http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Dec 2, 1804: Napoleon crowned emperor
In Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Napoleon I, the first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor in a thousand years. Pope Pius VII handed Napoleon the crown that the 35-year-old conqueror of Europe placed on his own head.
The Corsican-born Napoleon, one of the greatest military strategists in history, rapidly rose in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during the late 1790s. By 1799, France was at war with most of Europe, and Napoleon returned home from his Egyptian campaign to take over the reigns of the French government and save his nation from collapse. After becoming first consul in February 1800, he reorganized his armies and defeated Austria. In 1802, he established the Napoleonic Code, a new system of French law, and in 1804 he established the French empire. By 1807, Napoleon's empire stretched from the River Elbe in the north, down through Italy in the south, and from the Pyrenees to the Dalmatian coast.
Beginning in 1812, Napoleon began to encounter the first significant defeats of his military career, suffering through a disastrous invasion of Russia, losing Spain to the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula War, and enduring total defeat against an allied force by 1814. Exiled to the island of Elba, he escaped to France in early 1815 and raised a new Grand Army that enjoyed temporary success before its crushing defeat at Waterloo against an allied force under Wellington on June 18, 1815.
Napoleon was subsequently exiled to the island of Saint Helena off the coast of Africa, where he lived under house arrest with a few followers. In May 1821, he died, most likely of stomach cancer. He was only 51 years old. In 1840, his body was returned to Paris, and a magnificent funeral was held. Napoleon's body was conveyed through the Arc de Triomphe and entombed under the dome of the Invalides.
Dec 2, 1917: Russia reaches armistice with the Central Powers
A day after Bolsheviks seize control of Russian military headquarters at Mogilev, a formal ceasefire is proclaimed throughout the battle zone between Russia and the Central Powers.
Immediately after their accession to power in Russia in November 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, had approached the Central Powers to arrange an armistice and withdraw from a war they saw as the major obstacle to their plan of providing food and land to the long-impoverished Russian peasant population. Leon Trotsky, in charge of foreign affairs, pressed Britain and France to open peace negotiations, threatening to make a separate armistice if his demands went unmet. After no response from the Allies, the Bolsheviks went ahead with their plan and made an appeal for peace that was welcomed by both Germany and Austria.
As a result of the ensuing negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, concluded in March 1918 after three months of debate and even renewed fighting in some areas, Russia would lose a million square miles of its territory, a third of its population, a majority of its coal, oil, and iron stores, and much of its industry. Lenin insisted that his Congress of Soviets accept the "shameful peace," as he called it, "in order to save the world revolution" and "its only foothold — the Soviet Republic."
Dec 2, 1942: Fermi produces the first nuclear chain reaction
On this day, Enrico Fermi, the Italian-born Nobel Prize-winning physicist, directs and controls the first nuclear chain reaction in his laboratory beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, ushering in the nuclear age. Upon succesful completion of the experiment, a coded message was transmitted to President Roosevelt: "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world."
Following on England's Sir James Chadwick's discovery of the neutron and the Curies' production of artificial radioactivity, Fermi, a full-time professor of physics at the University of Florence, focused his work on producing radioactivity by manipulating the speed of neutrons derived from radioactive beryllium. Further similar experimentation with other elements, including uranium 92, produced new radioactive substances; Fermi's colleagues believed he had created a new "transuranic" element with an atomic number of 93, the result of uranium 92 capturing a neuron while under bombardment, thus increasing its atomic weight. Fermi remained skeptical about his discovery, despite the enthusiasm of his fellow physicists. He became a believer in 1938, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for "his identification of new radioactive elements." Although travel was restricted for men whose work was deemed vital to national security, Fermi was given permission to leave Italy and go to Sweden to receive his prize. He and his wife, Laura, who was Jewish, never returned; both feared and despised Mussolini's fascist regime.
Fermi immigrated to New York City--Columbia University, specifically, where he recreated many of his experiments with Niels Bohr, the Danish-born physicist, who suggested the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction. Fermi and others saw the possible military applications of such an explosive power, and quickly composed a letter warning President Roosevelt of the perils of a German atomic bomb. The letter was signed and delivered to the president by Albert Einstein on October 11, 1939. The Manhattan Project, the American program to create its own atomic bomb, was the result.
