On This Day: Major World Events of November 2
1889, United States: North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted to the Union on the same day, becoming the 39th and 40th states.
1917, Britain: Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration, expressing British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, a statement that profoundly shaped the region's politics.
1920, United States: Pittsburgh radio station KDKA broadcast the Harding-Cox presidential election returns, the first commercial radio broadcast and the start of the broadcasting age.
1930, Ethiopia: Haile Selassie was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia, beginning a reign that lasted more than four decades.
1936, Britain: The BBC Television Service launched from Alexandra Palace in London, the world's first regular television broadcasting service.
1947, United States: Howard Hughes piloted the wooden H-4 Hercules flying boat, nicknamed the 'Spruce Goose,' on its only flight at Long Beach Harbor, California, covering about a mile at roughly 70 feet; the aircraft had cost some $25 million to build.
1948, United States: Harry S. Truman stunned pollsters by defeating Thomas E. Dewey to win re-election; the Chicago Tribune's premature 'Dewey Defeats Truman' headline became a famous press blunder.
1963, South Vietnam: President Ngo Dinh Diem was killed the day after a military coup, and South Vietnam entered a period of continuing turmoil.
1976, United States: Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald Ford to become the 39th president of the United States.
1983, United States: President Ronald Reagan signed the law making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday, first observed in January 1986 on the third Monday of the month.
1988, United States: The Morris worm, released by graduate student Robert Morris, spread across the early internet and affected thousands of computers, the first major internet worm incident.
2000, Space: The first resident crew arrived at the International Space Station, beginning a continuous human presence in orbit that has never since been broken.
2016, United States: The Chicago Cubs beat Cleveland in Game 7 of the World Series to win their first championship in 108 years, ending one of the most famous title droughts in American sports.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 休斯H-4「云杉鹅」水上飞机，SDASM档案馆藏，公共领域 / Hughes H-4 Hercules 'Spruce Goose', SDASM Archives, public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
