http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Dec 3, 1984: The Bhopal-Union Carbide disaster
In the early morning hours, one of the worst industrial disasters in history begins when a pesticide plant located in the densely populated region of Bhopal in central India leaks a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate into the air. Of the estimated one million people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 were killed immediately, at least 600,000 were injured, and at least 6,000 have died since.
The leak was caused by a series of mechanical and human errors in the pesticide producing plant, operated by the Union Carbide Corporation, a U.S.-based multinational. For a full hour, the plant's personnel and safety equipment failed to detect the massive leak, and when an alarm was finally sounded most of the harm had already been done. To make matters worse, local health officials had not been educated on the toxicity of the chemicals used at the Union Carbide plant and therefore there were no emergency procedures in place to protect Bhopal's citizens in the event of a chemical leak. If the victims had simply placed a wet towel over their face, most would have escaped serious injury.
The Indian government sued Union Carbide in a civil case and settled in 1989 for $470 million. Because of the great number of individuals affected by the disaster, most Bhopal victims received just $550, which could not pay for the chronic lung ailments, eye problems, psychiatric disorders, and other common illnesses they developed. The average compensation for deaths resulting from the disaster was $1,300. The Indian government, famous for its corruption, has yet to distribute roughly half of Union Carbide's original settlement. Union Carbide, which shut down its Bhopal plant after the disaster, has failed to clean up the site completely, and the rusty, deserted complex continues to leak various poisonous substances into the water and soil of Bhopal.
Dec 3, 1944: Civil war breaks out in Athens
On this day, a civil war breaks out in Athens as communist guerillas battle democratic forces for control of a liberated Greece. Germany had occupied Greece to bail out Italy after Italy's failed invasion threatened to leave Greece open to Allied occupation. When Germany arrived, various Greek resistance forces gave battle, but two stood out as particularly important: a communist-backed resistance movement called the National Liberation Front, and a liberal, democratic movement called the Greek Democratic National Army. While both of these factions operated from different ideological frameworks, they nevertheless occasionally cooperated in fighting the common German enemy. By early 1944 though, the communist-backed National Liberation Front had taken to the hills to create a provisional government, rejecting the legitimacy of both the Greek king and his government-in-exile. It also disregarded the one remaining rival for ultimate political supremacy in Greece—the Democratic National Army.
When Germany was forced to withdraw from Greece in October 1944, victorious British forces brought together the communist and democratic factions in order to establish a coalition government. But this government collapsed after the communist Liberation Front refused to disband its guerrilla forces. So, on December 3 war broke out between the communists and the democrats—with the National Liberation Front taking control of most of Greece, with the exception of the capital and Salonika.
The British fought against the communists with the Democratic National Army, which began to move more and more to the right politically as it struggled for survival and support. By February 1945, the National Liberation Front was forced to surrender and disband its guerilla army. One month later, a general election was held, and the democrats, now also royalists, won control of the government. The communists refrained from voting altogether, preferring to bide their time. When a plebiscite elected the Greek king back to his throne in September of the same year, the communists emerged from underground-and civil war broke out again. By this time, Britain, fed up and exhausted, left the negotiation for peace to the United States, which employed the Truman Doctrine of giving massive amounts of foreign aid to governments pledged to democracy in order to keep them out of the communist/Soviet orbit. It took time, but eventually the rejuvenated—and well-funded—Greek democrats were victorious.
Dec 3, 1962: Report maintains that Viet Cong are prepared for a long war
Roger Hilsman, director of the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, sends a memorandum to Secretary of State Dean Rusk pointing out that the communist Viet Cong fighters are obviously prepared for a long struggle.
While government control of the countryside had improved slightly, the Viet Cong had expanded considerably in size and influence, both through its own efforts and because of its attraction to "increasingly frustrated non-communist, anti-Diem elements." According to Hilsman, successfully eradicating the Viet Cong would take several years of greater effort by both the United States and the South Vietnamese government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Real success, he noted, depended upon Diem gaining the support of the South Vietnamese people through social and military measures, which he had so far failed to implement. Hilsman felt that a noncommunist coup against Diem "could occur at any time," and would seriously disrupt or reverse counterinsurgency momentum. As it turned out, Hilsman was eventually proven correct. On November 1, 1963, dissident South Vietnamese generals led a coup resulting in the murder of Diem. His death marked the end of civilian authority and political stability in South Vietnam. The succession of military juntas, coups, and attempted coups in 1964 and early 1965 weakened the government severely and disrupted the momentum of the counterinsurgency effort against the Viet Cong.