It fell to Fermi to produce the first nuclear chain reaction, without which such a bomb was impossible. He created a jury-rigged laboratory with the necessary equipment, which he called an "atomic pile," in a squash court in the basement of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. With colleagues and other physicists looking on, Fermi produced the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction and the "new world" of nuclear power was born.
Dec 2, 1823: Monroe Doctrine declared
During his annual address to Congress, President James Monroe proclaims a new U.S. foreign policy initiative that becomes known as the "Monroe Doctrine." Primarily the work of Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the Monroe Doctrine forbade European interference in the American hemisphere but also asserted U.S. neutrality in regard to future European conflicts.
The origins of the Monroe Doctrine stem from attempts by several European powers to reassert their influence in the Americas in the early 1820s. In North America, Russia had attempted to expand its influence in the Alaska territory, and in Central and South America the U.S. government feared a Spanish colonial resurgence. Britain too was actively seeking a major role in the political and economic future of the Americas, and Adams feared a subservient role for the United States in an Anglo-American alliance.
The United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine to defend its increasingly imperialistic role in the Americas in the mid-19th century, but it was not until the Spanish-American War in 1898 that the United States declared war against a European power over its interference in the American hemisphere. The isolationist position of the Monroe Doctrine was also a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy in the 19th century, and it took the two world wars of the 20th century to draw a hesitant America into its new role as a major global power.
Dec 2, 1859: John Brown hanged
In Charles Town, Virginia, militant abolitionist John Brown is executed on charges of treason, murder, and insurrection.
Brown, born in Connecticut in 1800, first became militant during the mid-1850s, when as a leader of the Free State forces in Kansas he fought pro-slavery settlers in the sharply divided U.S. territory. Achieving only moderate success in his fight against slavery on the Kansas frontier, and committing atrocities in the process, Brown settled on a more ambitious plan in 1859.
With a group of racially mixed followers, Brown set out to Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia, intending to seize the Federal arsenal of weapons and retreat to the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland and Virginia, where they would establish an abolitionist republic of liberated slaves and abolitionist whites. Their republic hoped to form a guerrilla army to fight slaveholders and ignite slave insurrections, and its population would grow exponentially with the influx of liberated and fugitive slaves.
At Harpers Ferry on October 16, Brown's well-trained unit was initially successful, capturing key points in the town, but Brown's plans began to deteriorate after his raiders stopped a Baltimore-bound train and then allowed it to pass through. News of the raid spread quickly, and militia companies from Maryland and Virginia arrived the next day, killing or capturing several raiders. On October 18, U.S. Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, both of whom were destined to become famous Civil War generals, recaptured the arsenal, taking John Brown and several other raiders alive. On November 2, Brown was sentenced to death by hanging.
On the day of his execution, 16 months before the outbreak of the Civil War, John Brown prophetically wrote, "The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."
Dec 2, 1961: Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist
Following a year of severely strained relations between the United States and Cuba, Cuban leader Fidel Castro openly declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist. The announcement sealed the bitter Cold War animosity between the two nations.
Castro came to power in 1959 after leading a successful revolution against the dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista. Almost from the start, the United States worried that Castro was too leftist in his politics. He implemented agrarian reform, expropriated foreign oil company holdings, and eventually seized all foreign-owned property in Cuba. He also established close diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and the Russians were soon providing economic and military aid. By January 1961, the United States had severed diplomatic relations with Cuba. In April, the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion took place, wherein hundreds of rebels, armed and trained by the United States, attempted a landing in Cuba with the intent of overthrowing the Castro government. The attack ended in a dismal military defeat for the rebels and an embarrassing diplomatic setback for the United States.
In December 1961, Castro made clear what most U.S. officials already believed. In a televised address on December 2, Castro declared, "I am a Marxist-Leninist and shall be one until the end of my life." He went on to state that, "Marxism or scientific socialism has become the revolutionary movement of the working class." He also noted that communism would be the dominant force in Cuban politics: "There cannot be three or four movements." Some questioned Castro's dedication to the communist cause, believing that his announcement was simply a stunt to get more Soviet assistance. Castro, however, never deviated from his declared principles, and went on to become one of the world's longest-ruling heads of state. In late July 2006, an unwell Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul. Fidel Castro officially stepped down in February 2008.
