November 2 is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 59 days remaining.

Events

• 676 - Donus becomes Pope.
• 1772 - American Revolutionary War: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren form the first Committee of Correspondence.
• 1783 - In Rocky Hill, New Jersey, US General George Washington gives his "Farewell Address to the Army".
• 1817 - The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, openes in Montreal, Quebec.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Fremont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.
• 1868 - Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally, and is perhaps the first country to do so.
• 1889 - North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
• 1899 - The Boers started their 118 day siege of British held Ladysmith during the Boer War.
• 1917 - Zionism: The Balfour Declaration proclames support for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
• 1920 - In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920.
• 1930 - Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
• 1936 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established.
• 1936 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaims the Rome-Berlin Axis, establishing the alliance of the Axis Powers.
• 1947 - In California, Designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built (flight lasted only eight minutes).
• 1948 - U.S. presidential election, 1948: Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency.
• 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 - Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a puck, goalkeeper Jacques Plante returns to play wearing a protective mask for the first time in professional play.
• 1960 - Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case
• 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis ends as President John F. Kennedy announces that Soviet nuclear missiles are to be withdrawn from Cuba.
• 1963 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem is assassinated following a military coup.
• 1964 - King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother King Faisal.
• 1966 - The Cuban Adjustment Act enters force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
• 1967 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson holds a secret meeting with a group of the nation's most prestigious leaders ("the Wise Men") and asks them to suggest ways to unite the American people behind the war effort. They conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war.
• 1974 - 78 die as the Time Go-Go Club in Seoul, South Korea burns down. Six of the victims jumped to their deaths from the seventh floor after club official barred the doors after the fire started.
• 1976 - U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford to become first candidate from deep south to win since the Civil War.
• 1983 - Martin Luther King Day: At the White House Rose Garden, US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
• 1984 - Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.
• 1988 - The Morris worm, the first internet distributed computer worms to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.
• 1991 - Bartholomew I becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople, the "first among equals" in the Eastern Orthodox Communion.
• 1991 - Jermaine Jackson's single Word to the Badd!, which attacks his brother Michael, is leaked to radio station KPWR in Los Angeles.
• 1995 - The Hubble space telescope takes a picture of a gas plume 7000 light years away from Earth that appears to contain an image of Jesus of Nazareth to many people.
• 2000 - The first crew arrives at the International Space Station.
• 2001 - Monsters, Inc. debuts with the best ticket sales ever for an animated film and the 6th best of all time.
• 2004 - U.S. Presidential Election between Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush.

Births

• 1667 - James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (d. 1737)
• 1699 - Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, French painter (d. 1779)
• 1734 - Daniel Boone, frontiersman (d. 1820)
• 1739 - Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, composer (d. 1799)
• 1755 - Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (d. 1793)
• 1795 - James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States (d. 1849)
• 1815 - George Boole, mathematician and philosopher (d.1864)
• 1844 - Mehmed V, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1918)
• 1865 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (d. 1923)
• 1885 - Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (d. 1972)
• 1894 - Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamicist (d. 1976)
• 1913 - Burt Lancaster, actor (d. 1994)
• 1914 - Ray Walston, actor (d. 2001)
• 1927 - Steve Ditko, artist
• 1929 - Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, former President of Pakistan
• 1938 - Pat Buchanan, journalist, politician
• 1942 - Shere Hite, author
• 1942 - Stefanie Powers, actress
• 1946 - Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor, composer (d. 2001)
• 1961 - k. d. lang, singer
• 1965 - Shahrukh Khan, actor
• 1965 - David V.F. Burton, Creator of the Net's first virtual dead flower server.
• 1991 - Victoria Climbié, murder victim (d. 2000)

Deaths

• 1618 - Archduke Maximilian III of Austria
• 1887 - Jenny Lind, Swedish soprano (b. 1820)
• 1944 - Thomas Midgley, chemist and inventor
• 1950 - George Bernard Shaw, playwright
• 1960 - Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist and composer (b. 1896)
• 1961 - James Thurber, humorist
• 1963 - Ngo Dihn Diem, president of South Vietnam
• 1966 - Peter Debye, chemist
• 1975 - Pier Paolo Pasolini, film director
• 1984 - Velma Barfield, murderer (executed)
• 1986 - Paul Frees, voice actor
• 1992 - Hal Roach, director, producer (b. 1892)
• 2002 - Tonio Selwart, actor and Broadway star (b. 1896)
• 2002 - Charles Sheffield, science fiction author and physicist
• 2004 - Theo van Gogh, Dutch filmmaker (b. 1957)
• 2004 - Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, president of the United Arab Emirates (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism - All Souls Day
• Ancient Latvia - Dveselu Diena held
• Rastafarianism - The coronation of Haile Selassie celebrated
• Mexico and the United States - Day of the Dead (Spanish: El Dia de los Muertos), a Mexican and Mexican-American celebration of dead ancestors

November 1 - November 3 - October 2 - December 2 -- listing of all dates