November 2
Today is observed as
International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.
Today is also Statehood Day for
North and
South Dakota, in the United States.
There are
5 days until the 2016 Presidential election.
There are
59 days remaining in 2016.
There are
52 days until Christmas.
Events
1889 –
North Dakota and
South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
1898 –
Cheerleading is started at the University of Minnesota with Johnny Campbell leading the crowd in cheering on the football team.
1899 – The Boers begin their 118-day siege of British-held
Ladysmith during the
Second Boer War.
1917 – The
Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities".
1930 –
Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
1936 – The
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established.
1936 – The
British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the
BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines
) service. Renamed
BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.
1947 – In California, designer
Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the
Spruce Goose or H-4 The Hercules; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.
1959 – Quiz show scandals:
Twenty One game show contestant
Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.
1959 – The first section of the
M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the
M10 motorway and
M45 motorway.
1960 –
Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial
R v Penguin Books Ltd, the
Lady Chatterley's Lover case.
1964 – King
Saud of Saudi Arabia is deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother
Faisal.
1965 –
Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old
Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of
napalm in the Vietnam war.
1967 – Vietnam War: US President
Lyndon B. Johnson and "The Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given 'more optimistic' reports on the progress of the war.
1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
1984 - The
Rev Marvin Gay Sr. was sentenced to a suspended six-year sentence and probation for the manslaughter of his son,
Marvin Gaye. He later died at a nursing home in 1998.
1984 –
Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.
1988 – The
Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed
computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from
MIT.
1990 –
British Satellite Broadcasting and
Sky Television plc merge to form
BSkyB as a result of massive losses.
2002 - Armed police arrested an international gang who were
planning to kidnap former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and her two young children. The gang had planned to ransom Posh for £5m.
Births
1734 – Daniel Boone; 1755 – Marie Antoinette
; 1795 – James K. Polk (11th POTUS); 1865 – Warren G. Harding (29th POTUS); 1913 – Burt Lancaster; 1914 – Ray Walston
(
My Favorite Martian; 1919 – Warren Stevens; 1927 – Steve Ditko (co-creator
Spider Man); 1929 – Amar Bose (founded the Bose Corporation); 1936 – Jack Starrett; 1938 – Pat Buchanan; 1942 – Stefanie Powers
; 1944 – Keith Emerson♪ ♫; 1945 – J. D. Souther♪ ♫; 1952 – Maxine Nightingale♪ ♫; 1961 – k.d. lang♪ ♫; 1963 – Bobby Dall
(Poison); 1966 – David Schwimmer; 1967 – Scott Walker; 1974 – Nelly♪ ♫
Deaths
1887 – Jenny Lind♪ ♫; 1961 – James Thurber (
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty); 1966 – Mississippi John Hurt♪ ♫; 1970 – Pierre Veyron
(namesake of the Bugatti Veyron); 1991 – Irwin Allen; 1992 – Hal Roach; 2007 – The Fabulous Moolah; 2015 – Tommy Overstreet♪ ♫