Nov 2
1947
The Spruce Goose is loose
On this day in 1947, aviation pioneer Howard Hughes took the controls of the enormous Spruce Goose seaplane docked in Long Beach, California. Hughes was expected to keep the wooden craft on the water. Instead, he fully engaged the plane’s eight engines, and the Goose flew into the air. The short sortie—which lasted about a mile and reached only about 70 feet in altitude—made the 320-foot-wide behemoth the largest airplane ever to take flight at that time. Did it ever fly again?
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© Bettmann/Getty Images; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
Courtesy: Jimmy Carter Library
Jimmy Carter, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2002 and Democratic former governor of Georgia, was elected 39th president of the United States this day in 1976, narrowly defeating Republican Gerald R. Ford.
Featured Biography
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.1
French painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, whose famous still lifes and domestic scenes were remarkable for their intimate realism, tranquil atmosphere, and luminous quality, was born this day in 1699.
More on November 2
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Collection
2000
The first resident crew—including one American and two Russians—arrived at the International Space Station. [Take our astronomy and space quiz.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1988
A computer science student named Robert Morris released the first computer worm onto the Internet; meant as an experiment, it brought some 6,000 computers (one-tenth of the Internet) to a halt. [Sort fact from fiction in our computer quiz.]
Marion S. Trikosko, News & World Report, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsc-01269)
1983
U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill designating the third Monday in January a national holiday in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. [Watch the construction of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, Washington, D.C.]
© AFP/Getty Images
1964
King Saud of Saudi Arabia was formally deposed; he was succeeded by his brother Faisal. [Who are the kings who have ruled Saudi Arabia?]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1963
Ngo Dinh Diem, who used dictatorial powers to rule South Vietnam as its president, was killed in a coup led by his generals.
Elliott and Fry Collection/Bassano Studios
1960
In a landmark British trial, a jury ruled that D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was not obscene, thereby allowing its publisher to distribute and sell the work in its unexpurgated form in the UK for the first time. [How much do you know about famous novels?]
Karsh/Woodfin Camp and Associates
1950
Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925, died at age 94. [Test your knowledge of English and Irish playwrights.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1949
The Netherlands and the Republic of Indonesia signed the Hague Agreement, an attempt to end conflict over Indonesia’s proclaimed independence.
© IR_Stone—iStock Editorial/Getty Images
1936
The British Broadcasting Corporation officially launched its first television channel, which was also the world’s first regular TV service.
© Alfotokunst/Dreamstime.com
AP
1930
Tafari Makonnen was crowned emperor of Ethiopia, taking the name Haile Selassie. [How much do you know about African leaders?]
Bassano and Vandyk
1917
The British issued the Balfour Declaration, a statement of support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”; it was made in a letter from Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary.
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1889
North Dakota was admitted to the union as the 39th U.S. state and South Dakota as the 40th. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about U.S. states.]
© Ronald Sheridan/Ancient Art & Architecture Collection
1755
Marie-Antoinette, the queen consort of King Louis XVI of France (1774–93), was born. [Did Marie-Antoinette really say “Let them eat cake”?]
