Calendar for November 2nd, 2009

The Day of the Dead (Mexico)

2001: All Souls Day

2001: Election Day (United States)

Born : Cookie Monster (character on Sesame Street)

Born 1734: Daniel Boone (frontiersman)

Born 1755: Marie Antoinette (Queen of France)

Born 1795: James Polk (11th U.S. president)

Born 1865: Warren G. Harding (29th U.S. president)

Born 1877: Aga Khan III (religious leader)

Born 1885: Harlow Shapley (astronomer)

1889: North and South Dakota admitted to the Union as the 39th and 40th states

Born 1911: Odysseus Elytis (poet)

Born 1913: Burt Lancaster (actor)

1917: Balfour Declaration states the British objective of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine

1920: Radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast the first commercial news, featuring the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election

1936: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established

Born 1944: Keith Emerson (musician)

1947: Howard Hughes' Hercules (aka Spruce Goose) plane flew one mile. Its wingspan was 320 feet

Died 1950: George Bernard Shaw (playwright)

Born 1958: Willie Dean McGee (baseball player)

1959: Game show contestant Charles Van Doren admitted to a House Sub-Committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance when he appeared on the quiz show Twenty-One

Born 1961: k.d. lang (singer)

Born 1974: Orlando Cabrera (baseball player)

Died 1998: Bob Trow (actor, best known for his portrayal of gibberish-talking Robert Troll and Bob Dog on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood)

2004: President George W. Bush won re-election over Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry

2008: Record-breaking pinata measured 60 feet long and 23 feet 10.5 inches wide