Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Monday, November 2, 2026
Today is the 306th day of 2026. There are 59 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1721
Peter the Great (Peter I), ruler of Russia, changed his title to emperor.
1776
During the American Revolutionary War, William Demont, became the first traitor of the American Revolution when he deserted.
1783
Gen. George Washington issued his ''Farewell Address to the Army'' near Princeton, N.J.
1867
"Harpers Bazaar" magazine was founded.
1883
Thomas Edison executed a patent application for an electrical indicator using the Edison effect lamp (U.S. Pat. 307,031).
1889
North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states.
1895
In Chicago, IL, the first gasoline powered car contest took place in America.
1917
British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, in what became known as the Balfour Declaration, expressed support for a national home for the Jews of Palestine.
1920
The first commercial radio station in the U.S., KDKA of Pittsburgh, PA, began regular broadcasting.
1921
Margaret Sander's National Birth Control League combined with Mary Ware Denetts Voluntary Parenthood League to form the American Birth Control League.
1930
The DuPont Company announced the first synthetic rubber. It was named DuPrene.
1930
Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
1947
Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden airplane, known as the Spruce Goose, on its only flight, which lasted about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California.
1948
Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the U.S. presidency. The Chicago Tribune published an early edition that had the headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN." The Truman victory surprised many polls and newspapers.
1959
Charles Van Doren admitted to a House subcommittee that he had the questions and answers in advance of his appearances on the NBC-TV game show ''Twenty-One.''
1960
In London, the novel "Lady Chatterly's Lover," was found not guilty of obscenity.
1962
U.S. President Kennedy announced that the U.S.S.R. was dismantling the missile sites in Cuba.
1963
South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem was assassinated in a military coup.
1966
The Cuban Adjustment Act allows 123,000 Cubans to apply for permanent residence in the U.S.
1976
Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter defeated Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford, becoming the first U.S. president from the Deep South since the Civil War.
1979
Joanna Chesimard, a black militant escaped from a New Jersey prison, where she'd been serving a life sentence for the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper.
1983
President Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday on the third Monday of January in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
1984
Velma Barfield became the first woman to be executed in the U.S. since 1962. She had been convicted of the poisoning death of her boyfriend.
1985
The South African government imposed severe restrictions on television, radio and newspaper coverage of unrest by both local and foreign journalists.
1986
American hostage David Jacobson was released after being held in Lebanon for 17 months by Shiite Muslims kidnappers.
1989
Carmen Fasanella retired after 68 years and 243 days of taxicab service in Princeton, NJ.
1992
Magic Johnson retired from the NBA again, this time for good because of fear due to his HIV infection.
1993
Christie Todd Whitman was elected the first woman governor of New Jersey.
1993
The U.S. Senate called for full disclosure of Senator Bob Packwood's diaries in a sexual harassment probe.
1995
The U.S. expelled Daiwa Bank Ltd. for allegedly covering up $1.1 billion in trading losses.
1997
Tropical Storm Linda makes landfall in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, causing more than 3,000 deaths.
1998
U.S. President Clinton gave his first in-depth interview since the White House sex scandal to Black Entertainment Television (BET) talk show host and political commentator Tavis Smiley.
1999
In the worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii, a gunman shoots at eight people in his workplace, killing seven.
2000
Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted.
2003
In the U.S., the Episcopal Church diocese consecrated the church's first openly gay bishop.
2016
The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years.
2020
In Vienna's Innere Stadt district, an ISIL sympathizer shoots and kills four people and injures 23 more, before being shot and killed by the police.
2022
A peace agreement is signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, ending the Tigray War.
Notable Births
1795
James Knox Polk, the 11th president of the United States, was born in Mecklenburg County, N.C.
1865
Warren Gamaliel Harding, the 29th president of the United States, was born near Corsica, Ohio.
Notable Deaths
1950
George Bernard Shaw, Irish author, playwright, and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856)
1961
James Thurber, American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker and collected in his numerous books. (b. 1894)
1966
Mississippi John Hurt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1892)
2014
Herman Sarkowsky, German-American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded the Seattle Seahawks (b. 1925)
2014
Michael Coleman was a Chicago blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was voted one of the top 50 bluesmen in the world by Guitar World magazine. (b. 1956)
2015
Tommy Overstreet, American country music singer. Often referred to as "T.O." by fans and radio disc jockeys, Overstreet had five top-five hit singles in the Billboard country charts and 11 top-10 singles.
2019
Walter Mercado, Puerto Rican television personality, astrologer, actor, and dancer (b. 1932)