In one of the greatest upsets in presidential election
history, Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman
defeats his Republican challenger, Governor Thomas
E. Dewey of New York, by just over two million popular
votes.

       
In the days preceding the vote, political analysts and
polls were so behind Dewey that on election night,
long before all the votes were counted, the Chicago
Tribune published an early edition with the banner
headline above, “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.”          

Harry Truman (left) and his political rival Thomas Dewey.

Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster in that famous beach scene in
From Here to Eternity  (Columbia Pictures, 1953).

     
Walter Jerry Payton (July 25, 1953 – November 1, 1999)
      

LONDON (AP) — For sale: The world’s most valuable toilet,
a lavatory literally worth its weight in gold.

Sotheby’s announced Friday that it will auction off the solid
gold cistern, a sculpture by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan
entitled “America.”

The auction house calls it an “incisive commentary on the
collision of artistic production and commodity value.” It’s
also a fully functional toilet, identical to one that gained
global fame when it was stolen in an audacious heist from
England’s Blenheim Palace in 2019.

The starting price at the Nov. 18 auction in New York will be
the price of the just over 101.2 kilograms (223 pounds) of
gold used to make it – currently about $10 million.