TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, NOV. 2, the 306th day of 2021. There are 59 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 2000, American astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, became the first residents of the International Space Station. In 1783, General George Washington issued his Farewell Address to the Army near Princeton, New Jersey.
In 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states with the signing of proclamations by President Benjamin Harrison.
In 1920, white mobs rampaged through the Florida citrus town of Ocoee, setting fire to Black-owned homes and businesses, after a Black man, Mose Norman, showed up at the polls to vote on Election Day; some historians estimate as many as 60 people were killed.
In 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden flying boat, the Hughes H-4 Hercules (derisively dubbed the “Spruce Goose” by detractors), on its only flight, which lasted about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California.
In 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter became the first candidate from the Deep South since the Civil War to be elected president as he defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford. In 2003, in Iraq, insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying dozens of U.S. soldiers, killing 16. In Durham, New Hampshire, V. Gene Robinson was consecrated as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.
In 2004, President George W. Bush was elected to a second term as Republicans strengthened their grip on Congress.
In 2007, British college student Meredith Kercher, 21, was found slain in her bedroom in Perugia, Italy; her roommate, American Amanda Knox, and Knox’s Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of killing Kercher, but both were later exonerated. (Rudy Guede, a petty criminal who was convicted separately in the case, is serving a 16-year sentence.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Political commentator Patrick Buchanan is 83. Actor Stefanie Powers is 79. Country-rock singer-songwriter J.D. Souther is 76. Actor Kate Linder is 74. Rock musician Carter Beauford (The Dave Matthews Band) is 63. Actor Peter Mullan is 62. Singer-songwriter k.d. lang is 60. Actors Sean Kanan and David Schwimmer are 55. Christian/jazz singer Alvin Chea (Take 6), jazz singer Kurt Elling and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are 54. Rock musician Fieldy is 52.