This Day In History : November 2

2024 United States

First Permanent Residents of the International Space Station

On November 2, 2000, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts became the first permanent residents of the International Space Station (ISS), starting their four-month mission. This marked a significant milestone in human space exploration, establishing a continuous human presence aboard the ISS for scientific research and international cooperation.

Also on This Day in History November 2

Discover what happened on November 2 with HISTORY's summaries of major events, anniversaries,
famous births and notable deaths.

Births on This Day, November 2
  • 1906 Bengt Edlén

    Swedish astrophysicist and spectroscopist who showed that certain emission lines in the solar spectrum were due to transitions in highly ionized atoms.

  • 1885 Harlow Shapley

    American astronomer known as “The Modern Copernicus,” who discovered the Sun's position in the galaxy. 

  • 1815 George Boole

    English mathematician and logician who helped establish modern symbolic logic and an algebra of logic, now called Boolean algebra.

  • 1932 Melvin Schwartz

    Melvin Schwartz, an American physicist, won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics with Leon M. Lederman and Jack Steinberger for developing the neutrino beam method and discovering the muon neutrino.

  • 1894 Alexander M. Lippisch

    Alexander M(artin) Lippisch was a German-American aerodynamicist whose designs of tailless and delta-winged aircraft in the 1920s and 1930s were important in the development of high-speed jet and rocket airplanes.

Deaths on This Day, November 2
  • 1966 Peter Debye

    Peter Joseph Wilhelm Debye was a Dutch-American physical chemist whose investigations of dipole moments, X rays, and light scattering in gases brought him the 1936 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

  • 1931 Alexandre Darracq

    French automobile manufacturer, one of the first to plan mass production of motor vehicles.

  • 1944 Thomas Midgley Jr.

    American engineer and chemist who discovered the effectiveness of tetraethyl lead (C2H5)4Pb in 1921 as an antiknock additive for gasoline.

  • 1930 Oliver Perry Hay

    American paleontologist whose catalogs of fossil vertebrates greatly organized existing knowledge and became standard references.

  • 1905 Rudolf von Kölliker

    Rudolph Albert von Kölliker was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist and histologist who was one of the founders of embryology.

2000

International Space Station

In 2000, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts became the first permanent residents of the international space station, at the start of their four-month mission.
1936

Television

In 1936, the world's first high-definition television service began by the BBC from studios and transmitters at Alexandra Palace, in north London.
1988

Computer "Worm" Unleashed by Cornell University Graduate Student

On November 2, 1988, a computer "worm" created by Robert T. Morris, a graduate student at Cornell University, began replicating rapidly, causing widespread disruption by clogging thousands of computers across the United States. The incident raised significant concerns about cybersecurity and prompted efforts to strengthen internet security protocols.
2020

"Baby Shark" by Pinkfong Becomes Most-Watched Video on YouTube

On November 2, 2020, "Baby Shark Dance" by Pinkfong became the most-watched video on YouTube, surpassing 7.04 billion views. The catchy children's song and dance video gained global popularity, making it a cultural phenomenon on the platform.
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