Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Election Day through the years...
November 2nd featured a number of key election results starting with the election of Warren G. Harding in 1920 but what made that election so special wasn't the result but the coverage of that election. The results of that presidential election between Harding and James M. Cox were broadcast on radio for the first time on KDKA in Pittsburgh. The following year Americans spent $10 million on radios. By 1922, some 500 radio stations were broadcasting programs and the era of electronic entertainment had begun...
Fast forward to November 2, 1948 when the Chicago Tribune in an early edition screamed "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" in anticipation of an expected win by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey. The Truman victory surprised many pollsters but no one was more surprised than the editors of the Chicago Tribune in the first case of "oops" in publishing history...
On this date in 1976 a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia won the presidency by defeating Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford as Jimmy Carter would become the first U.S. president from the deep south since the Civil War...
Same date, different year, make it 1993. On that date, Christie Todd Whitman was elected the first woman governor of New Jersey. Not to be outdone by the state across the river, New York elected Rudy Giuliani as its 107th mayor...
More November 2 Memories...
1867) "Harpers Bazaar" is founded...
1920) KDKA broadcasts results of presidential election (feature story)...
1948) Truman wins presidency in a surprise election (feature story)...
1959) Charles Van Doren admits having answers in advance when he appeared on the NBC-TV game show, "Twenty-One"...
1960) 66-year old George Weiss resigns as Yankee GM...
1962) The Elvis Presley film "Girls! Girls! Girls!" premieres...
1963) The Beach Boys release "Be True To Your School"...
1964) CBS purchases 80% of the Yankees for $11 million (they'll also buy the remaining 20% at a later date)...
1968) Stevie Wonder tops the charts with "For Once In My Life"...
1971) Cher is #1 with "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves"...
1973) "Barbra Streisand...and Other Musical Instruments" airs on CBS-TV...
1974) The Braves trade Hank Aaron to the Milwaukee Brewers assuring that Aaron will end his career where he started it, in Milwaukee...
1974) George Harrison begins his 1st tour in 8 years...
1976) Jimmy Carter is elected president (feature story)...
1976) New Jersey voters approve gambling in Atlantic City...
1979) Mick and Bianca Jagger are divorced...
1979) Black militant Joanna Chesimard escapes from a New Jersey prison where she was serving a life sentence for the 1973 murder of a state trooper...
1981) Daryl Hall & John Oates top the charts with "Private Eyes"...
1983) President Reagan signs a bill establishing a federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr...
1985) Stevie Wonder is #1 with "Part-Time Lover"...
1986) 33-year old Norwegian runner Grete Waitz wins her 8th New York City Marathon and her 5th in a row (5 years later she would win her 9th)...
1992) Infected with HIV, Magic Johnson retires from the NBA...
1993) Whitman elected governor of NJ, Giuliani elected mayor of New York City (feature story)...
1995) Joe Torre is named manager of the Yankees (he will lead them to 5 American League titles and 4 World Series championships in the next 7 seasons)...
Happy Birthday To...
1937) Earl "Speedo" Carroll...
1938) Brooklyn's own David Blatt aka Jay Black...
1938) Pat Buchanan...
1942) Stephanie Powers...
1952) Maxine Nightingale...
1961) k.d. lang...