Dec 3, 1947: A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway
On this day in 1947, Marlon Brando's famous cry of "STELLA!" first booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.
The 23-year-old Brando played the rough, working-class Polish-American Stanley Kowalski, whose violent clash with Blanche DuBois (played on Broadway by Jessica Tandy), a Southern belle with a dark past, is at the center of Williams' famous drama. Blanche comes to stay with her sister Stella (Kim Hunter), Stanley's wife, at their home in the French Quarter of New Orleans; she and Stanley immediately despise each other. In the climactic scene, Stanley rapes Blanche, causing her to lose her fragile grip on sanity; the play ends with her being led away in a straitjacket.
Streetcar, produced by Irene Mayer Selznick and directed by Elia Kazan, shocked mid-century audiences with its frank depiction of sexuality and brutality onstage. When the curtain went down on opening night, there was a moment of stunned silence before the crowd erupted into a round of applause that lasted 30 minutes. On December 17, the cast left New York to go on the road. The show would run for more than 800 performances, turning the charismatic Brando into an overnight star. Tandy won a Tony Award for her performance, and Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In 1951, Kazan made Streetcar into a movie. Brando, Hunter and Karl Malden (as Stanley's friend and Blanche's love interest) reprised their roles. The role of Blanche went to Vivien Leigh, the scenery-chewing star of Gone with the Wind. Controversy flared when the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened to condemn the film unless the explicitly sexual scenes--including the climactic rape--were removed. When Williams, who wrote the screenplay, refused to take out the rape, the Legion insisted that Stanley be punished onscreen. As a result, the movie (but not the play) ends with Stella leaving Stanley.
A Streetcar Named Desire earned 12 Oscar nominations, including acting nods for each of its four leads. The movie won for Best Art Direction, and Leigh, Hunter and Malden all took home awards; Brando lost to Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
741 - St Zachary begins his reign as Catholic Pope
succeeding Gregory III
1347 - Pope Clemens VI declares Roman tribunal Coke di
Rienzo as heretics
1557 - 1st Covenant of Scottish protestants form
1586 - Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England,
from Colombia
1621 - Galileo invents telescope
1639 - 1st annulment by court decree passes
1676 - Battle of Lund: Sweden beats Denmark
1678 - Edmund Halley receives MA from The Queen's College,
Oxford
1685 - Charles II bars Jews from settling in Stockholm
Sweden
1694 - English parliamentary election set for every 3 years
1699 - Baron Jacob Hop appointed treasurer-general of the
Hague
1775 - 1st official US flag raising (aboard naval vessel
Alfred)
1818 - Illinois becomes 21st state USA (Admission day)
1828 - Andrew Jackson elected 7th US President
1833 - Oberlin College in Oh, 1st truly coeducational
college opens
1834 - 1st US dental society organized (NY)
1835 - 1st US mutual fire insurance company issues 1st
policy (RI)
1844 - RC Society Apostole of Prayer forms
1847 - Frederick Douglass publishes 1st issue of his
newspaper "North Star"
Abolitionist Frederick DouglassAbolitionist Frederick
Douglass 1854 - Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of
Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.
1863 - Longstreet abandons his siege at Knoxville, TN
1864 - Skirmish at Thomas' Station, Georgia
1866 - Paid fire dept replaces volunteer companies
1868 - 1st blacks on US trial jury appointed for Jefferson
Davis trial
1878 - Settlers arrive at Petach Tikvah, Israel
1881 - Henry M Stanley finds Leopoldville/Kinshasa
1883 - 48th Congress (1883-85) convenes
1901 - Milwaukee is dropped from the AL & replaced by St
Louis Browns
1903 - Panglima Polim surrenders to Capt Colijn at Atjeh
1907 - George Cohans musical "Talk of the Town"
premieres in NYC
1908 - Edward Elgar's 1st Symphony in A premieres
1910 - Neon lights 1st publically seen (Paris Auto Show)
1912 - Gerrit Brinkman becomes 1st Dutch traffic officer
1912 - Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece & Bulgaria
sign weapons pact
Confederate General James LongstreetConfederate General
James Longstreet 1912 - First Balkan War: The Naval Battle of Elli takes place.
1914 - Neth army shoots up geïnterneerde Belgian soldiers: 8
killed
1917 - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction,
the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.
