November 2 Birthday
On November 2, 1948, the Chicago Tribune printed the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman." Truman had won. The headline became the most famous newspaper error in history. Truman held it up for photographers, grinning. The election was closer than expected — Truman won 303 electoral votes to Dewey's 189 — but he won. The polls had predicted a Dewey landslide. Gallup stopped polling three weeks before the election, believing the result was settled. The election demonstrated that polls could be wrong, a lesson that has been relearned repeatedly. KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast the first commercial radio election results on November 2, 1920. The station, owned by Westinghouse, broadcast returns from the Cox-Harding presidential election. The broadcast was heard by a few hundred people with crystal sets. Within two years, there were 600 radio stations in the United States. Radio transformed American politics — for the first time, voters could hear candidates' voices directly. People born on November 2 fall under the zodiac sign of Scorpio. The birthstone is Topaz and the birth flower is Chrysanthemum. Historical events on November 2 include 1947: Howard Hughes flies the H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose") for one mile, 1948: Harry Truman wins upset election over Thomas Dewey, 1920: KDKA broadcasts first commercial radio election results. Famous people born on November 2 include Daniel Boone (1734), Marie Antoinette (1755), k.d. lang (1961).