TODAY IN HISTORY - NOVEMBER 2ND

1795 – James K. Polk, American lawyer and politician, 11th President of the United States (d. 1849) is born.

1865 – Warren G. Harding, American journalist and politician, 29th President of the United States (d. 1923) is born.

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

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

1929 – Amar Bose, American engineer and businessman, founded the Bose Corporation (d. 2013) is born.

1936 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established.

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 (and only) flight of the Spruce Goose or H-4 The Hercules; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.

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.

1960 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

1965 – 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.

1966 – The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into 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.

1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

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, is launched from MIT.

2014 – Herman Sarkowsky, German-American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded the Seattle Seahawks (b. 1925) dies.