On this day, 77 years ago, November 2, 1948 (October 2, 1948 in the lunar calendar), Truman was re-elected as President of the United States. Re-election as president was an unexpected victory for Truman. No wonder he happily held up the newspaper that published the news of his victory. On November 2, 1948, President Truman won the majority of votes in the White House and defeated Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey, thus defeating people's pre-election predictions. Truman's victory was one of the unexpected electoral successes in American political history. Truman's political destiny was volatile throughout the night. Although he always led the general election, the president sometimes fell behind others in key elections. He won a majority in Illinois early this morning, giving him the lead. With the exception of President Truman himself, few political prophets in both parties believed that he would win. His own Democratic Party was deeply divided because southern rebels had broken away from the Democratic Party and formed the State Rights Party to resist the president's efforts to protect civil rights. Although the newly formed party's candidates, Gov. J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Fuldin L. Wright of Mississippi, failed to secure a majority, it did affect traditional support for the Democratic Party in southern states. Another reason that put the Democrats in trouble in the election was that there was also a breakaway party-the Progressive Party. The party's presidential candidate was Henry A. Wallace, the late President Roosevelt's deputy.