Today marks Sunday, November 2, 2025, the 306th day of the year, leaving just 59 days until year’s end. It’s also the day when daylight saving time concludes.
Today in history:
On this day in 1947, Howard Hughes took to the skies in the Hughes H-4 Hercules, famously dubbed the “Spruce Goose.” This colossal wooden seaplane, with wings stretching beyond the length of a football field, soared for a brief 26 seconds during its sole flight.
Also on this date:
Going back to 1783, General George Washington addressed his troops with a Farewell Address, marking the end of his military leadership.
During the Civil War in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln dismissed Major General John C. Fremont from his post commanding the Army’s Western Department. This decision came after Fremont attempted to free slaves in Missouri without authorization.
In a surprising turn of events in 1948, Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman triumphed over New York’s Republican governor, Thomas E. Dewey, in a presidential election that defied expectations.
Fast forward to 1959, Charles Van Doren admitted to a congressional committee that he had colluded with television producers to rig the outcomes on the quiz show “Twenty-One.”
In 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter, a former governor of Georgia, became the first candidate from the Deep South to be elected president since the Civil War, defeating Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford.
In 2000, American astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, became the first crew to reside onboard the International Space Station; they spent a total of 136 days in the station before returning to Earth on Space Shuttle Discovery.
In 2003, in Iraq, insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying U.S. soldiers, killing 16 and wounding 20 others.
In 2004, Republican President George W. Bush was elected to a second term, defeating Democratic Sen. John Kerry as the GOP strengthened its control of 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.
In 2016, ending a championship drought that had lasted since 1908, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, defeating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in extra innings in the deciding seventh game.
In 2021, the Atlanta Braves won their first World Series championship since 1995, defeating the Houston Astros in Game 6.
In 2023, FTX founder and disgraced cryptocurrency star Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud by a New York jury for stealing at least $10 billion from customers and investors. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for the massive scheme that led to the collapse of the FTX platform for exchanging digital currency.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Tennis Hall of Famer Ken Rosewall is 91.
- Political commentator Pat Buchanan is 87.
- Olympic gold medal wrestler Bruce Baumgartner is 65.
- Singer-songwriter k.d. lang is 64.
- Playwright Lynn Nottage is 61.
- Actor David Schwimmer is 59.
- Jazz singer Kurt Elling is 58.
- Rapper Nelly is 51.
- Film director Jon Chu is 46.
- TV personality Karamo Brown (“Queer Eye”) is 45.
- NFL quarterback Jordan Love is 27.
