THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2 November 1947

Howard Hughes’ H4 Hercules Spruce Goose flying boat has its maiden – and only – flight in California. It weighs 181 436kg, flies about 1.5km at an altitude of 21m and costs $23 million.

3 November 1957

Laika the dog is the first living creature to go into Earth’s orbit, in Russia’s Sputnik II, the world’s first inhabited space capsule.

5 November 1605

Guy Fawkes, a conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot, is found with barrels of gunpowder (intended to blow up the English Houses of Parliament and King James I) in the parliament cellar at midnight. He is later tried and executed for treason.

8 November 1656

Astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley is born in London. He is the first to sight the Great Comet of 1682 (now named Halley’s Comet) and predict its reappearance in 1758. Halley’s Comet appears once every 75 to 76 years; it was last sighted in 1986 and is predicted to be visible again in 2061.

9 November 1989

The 45km-long Berlin Wall opens its gates after standing for 28 years as a symbol of the Cold War.

15 November 1969

250 000 people gather in Washington DC, in the largest anti-war rally in US history, to protest against the war in Vietnam.

16 November 1989

South African President FW de Klerk opens up South Africa’s beaches to people of all races.