Jen and Jon Johnson

On Nov. 3, 1903 Panama declared its independence from Columbia with the
support of the US. The United States was hoping to build the Panama Canal
once Panama was free from Columbia.

On Nov. 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signs a bill designating a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., to be observed on the third Monday of January.

On Nov, 1, 1952, the US detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon,
the hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific. The test gave the US a
short-lived advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.