Today in History: November 2, Howard Hughes takes ‘Spruce Goose’ on its only flight

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Today is Sunday, Nov. 2, the 306th day of 2025. There are 59 days left in the year. Daylight saving time ends today.

Today in history:

On Nov. 2, 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his Hughes H-4 Hercules, nicknamed the “Spruce Goose,” on its only flight; a massive wooden seaplane with a wingspan longer than a football field, it remained airborne for 26 seconds.

Also on this date:

In 1783, Gen. George Washington issued his Farewell Address to the Army.

In 1861, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln relieved Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont of his command of the Army’s Western Department, following Fremont’s unauthorized efforts to emancipate slaves in Missouri.

In 1948, in one of the most unexpected results in U.S. presidential election history, Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman defeated the heavily favored Republican governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1959, Charles Van Doren testified before a congressional committee that he had conspired with television producers to cheat on the television quiz show “Twenty-One.”

In 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter, a former governor of Georgia, became the first candidate from the Deep South to be elected president since the Civil War, defeating Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford.

In 2000, American astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, became the first crew to reside onboard the International Space Station; they spent a total of 136 days in the station before returning to Earth on Space Shuttle Discovery.

In 2003, in Iraq, insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying U.S. soldiers, killing 16 and wounding 20 others.

In 2004, Republican President George W. Bush was elected to a second term, defeating Democratic Sen. John Kerry as the GOP strengthened its control of Congress.

In 2007, British college student Meredith Kercher, 21, was found slain in her bedroom in Perugia, Italy; her roommate, American Amanda Knox, and Knox’s Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of killing Kercher, but both were later exonerated.

In 2016, ending a championship drought that had lasted since 1908, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, defeating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in extra innings in the deciding seventh game.

In 2021, the Atlanta Braves won their first World Series championship since 1995, defeating the Houston Astros in Game 6.

In 2023, FTX founder and disgraced cryptocurrency star Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud by a New York jury for stealing at least $10 billion from customers and investors. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for the massive scheme that led to the collapse of the FTX platform for exchanging digital currency.