What happened on November 2 ?

676 - Donus becomes Pope.

1675 - A combined attack by the Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies attacks the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts during King Philip's War.

1772 - American Revolutionary War: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren form the first Committee of Correspondence.

1783 - In Rocky Hill, New Jersey, US General George Washington gives his "Farewell Address to the Army".

1795 - The French Directory succeeds the French National Convention as the government of Revolutionary France.

1861 - American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Fremont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.

1868 - Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally, and is perhaps the first country to do so.

1889 - North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.

1895 - The first gasoline-powered race in the United States. First prize: $2,000

1899 - The Boers started their 118 day siege of British held Ladysmith during the Second Boer War.

1914 - Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

1917 - Zionism: The Balfour Declaration proclaims support for Jewish settlement in Palestine.

1920 - In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920.

1930 - Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established.

1936 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaims the Rome-Berlin Axis, establishing the alliance of the Axis Powers.

1936 - the British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, high-definition (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.

1947 - In California, Designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.

1948 - U.S. presidential election, 1948: Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency.

1953 - The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan names the country The Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

1957 - The Levelland UFO Case in Levelland, Texas, generates national publicity, and remains one of the most impressive UFO cases in American history.

1959 - Quiz show scandals: "Twenty-One" game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.

1959 - Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a puck, goalkeeper Jacques Plante returns to play wearing a protective mask for the first time in professional play.

1959 - The first section of the M1 motorway, the first in the United Kingdom, was opened between the present junctions 5 and 18.

1960 - Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case

1963 - South Vietnamese President Ngô Ðìhn Di?m is assassinated following a military coup.

1964 - King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother King Faisal.

1965 - At 5:15 P.M., Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, set himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war.

1966 - The Cuban Adjustment Act enters force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.

1967 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and "the Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war.

1974 - 78 die as the Time Go-Go Club in Seoul, South Korea burns down. Six of the victims jumped to their deaths from the seventh floor after a club official barred the doors after the fire started.

1981 - Antigua and Barbuda become independent from the United Kingdom.

1982 - Channel 4 in the United Kingdom was launched.

1983 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King Day, the only current national holiday honoring an individual American.

1984 - Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

1988 - The Morris worm, the first internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.

1991 - Bartholomew I becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.

1992 - Douglas Adams finally announces why he chose 42 to be The Answer to Life, the_Universe, and Everything

1998 - WWF hardcore title awarded to Mankind

2000 - The first crew arrives at the International Space Station.