1920 - Turkey & Armenia agree to peace treaty
1921 - 9th CFL Grey Cup: Toronto Argonauts defeats Edmonton
Eskimos, 23-0
1922 - 1st successful technicolor movie (Tall of the Sea),
shown in NYC
1923 - 1st Congressional open session broadcast via radio
(Wash DC)
1926 - Manchester Guardian (German Reichswehr/Red Army work
together)
1929 - Boston Bruins begins then NHL record 14 game winning
streak
1930 - Air-borne chemicals combine with fog to kill 60
(Meuse Valley Belgium)
1930 - Otto Ender forms Austrian government
1930 - Richard Rodgers/L Hart's musical
"Evergreen" premieres in London
1931 - Alka Seltzer goes on sale
1932 - 20th CFL Grey Cup: Hamilton Tigers defeats Regina
Roughriders, 25-6
1932 - Gen Kurt von Schleicher becomes chancellor of Germany
Baseball Legend Connie MackBaseball Legend Connie Mack 1933
- Connie Mack sells Mickey Cochrane to Det Tigers for $100,000
1933 - Joe Lilliard QBs Chic Cardinals; last NFL black until
1946
1934 - Italian colonial Tripoli & Cyrenaica annexed to
Libya
1934 - KYW-AM in Chicago Ill moves to Phila Penn
1938 - AAU's decides to continue linear measuring system
over metric
1939 - Dmitri Sjostakovitsj's 6th Symphony, premieres
1941 - Hitler views Poltava Ukraine
1943 - 9th Heisman Trophy Award: Angelo Bertelli, Notre Dame
(QB)
1943 - Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy begins
1943 - Howard Hanson's 4th Symphony, premieres
1943 - Strike of Monte Cassino, Italy begins
1944 - British order to disarm causes general strike in
Greece
1944 - Hungarian death march of Jews ends
1944 - Mussert puts Seyss-Inquart plan for small Nazi-Europe
1944 - NFL Cardinals-Pitts merger disolves
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi
Germany Adolf Hitler 1944 - US 5th Armoured division occupies Brandenburg
Hurtgenwald
1944 - The Greek Civil War breaks out in a newly-liberated
Greece, between communists and royalists.
1944 - Britain's Home Guard ('Dad's Army') is officially
stood down at a special farewell parade in Hyde Park, London.
1946 - 12th Heisman Trophy Award: Glenn Davis, Army (HB)
1946 - US government asks UN to order dictator Franco out of
Spain
1947 - Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named
Desire," premieres in NYC
1948 - "Pumpkin Papers" come to light (claimed to
be from Alger Hiss)
1948 - 1st US woman army officer not in medical corps
sworn-in
1948 - Bradman scores his last century, 123 in his own
testimonial
1948 - Chinese refugee ship "Kiangya" explodes in
E China Sea, killing 1,100
1949 - KRLD (now KDFW) TV channel 4 in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
(CBS) begins
1950 - Cleveland Browns last NFL team with no-pass game
(beat Phila 13-7)
1950 - Paul Harvey begins his national radio broadcast
1950 - Cleveland Browns' Horace Gillom sets club record with
12 punts
1952 - 1st TV broadcast in Hawaii
Playwright Tennessee WilliamsPlaywright Tennessee Williams
1952 - Marcos Perez Jiménez elected president of Venezuela
1953 - "Kismet" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for
583 performances
1953 - Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy for saying communists
are in Rep party
1953 - Premier of Dmitri Shostakovitch' 5th String Quartet
1954 - Samuel Barber's "Prayers of Kierkegaard,"
premieres
1954 - William Walton's opera "Troilus &
Cressida," premieres in London
1955 - KTVE TV channel 10 in Monroe-El Dorado, LA (NBC)
begins broadcasting
1956 - Bitain & France pull troops out of Egypt
1956 - KFSA (now KFSM) TV channel 5 in Ft Smith, AR (CBS)
1st broadcast
1956 - Wilt Chamberlain's 1st collegiate basketball game
(scores 52)
1957 - 23rd Heisman Trophy Award: John Crow, Texas A&M
(HB)
1958 - Indonesian parliament accepts nationalisation of
Dutch businesses
1959 - State of emergency on Cyprus ends
1960 - "Camelot" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for
873 performances
1960 - Frederick Loewe/Alan Jay Lerner's
"Camelot," premieres in NYC