Dec 2, 1954: McCarthy condemned by Senate
The U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a senator. The condemnation, which was equivalent to a censure, related to McCarthy's controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military, and civilian society.
What is known as "McCarthyism" began on February 9, 1950, when McCarthy, a relatively obscure Republican senator from Wisconsin, announced during a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he had in his possession a list of 205 communists who had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. The unsubstantiated declaration, which was little more than a publicity stunt, thrust Senator McCarthy into the national spotlight. Asked to reveal the names on the list, the opportunistic senator named just one official who he determined guilty by association: Owen Lattimore, an expert on Chinese culture and affairs who had advised the State Department. McCarthy described Lattimore as the "top Russian spy" in America.
These and other equally shocking accusations prompted the Senate to form a special committee, headed by Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland, to investigate the matter. The committee found little to substantiate McCarthy's charges, but McCarthy nevertheless touched a nerve in the American public, and during the next two years he made increasingly sensational charges, even attacking President Harry S. Truman's respected former secretary of state, George C. Marshall.
In 1953, a newly Republican Congress appointed McCarthy chairman of the Committee on Government Operations and its Subcommittee on Investigations, and McCarthyism reached a fever pitch. In widely publicized hearings, McCarthy bullied defendants under cross-examination with unlawful and damaging accusations, destroying the reputations of hundreds of innocent officials and citizens.
In the early months of 1954, McCarthy, who had already lost the support of much of his party because of his controversial tactics, finally overreached himself when he accused several U.S. Army officers of communist subversion. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed for an investigation of McCarthy's charges, and the televised hearings exposed the senator as a reckless and excessive tyrant who never produced proper documentation for any of his claims.
A climax of the hearings came on June 9, when Joseph N. Welch, special attorney for the army, responded to a McCarthy attack on a member of his law firm by facing the senator and tearfully declaring, "Until this moment, senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?" The crowded hearing room burst into spontaneous applause.
On December 2, after a heated debate, the Senate voted to condemn McCarthy for conduct "contrary to senatorial traditions." By the time of his death from alcoholism in 1957, the influence of Senator Joseph McCarthy in Congress was negligible
Dec 2, 2001: Enron files for bankruptcy
On this day in 2001, the Enron Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New York court, sparking one of the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history.
An energy-trading company based in Houston, Texas, Enron was formed in 1985 as the merger of two gas companies, Houston Natural Gas and Internorth. Under chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay, Enron rose as high as number seven on Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 U.S. companies. In 2000, the company employed 21,000 people and posted revenue of $111 billion. Over the next year, however, Enron's stock price began a dramatic slide, dropping from $90.75 in August 2000 to $0.26 by closing on November 30, 2001.
As prices fell, Lay sold large amounts of his Enron stock, while simultaneously encouraging Enron employees to buy more shares and assuring them that the company was on the rebound. Employees saw their retirement savings accounts wiped out as Enron's stock price continued to plummet. After another energy company, Dynegy, canceled a planned $8.4 billion buy-out in late November, Enron filed for bankruptcy. By the end of the year, Enron's collapse had cost investors billions of dollars, wiped out some 5,600 jobs and liquidated almost $2.1 billion in pension plans.
Over the next several years, the name "Enron" became synonymous with large-scale corporate fraud and corruption, as an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department revealed that Enron had inflated its earnings by hiding debts and losses in subsidiary partnerships. The government subsequently accused Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, who served as Enron's CEO from February to August 2001, of conspiring to cover up their company's financial weaknesses from investors. The investigation also brought down accounting giant Arthur Anderson, whose auditors were found guilty of deliberately destroying documents incriminating to Enron.
