November 2 in history — What Happened Today in History

U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Channel 4, the British free-to-air public broadcast television channel funded by its commercial activities, starts broadcasting.

Aeroflot Flight 19 is hijacked and diverted to Vnukovo International Airport, where the aircraft is stormed by authorities.

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.

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

Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war.

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

South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm is assassinated following a military coup.

Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

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.

The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway.

Hungarian Revolution: Nikita Khrushchev meets with leaders of other Communist countries to seek their advice on the situation in Hungary, selecting János Kádár as the country's next leader on the advice of Josip Broz Tito.

Suez Crisis: Israel occupies the Gaza Strip.

Canada in the Korean War: A platoon of The Royal Canadian Regiment defends a vital area against a full battalion of Chinese troops in the Battle of the Song-gok Spur. The engagement lasts into the early hours the next day.

The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ends with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to the United States of Indonesia.

In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built until Scaled Composites rolled out their Stratolaunch in May 2017.

World War II: First day of Battle of Elaia–Kalamas between the Greeks and the Italians.

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

The Ocoee massacre commences in Orange County, Florida on the day of the 1920 United States presidential election.

In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the result of the 1920 United States presidential election.

The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities".

The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian Revolution, holds its first meeting.

Hussein bin Ali proclaims himself "King of the Arab Countries".

World War I: The Russian Empire declares war on the Ottoman Empire and the Dardanelles is subsequently closed.

Bulgaria defeats the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lule Burgas, the bloodiest battle of the First Balkan War, which opens her way to Constantinople.

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

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

The great fire destroys a large part of Oulu's city center in Oulu Province, Finland.

Luke Schenn, Canadian ice hockey player

Lisa Bowman, Irish netball player

Julia Görges, German tennis player

Danny Cipriani, English rugby player

Andy Rautins, American-Canadian basketball player

Danny Amendola, American football player

Ebonette Deigaeruk, Nauruan weightlifter

Darren Young, American wrestler

Yunel Escobar, Cuban-American baseball player

Charles Itandje, French footballer

Monica Iozzi, Brazilian actress

Katharine Isabelle, Canadian actress

Mitchell Johnson, Australian cricketer

Tommy Overstreet, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1937)

Acker Bilk, English singer and clarinet player (born 1929)

Michael Coleman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1956)

Veljko Kadijević, Croatian general and politician, 5th Federal Secretary of People's Defence (born 1925)

Herman Sarkowsky, German-American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded the Seattle Seahawks (born 1925)

Shabtai Teveth, Israeli historian and author (born 1925)

Walt Bellamy, American basketball player (born 1939)

Ghislaine Dupont, French journalist (born 1956)

Clifford Nass, American author and academic (born 1958)

Kjell Qvale, Norwegian-American businessman (born 1919)

Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar, Indian-American mathematician and academic (born 1930)

Robert Morton Duncan, American soldier and judge (born 1927)

Joe Ginsberg, American baseball player (born 1926)