Today is Saturday, November 2nd, the 307th day of 2024. There are 59 days left in the year.
In 2016, after a championship drought that had lasted since 1908, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series by defeating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in extra innings.
Ten years ago, Virgin Galactic identified 39-year-old Michael Alsbury as the pilot who tragically died when SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight and crashed in the Mojave Desert. The National Transportation Safety Board mentioned that the investigation into the crash could take up to a full year to complete.
On this date in history, in 1861 during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln relieved Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont of his command of the Army’s Western Department due to Fremont’s unauthorized efforts to emancipate slaves in Missouri. In 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his Hughes H-4 Hercules, also known as the ‘Spruce Goose,’ on its one and only flight, staying airborne for 26 seconds.
In 1959, Charles Van Doren testified to a Congressional committee that he had conspired with television producers to cheat on the television quiz show ‘Twenty-One.’ In 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter became the first candidate from the Deep South to be elected president since the Civil War as he defeated 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, spending 136 days in space before returning to Earth on Space Shuttle Discovery.
In 2003, insurgents in Iraq shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying dozens of U.S. soldiers, resulting in the death of 16 individuals. President George W. Bush was re-elected to a second term in 2004, defeating Sen. John Kerry, while the Republicans strengthened their 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 initially convicted of killing Kercher, but were later exonerated. Most recently, in 2021, the Atlanta Braves won their first World Series championship since 1995 by defeating the Houston Astros in Game 6.
Celebrity birthdays today include Tennis Hall of Famer Ken Rosewall turning 90, political commentator Pat Buchanan at 86, Olympic gold medal wrestler Bruce Baumgartner at 65, singer-songwriter k.d. lang at 63, playwright Lynn Nottage at 60, actor David Schwimmer at 58, jazz singer Kurt Elling at 57, rapper Nelly at 50, film director Jon Chu at 45, TV personality Karamo Brown from “Queer Eye” at 44, and NFL quarterback Jordan Love at 26.