1961 - Anton Geesink becomes 1st not-Japanese judo world
champion
1961 - Beatles meet future manager Brian Epstein
1961 - George Blanda of Houston Oilers kicks 55-yard field
goal
1961 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1962 - Edith Spurlock Sampson sworn-in as 1st US black
female judge
1962 - Pravda criticizes western art
1964 - KHQL (now KCAN) TV channel 8 in Albion, NB (ABC)
begins broadcasting
1964 - Police arrests 800 sit-in students at U of Cal at
Berkeley
1965 - Beatles begin final UK concert tour in Glasgow
1965 - USSR launches Luna 8; crashes on Moon
1966 - US performs underground nuclear test at Hattiesburg
Miss
1967 - 1st human heart transplant performed (Dr Christian
Barnard, South Africa)
1967 - Derek Clayton runs world record marathon (2:09:36.4)
1967 - Ex-president Sukarno under house arrest in Indonesia
1967 - Final run of "20th Century Limited," famed
NY-Chicago luxury train
1968 - NBC Elvis comeback special airs
1968 - Pitcher's mound drops from 15" to 10" &
strike zone reduced from knees to shoulders to top of knees to armpits, to help
hitters
1969 - John Lennon is offered role of Jesus Christ in Jesus
Christ Superstar
1970 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1971 - Miss Teenage America Pageant
1971 - Pres Nixon commutes Jimmy Hoffa's jail term
1971 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: India invades West
Pakistan and a full scale war begins claiming hundreds of lives.
1972 - Convair 990A charter crashes in Tenerife Canary
Island, 155 die
1973 - Pioneer 10 passes Jupiter (1st fly-by of an outer
planet) [Dec 4-GMT]
1975 - Laos falls to communist forces; Lao People's
Democratic Rep proclaimed
1976 - Dr Patrick J Hillery elected president of Iraq
1978 - "King of Hearts" closes at Minskoff Theater
NYC after 48 performances
1978 - Pat Bradley/Lon Hinkle wins LPGA J C Penney Golf
Classic
1979 - 11 trampled to death at Cincinnati Who concert
1979 - 45th Heisman Trophy Award: Charles White, Southern
Cal (RB)
1979 - Christies auctions a thimble for a record $18,400
1979 - Iran accepts constitution
1979 - Shadow Traffic begins broadcasting in the New York
City metropolitan area.
1980 - NY Federal jury finds Reps Thompson D-NJ &
Murphy, D-NY, guilty
1981 - Beth Daniel/Tom Kite wins LPGA J C Penney Golf
Classic
1981 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1982 - 1st NJ Devil hat-trick (Steve Tambellini) defeat
Hartford 5-4
1982 - 35.7 cm rainfall at Big Fork, Arkansas (state record)
1982 - 77°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland
in Dec
1982 - NJ Devils 1st hat trick (Steve Tambellini)
1982 - Tommy Hearns wins WBC Welterweight title in decision
over Benitez
1983 - "Marilyn: An American Fable" closes at
Minskoff NYC after 16 perfs
1983 - 49th Heisman Trophy Award: Mike Rozier, Nebraska (RB)
1983 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1984 - 2,000 die from Union Carbide poison gas emission in
Bhopal, India
1985 - 23rd Shuttle Mission (61-B)-Atlantis 2-lands at
Edwards AFB
1986 - Sri Lanka all out 55 v WI in one-dayer Walsh 5-1 in 4
3 overs
1988 - 54th Heisman Trophy Award: Barry Sanders, Oklahoma
State (RB)
1988 - NY Lotto pays $45 million to twelve winner (#s are
1-8-13-18-28-48)
1989 - Pat Bradley/Bill Glasson wins LPGA J C Penney Golf
Classic
1989 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President
George Bush, snr, declare the Cold War over.
1990 - NL batting champ Willie McGee signs as a free agent
with SF Giants
WWF Wrestler Hulk HoganWWF Wrestler Hulk Hogan 1991 - Hulk
Hogan defeats Undertaker to become 4th time WWF champion
1991 - Muslim Shites release US hostage Alan Steen
1991 - White House Chief of Staff John Sununu resigns
1992 - UN Security Council votes unanimous for US led forces
to enter Somalia
1992 - The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000
tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching La Coruña,
Spain, and spills much of its cargo.
