926
Air Commerce Act is passed, providing federal aid for airlines and airports.
-
1923
U.S. Navy aviator H.J. Brown sets new world speed record of 259 mph in a Curtiss racer.
-
1921
Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett form the American Birth Control League.
-
1920
Charlotte Woodward, who signed the 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration calling for female voting rights, casts her ballot in a presidential election.
-
The first radio broadcast in the United States is made from Pittsburgh.
-
1914
Russia declares war with Turkey.
-
1913
Burt Lancaster, American film actor.
-
1906
Luchino Visconti, film director (Obsession, Death in Venice).
-
1903
London’s Daily Mirror newspaper is first published.
-
1892
Lawmen surround outlaws Ned Christie and Arch Wolf near Tahlequah, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). It will take dynamite and a cannon to dislodge the two from their cabin.
-
1889
South Dakota is made the 40th state.
-
North Dakota is made the 39th state.
-
1885
Harlow Shapley, astronomer who discovered the Sun is not at the center of the galaxy.
-
1882
Newly elected John Poe replaces Pat Garrett as sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory.
-
1880
James A. Garfield is elected the 20th president of the United States.
-
1869
Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok loses his re-election bid in Ellis County, Kan.
-
1865
Warren G. Harding, 29th president of the United States (1921-23).
-
1841
The second Afghan War begins.
-
1795
James Polk, 11th president of the United States (1845-49).
-
1789
The property of the church in France is taken away by the state.
-
1772
The first Committees of Correspondence are formed in Massachusetts under Samuel Adams.
-
1755
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, executed during the French Revolution.
-
1734
Daniel Boone, American frontiersman and explorer.
-
1570
A tidal wave in the North Sea destroys the sea walls from Holland to Jutland. More than 1,000 people are killed.