Date·Lore

On This Day · The 306th day of the year

November 2

November 2 carries 10 recorded events spanning between 1889 and 2020. North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.

♏ZodiacScorpio ◈BirthstoneTopaz ❀Birth flowerChrysanthemum

Compiled & reviewed by · Last reviewed July 13, 2026

What happened on November 2?

November 2 is the 306th day of the year. It marks 10 notable events in history, dated between 1889 and 2020. Famous people born on November 2 include Shah Rukh Khan, James K. Polk and Luchino Visconti.

The shape of the day

November 2's recorded history is unusually compressed, gathered within recent centuries rather than reaching into antiquity. Its center of gravity is the 20th century, and conflict is a recurring thread.

Scorpio is the sign for November 2 — read more on the Scorpio page, or see November's birthstone & birth flower.

Released on November 2

Movies, games, albums & shows

2023

  • Game Fashion Dreamer
  • Game My Time at Sandrock
  • Game Thirsty Suitors
  • Game RoboCop: Rogue City
  • Game Achilles: Legends Untold
  • Game For the King II
  • Movie How to Have Sex

2021

  • Game Unpacking

Release data from TMDB & IGDB.

Events

10 notable moments
  1. 1889

    North Dakota

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

  2. 1914

    World War I

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

  3. 1917

    Balfour Declaration

    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".

  4. 1940

    World War II

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

  5. 1949

    Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference

    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.

  6. 1984

    Capital punishment

    Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

  7. 1997

    Tropical Storm Linda (1997)

    Tropical Storm Linda makes landfall in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, causing more than 3,000 deaths.

  8. 2000

    Expedition 1

    Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted.

  9. 2008

    Lewis Hamilton

    Lewis Hamilton secured his maiden Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by one point ahead of Felipe Massa at the Brazilian Grand Prix, after a pass for fifth place against the Toyota of Timo Glock on the final lap of the race.

  10. 2020

    Vienna

    In Vienna's Innere Stadt district, an ISIL sympathizer shoots and kills four people and injures 23 more, before being shot and killed by the police.

Famous birthday twins

Born on November 2

Shah Rukh Khan

b. 1965

Indian film actor, producer and television host

James K. Polk

b. 1795

American lawyer and politician, 11th President of the United States

Luchino Visconti

b. 1906

Italian director and screenwriter

Rafiq Tarar

b. 1929

Pakistani judge and politician, 9th President of Pakistan

Warren G. Harding

b. 1865

American journalist and politician, 29th President of the United States

Paul Johnson (writer)

b. 1928

English journalist, historian, and author

Marie Antoinette

b. 1755

Austrian-French queen consort of Louis XVI of France

Esha Deol

b. 1981

is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films.

Deaths

  • 2014Acker Bilk
  • 2012Han Suyin
  • 1992Hal Roach
  • 1975Pier Paolo Pasolini
  • 1963Ngo Dinh Diem
  • 1950George Bernard Shaw

Holidays & observances

  • —Christian feast day: Agapius and companions
  • —Christian feast day: Domninus of Vienne
  • —Christian feast day: Erc of Slane (Ireland)
  • —Christian feast day: Justus of Trieste
  • —Christian feast day: Victorinus of Pettau
  • —Christian feast day: November 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • —All Souls' Day (Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Communion)
  • —Coronation of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)

Historical facts, event summaries, and biographical lines above are adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. DateLore adds curation, structure, and original editorial commentary. DateLore is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.

About the author

Roman Tailor compiles and reviews every date on DateLore. He's the writer and editor behind the site's editorial essays and the day-by-day almanac. Corrections and questions are welcome — read more about DateLore or get in touch.

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