12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for November 2, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1721 – Peter I proclaims the Russian Empire; he assumes the title “Emperor of All Russia.”
- 1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
- 1899 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Ladysmith begins in South Africa.
- 1917 – The Balfour Declaration is issued, supporting a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
- 1920 – KDKA (Pittsburgh) broadcasts U.S. election returns, often cited as the first commercial radio broadcast.
- 1930 – Haile Selassie I is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.
- 1936 – The BBC Television Service launches the world’s first regular high-definition (for the time) public TV service.
- 1947 – Howard Hughes’s H-4 “Spruce Goose” makes its first and only flight in Long Beach, California.
- 1948 – U.S. election: Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey in a historic upset.
- 1963 – South Vietnam: President Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu are assassinated following a military coup.
- 1983 – President Ronald Reagan signs the bill creating the Martin Luther King Jr. Day federal holiday.
- 2000 – Expedition 1 arrives at the International Space Station, beginning continuous human presence in orbit.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1938 – Pat Buchanan, political commentator and former presidential candidate (87).
- 1942 – Stefanie Powers, actress (“Hart to Hart”) (83).
- 1944 – Michael Buffer, sports announcer (“Let’s get ready to rumble!”) (81).
- 1961 – k.d. lang, singer-songwriter (64).
- 1965 – Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood actor/producer (60).
- 1966 – David Schwimmer, actor/director (Ross on “Friends”) (59).
- 1974 – Nelly, Grammy-winning rapper (“Country Grammar”) (51).
oday’s Deaths:
- 1950 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and Nobel laureate (94).
- 1961 – James Thurber, American humorist, cartoonist, and author (66).
- 1963 – Ngô Đình Diệm, president of South Vietnam (62).
- 1975 – Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian film director, poet, and intellectual (53).
- 1996 – Eva Cassidy, American singer (33).
- 2004 – Theo van Gogh, Dutch filmmaker and columnist (47).
- 2019 – Walter Mercado, Puerto Rican astrologer and television personality (87)
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