2 NOVEMBER

1570 - A tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland, killing more than 1,000 people.

1755 - Marie Antoinette is born in Vienna, later to become the wife of King Louis XVI of France.

1902 - Engineer Andrew Riker delivers the first commercial car with a four-cylinder, gas-powered internal combustion engine to a buyer in New York City.

1917 - The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for a Jewish state in Palestine, while specifically maintaining that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities."

1948 - Incumbent Harry S. Truman defeats challenger Thomas E. Dewey in the US presidential race, much to the surprise of the Chicago Tribune, which famously printed an early edition of the newspaper with a banner headline announcing the opposite.

1983 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is declared a federal holiday in the United States. It is the only US national holiday honoring a single individual.