1995 - "Company" closes at Criterion Theater NYC
after 68 performances
1995 - "Holiday" opens at Circle in Sq Theater NYC
for 49 performances
1995 - 84th Davis Cup: USA beats Russia in Moscow (3-2)
1995 - Beth Daniels/Davis Love III wins LPGA J C Penney Golf
Classic
1995 - Jack Russell takes 11 catches in Test Cricket v South
Africa, a record
1995 - Naeem Akhtar takes 10-28 for Rawalpindi B against
Peshawar
1995 - Northwestern South Carolina begins using new area
code 864
1997 - "1776" opens at Gershwin Theater NYC
1997 - Golden State Warrior guard Latrell Sprewell,
four-year, $32 million, contract terminated for attacking his coach P J
Carlesimo
1999 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander
moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
2005 - XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft
delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.
2007 - Devastating winter storms caused the Chehalis River
to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile
portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of
dollars of damaged are blamed on the floods.
2012 - Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, reaches the
end of our solar system and enters interstellar space
1818 - Illinois was admitted as the 21st state of the union. 1828 - Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States. 1833 - Oberlin College in Ohio opened as the first truly coeducational school of higher education in the United States. 1835 - In Rhode Island, the Manufacturer Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued the first fire insurance policy. 1910 - The neon lamp was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show. The lamp was developed by French physicist Georges Claude. 1917 - The Quebec Bridge opened for traffic after almost 20 years of planning and construction. The bridge suffered partial collapses in 1907 (August 29) and 1916 (September 11). 1931 - Alka Seltzer was sold for the first time. 1947 - The Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theater. 1948 - The "Pumpkin Papers" came to public light. The House Un-American Activities Committee announced that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm. 1950 - Paul Harvey began his national radio broadcast. 1950 - Tom Fears (Los Angeles Rams) caught an NFL-record 18 passes against the Green Bay Packers. Terrell Owens (San Francisco 49ers) broke the record with 20 catches for 283 yards and a touchdown against the Chicago Bears on December 17, 2000. 1967 - In Cape Town, South Africa, a team of surgeons headed by Dr. Christian Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky. Washkansky only lived 18 days. 1967 - The famed luxury train, "20th Century Limited," completed its final run from New York to Chicago. 1968 - The rules committee of Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that in 1969 the pitcher's mound would be lowered from 15 to 10 inches. This was done in order to "get more batting action." 1973 - Pioneer 10 sent back the first close-up images of Jupiter. The first outer-planetary probe had been launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on March 2, 1972. 1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center removed the respirator of Barney Clark. The retired dentist had become the world's first recipient of a permanent artificial heart only one day before. 1983 - 3-foot-high concrete barriers were installed at two White House entrances. 1984 - In Bhopal, India, more than 2,000 people were killed after a cloud of poisonous gas escaped from a pesticide plant. The plant was operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary. 1987 - U.S. President Reagan said there was a good chance of progress toward a treaty on long-range weapons with Mikhail S. Gorbachev. 1992 - The UN Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help starving Somalians. 1992 - The Greek tanker "Aegean Sea" ran aground at La Coruna, Spain and spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil. 1993 - Britain's Princess Diana announced she would be limiting her public appearances because she was tired of the media's intrusions into her life. 1993 - Angola's government and its rebel enemies agreed to a cease-fire in their 18-year war. 1994 - Rebel Serbs in Bosnia failed to keep a pledge to release hundreds of UN peacekeepers. 1995 - Former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan was arrested for his role in a 1979 coup. 1997 - Pierce Brosnan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, more than 120 countries were represented to sign a treaty prohibiting the use and production of anti-personnel land mines. The United States, China and Russia did not sign the treaty. 1997 - South Korea received $55 billion from the International Monetary Fund to bailout its economy. 1999 - Tori Murden became the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean alone. It took her 81 days to reach the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands. 1999 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded a four-day meeting in Seattle, WA, without setting an agenda for a new round of trade talks. The meeting was met with fierce protests by various groups. 1999 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lost radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander as it entered Mars' atmosphere. The spacecraft was unmanned.
1818 Illinois became the 21st state in the United States. 1833 Oberlin College in Ohio became the first coed institution of higher learning in the U.S. 1910 Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science movement, died. 1919 French painter and sculptor Pierre A. Renoir died at age 78. 1967 Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard performed the world's first successful human heart transplant. 1984 A cloud of deadly poison gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing over 4,000 people.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/dec03.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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