2 November 1791

Lewis Hamilton (pictured) overtook Timo Glock in the final corners of the Brazilian Grand Prix to win the Formula One championship by one point.

As members of Expedition 1, American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko (all pictured) became the first resident crew to arrive at the International Space Station.

Tropical Storm Linda made landfall in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, causing more than 3,000 deaths.

The serial killer Velma Barfield became the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1962.

President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was assassinated, marking the culmination of a coup d'état led by Dương Văn Minh.

The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ended with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to the United States of Indonesia.

World War II: A U.S. Navy task force turned away an Imperial Japanese Navy formation at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, thus protecting the landings at Cape Torokina.

The Australian military began a "war against emus", flightless native birds blamed for widespread damage to crops in Western Australia.

The British government issued the Balfour Declaration in support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small Jewish minority.

James A. Garfield was elected as president of the United States; the election is the closest to date by popular vote margin.

Emperor Gaozu of Tang allowed the assassination of a khagan of the Western Turkic Khaganate by Eastern Turkic rivals, one of the earliest events in the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks.

A peace agreement is signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, ending the Tigray War.

In Vienna's Innere Stadt district, an ISIL sympathizer shoots and kills four people and injures 23 more, before being shot and killed by the police.

The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years.

Lewis Hamilton secured his maiden Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by one point ahead of Felipe Massa at the Brazilian Grand Prix, after a pass for fifth place against the Toyota of Timo Glock on the final lap of the race.

Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted.

Honolulu shootings: In the worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii, a gunman shoots at eight people in his workplace, killing seven.

Tropical Storm Linda makes landfall in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, causing more than 3,000 deaths.

British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television plc merge to form BSkyB as a result of massive losses.

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703 crashes in Białobrzegi, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland, killing one person and injuring several more.

Lebanon hostage crisis: U.S. hostage David Jacobsen is released in Beirut after 17 months in captivity.

Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Channel 4, the British free-to-air public broadcast television channel funded by its commercial activities, starts broadcasting.