November 2 in History

• 1889

  November 2, 1889:

  North Dakota and South Dakota become the 39th and 40th US states respectively.

• 1917

  November 2, 1917:

  British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour makes a statement, which would become known as the Balfour Declaration, supporting the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine in a letter to Jewish citizen Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild.

• 1930

  November 2, 1930:

  Tafari Makonnen adopts the throne name Haile Selassie upon his coronation as the Emperor of Ethiopia.

• 1936

  November 2, 1936:

  The first television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation is launched.

• 1960

  November 2, 1960:

  Penguin Books, the publisher of D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” is acquitted in an obscenity trial for publishing the book.

• 1963

  November 2, 1963:

  Ngo Dinh Diem, the President of South Vietnam is assassinated in a coup.

• 1964

  November 2, 1964:

  Saudi Arabia’s King Saud is officially deposed.

• 1986

  November 2, 1986:

  Grete Waitz, a Norwegian long-distance runner, emerges as the winner of the New York City Marathon for the eighth time.

• 2016

  November 2, 2016:

  The Chicago Cubs become World Series champions for the first time since 1908 by beating the Cleveland Indians.

• 2020

  November 2, 2020:

  Pinkfong’s “Baby Shark” surpasses “Despacito” to become YouTube’s most-watched video.