On this day

November 2 in History

The story Historai has told for this date - listen, or read the transcript and sources.

← November 1View the calendar
The Emus Won Every Round

November 2, 1932

The Emus Won Every Round

Three soldiers, two machine guns, and twenty thousand birds that refused to lose. Behind the internet's favorite punchline sits a story of ruined veterans and a government that offered gunfire instead of help.

1 views · 0 Likes · 10 min

Also on this day

More that happened on November 2

Pick any event and Historai will make it an episode.

  1. 1570A massive storm surge in the North Sea collapsed dykes and inundated coastal regions stretching from Holland to Jutland.
  2. 1789The National Constituent Assembly placed all Catholic Church property at the disposal of the nation during the French Revolution.
  3. 1889President Benjamin Harrison signed the proclamations admitting North Dakota and South Dakota into the Union as separate states.
  4. 1917British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued a public pledge supporting the establishment of a national home for Jewish people in Palestine.
  5. 1936The British Broadcasting Corporation launched the world's first regular high-definition television broadcast service from Alexandra Palace in London.
  6. 1947Industrialist Howard Hughes piloted his colossal wooden flying boat, the H-4 Hercules, on its sole brief flight over Long Beach Harbor.
  7. 1948President Harry S Truman secured a stunning upset victory over Republican challenger Thomas Dewey in the United States presidential election.
  8. 1960A British jury acquitted Penguin Books of obscenity charges, clearing the way for unexpurgated publication of D.H. Lawrence's famous novel.
  9. 1963South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem was captured and assassinated in a military coup supported by the United States.
  10. 1983President Ronald Reagan signed legislation designating a federal holiday to honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
  11. 2000American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev docked successfully at the International Space Station.
  12. 2022Delegates representing the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front agreed to a permanent cessation of hostilities.

Chosen from the November 2 pages of HISTORY, HistoryNet and OnThisDay.com, retold in our own words.