In July 2004, a Houston court indicted Skilling on 35 counts including fraud, conspiracy and insider trading. Lay was charged with 11 similar crimes. The trial began on January 30, 2006, in Houston. A number of former Enron employees appeared on the stand, including Andrew Fastow, Enron's ex-CFO, who early on pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and agreed to testify against his former bosses. Over the course of the trial, the defiant Skilling--who unloaded almost $60 million worth of Enron stock shortly after his resignation but refused to admit he knew of the company's impending collapse--emerged as the figure many identified most personally with the scandal. In May 2006, Skilling was convicted of 19 of 35 counts, while Lay was found guilty on 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy. When Lay died from heart disease just two months later, a Houston judge vacated the counts against him. That October, the 52-year-old Skilling was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.
An incredibly busy day in history!
This date marks the anniversary of when Napoleon took the crown from the hands of the Pope, and placed it upon his own head, effectively crowning himself the Emperor of France. This date also marks the anniversary of the Russians making a deal with the Central Powers during World War I, as the Revolution there was coming to a head. This marks the anniversary of the first nuclear chain reaction, which it is safe to say, changed the direction of world history - whether for the better or worse, is open for debate. Castro declared himself a Marxist on this date. This is also the anniversary of when the Monroe Doctrine was declared. John Brown was hanged, and McCarthyism finally began to decline, all on this date. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency came to fruition on this date, in 1970. And finally, something that I can specifically remember: the scandalous collapse of Enron, when it filed for bankruptcy on this date, 12 years ago.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1409 - The University of Leipzig opens.
1620 - English language newspaper "Namloos" begins
publishing in Amsterdam
1682 - English Earl of Shaftesbury flees to Amsterdam
1697 - St Paul's Cathedral opens in London
1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
1763 - Touro shul of Newport RI dedicated (oldest existing
US synagogue)
1777 - British Gen Howe plots attack on Washington's army
for Dec 4
1790 - Austrian army occupies Brussels
1802 - Britain sells Suriname to the Netherlands
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned emperor of France in
Paris
1805 - Napoleon defeats Russians & Austrians at
Austerlitz
1812 - James Madison re-elected president of US, E Gerry
vice-pres
1813 - Prince Willem Frederik accepts constitutional
monarchy
1816 - 1st savings bank in US opens (Philadelphia Savings
Fund Society)
1822 - In San Salvador, a congress proposes incorporation
into US
1823 - President James Monroe declares his "Monroe
Doctrine"
1840 - Gaetano Donizetti's opera "La Favorita,"
premieres in Paris
1840 - William H Harrison elected 9th President of USA
1845 - Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk
announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into
the West.
4th US President James Madison4th US President James Madison
1848 - Franz Josef I becomes emperor of Austria & King of Hungary
1851 - Louis Napoleon takes power in France in a Coup d'etat
1851 - Newly-elected French President Charles Louis
Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.
1852 - 2nd French empire established; Louis Napoleon becomes
emperor
1864 - Skirmish at Rocky Creek Church, Georgia
1867 - In a New York City theater, British author Charles
Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
1868 - 1st British government of Disraeli resigns
1877 - Camille Saint-Saëns' opera "Samson et
Dalila," premieres in Weimar
1882 - Amsterdam Artis Zoo opens aquarium
1883 - John Brahms' 3rd Symphony in F, premieres
1885 - Opera "Regina di Saba" premieres in Vienna
1887 - Amsterdam's Oscar Carrés Circus Theater opens
1887 - French president Grevy (80) resigns
1891 - 52nd Congress (1891-93) convenes
1895 - 54th Congress (1895-97) convenes
1896 - Gerhart Hauptmann's "Die versunkene
Glocke," premieres in Berlin
1899 - US and Germany agree to divide Samoa between them
1899 - Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass,
termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.
