This day in history

[November 02, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Monday, Nov. 2, the 306th day of 2009. There are 59 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 2, 1959, former game show contestant Charles Van Doren admitted before a House subcommittee that he'd been given questions and answers in advance when he appeared on the NBC program "Twenty One," amassing $129,000 during a 14-week run.

On this date:

In 1783, Gen. George Washington issued his Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States near Princeton, N.J.

In 1795, the 11th president of the United States, James Knox Polk, was born in Mecklenburg County, N.C.

In 1859, John Brown was convicted of treason against Virginia, murder and conspiracy for his raid on Harpers Ferry. (He was hanged one month later.) The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art was opened in New York by its founder, Peter Cooper.

In 1865, the 29th president of the United States, Warren Gamaliel Harding, was born near Marion, Ohio.

In 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states.

In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued a declaration expressing support for a "national home" for the Jews in Palestine.

In 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden flying boat, the Hughes H-4 Hercules (derisively dubbed the "Spruce Goose" by detractors), on its only flight, which lasted about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California.

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman surprised the experts by winning a narrow upset over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1979, black militant JoAnne Chesimard escaped from a New Jersey prison, where she'd been serving a life sentence for the 1973 slaying of a New Jersey state trooper, Werner Foerster. (Chesimard, who took the name Assata Shakur, now lives in Cuba.)

In 1984, Velma Barfield, convicted of fatally poisoning boyfriend Stuart Taylor, was put to death by injection in Raleigh, N.C., becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

Ten years ago: Xerox repairman Byran Uyesugi opened fire on his co-workers in Honolulu, killing seven of them. (Uyesugi was later sentenced to life in prison without parole.) Republicans pushed the year's last and biggest spending bill through Congress toward a sure veto by President Bill Clinton.

Five years ago: President George W. Bush was elected to a second term as Republicans strengthened their grip on Congress. Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was slain in Amsterdam after receiving death threats over his movie "Submission," which criticized the treatment of women under Islam. (Mohammed Bouyeri is serving a life sentence for killing van Gogh.)

One year ago: Barack Obama and John McCain uncorked massive get-out-the-vote operations in more than a dozen battleground states the Sunday before Election Day. Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, died in Honolulu at age 86. Paula Radcliffe defended her title at the New York City Marathon to become the second woman to win the race three times; Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil won the men's race for the second time in three years.

Today's birthdays: R&B singer Earl "Seedo" Carroll (The Cadillacs; The Coasters) is 72. Singer Jay Black (Jay and the Americans) is 71. Political commentator Patrick Buchanan is 71. Actress Stefanie Powers is 67. Author Shere Hite is 67. Rock musician Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 65. Country-rock singer-songwriter J.D. Souther is 64. Actress Kate Linder is 62. Rock musician Carter Beauford (The Dave Matthews Band) is 52. Singer-songwriter k.d. lang is 48. Rock musician Bobby Dall (Poison) is 46. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage is 45. Actress Lauren Velez is 45. Actor David Schwimmer is 43. Christian/jazz singer Alvin Chea (Take 6) is 42. Rock musician Fieldy is 40. Rock singer-musician John Hampson (Nine Days) is 38. R&B singer Timothy Christian Riley (Tony Toni Tone) is 35. Rapper Nelly is 35. Prodigy (Mobb Deep) is 35. Actor Danny Cooksey is 34. Rock musician Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie) is 34. Country singer Erika Jo ("Nashville Star") is 23.

Thought for today: "If I have done any deed worthy of remembrance, that deed will be my monument. If not, no monument can preserve my memory." -- Agesilaus II, King of Sparta (c. 444-360 B.C.)

[Associated Press]

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