1900 - South African president Paul Kruger arrives in
Germany
1901 - Gillette patents 1st disposable razor
1901 - King Camp Gillette begins selling safety razor blades
1902 - Soccer team Go Ahead forms in Deventer
1907 - English Professional Football Players' Association
forms
1907 - Tommy Burns KOs Gunner Moir in 10 for heavyweight
boxing title
1908 - Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the
age of two
1913 - Archdiocese of Managua created
1913 - Government -Barthou falls due to overtime
conscription
1914 - Austria army occupies Belgrade Serbia
1916 - Baseballers who are injured now get full pay for
duration of contract
1917 - Han Yong-woon, found Zen awakening at Osean Monastery
Korea
1922 - 10th
CFL Grey Cup: Queen's University defeats Edmonton Eskimos, 13-1
1924 - British-German trade agreement signed
1927 - 1st Model A Fords sold, for $385
1928 - Cardinals' 1B Jim Bottomley is voted NL MVP
1929 - 1st skull of Peking man found, 50 km out of Peking at
Tsjoe Koe Tien
1932 - "Adventures of Charlie Chan" 1st heard on
NBC-Blue radio network
1933 - Fred Astaire's 1st film, "Dancing Lady,"
released
1934 - 5.08-m (200") Mt Palomar Observatory mirror is
cast
1939 - British Imperial Airways & British Airways merge
to form BOAC
1939 - NY's La Guardia Airport began operations as an
airliner from Chicago lands, 1 minute after midnight
1941 - Largest roller skating rink (outside of NYC) opens in
Peekskill NY
1941 - NY Giants name Mel Ott as player-manager, replacing
Bill Terry
1941 - Naval Intelligence ceases bugging Japanese consul
1941 - Yamamoto sends his fleet to Pearl Harbor
1942 - 1st controlled nuclear chain reaction (Enrico Fermi-U
of Chicago)
1943 - 1st RSHA transport out of Vienna reaches Birkenau
camp
1944 - 10th Heisman Trophy Award: Les Horvath, Ohio State
(QB)
1944 - General De Gaulle arrives in Moscow
1944 - German troops seize Betuwse dikes
1944 - US 95th Infantry division occupies bridge at Saar
1947 - 13th Heisman Trophy Award: John Lujack, Notre Dame
(QB)
1948 - Stan Musial is picked NL MVP
1950 - Vic Toweel knocks down Danny O'Sullivan 14 times in a
title fight
1951 - "Borscht Capades" closes at Royale Theater
NYC after 90 performances
1951 - Phila sets NFL record of 25 1st-downs rushing
1952 - 18th Heisman Trophy Award: Billy Vessels, Oklahoma
(HB)
1952 - 1st human birth televised to public (KOA-TV Denver,
Colo)
1954 - "Hit the Trail" opens at Mark Hellinger
Theater NYC for 4 performances
1954 - Frank Selvy of Milwaukee sets then NBA record of 24
of 26 free throws
1954 - US Senate censures Joe McCarthy (Sen-R-Wisc) for
"conduct that tends to bring Senate into dishonor & disrepute"
1956 - Fidel Castro lands with "Granma" on coast of Cuba
1957 - 1st US large scale nuclear power plant opens
(Shippingport Penn)
1957 - Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" reaches #1
1958 - 24th Heisman Trophy Award: Pete Dawkins, Army (HB)
1958 - Benelux treaty signed by Belgium, Netherlands &
Luxembourg
1958 - KNOP TV channel 2 in North Platte, NB (NBC) begins
broadcasting
1959 - Malpasset dam collapses destroying French Riviera
town of Frejus
1961 - Fidel Castro declares he's a Marxist, and will lead
Cuba to Communism
1961 - Wind Bell, journal of SF Zen Center, begins
publishing
1962 - 50th CFL Grey Cup: Winnipeg beats Hamilton, 28-27 at
Toronto [OT]
1963 - 1st Dutch rocket launched/reaches height of 10 km
1963 - ML Rules Committee bans oversized catcher's mitts,
effective in 1965
1964 - Ringo Starr's tonsils are removed
1966 - Love, Moby Grape & Lee Michaels perform at
Fillmore East
1967 - 55th CFL Grey Cup: Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeats
Saskatchewan, 24-1
1968 - Pres Nixon names Henry Kissinger security advisor
1969 - "Buck White" opens at George Abbott Theater
NYC for 7 performances
1969 - Boeing 747 jumbo jet 1st public preview (Seattle to
NYC)
1970 - Environmental Protection Agency begins (Dir: William
Ruckelshaus)
1970 - Tippetts Opera "Knot Garden" premieres in
London
1971 - Soviet Mars 3 is 1st to soft land on Mars
1971 - United Arab Emirates (Trucial States) declares
independence from UK
1971 - Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujeira, Sharjah & Umm
ak Qiwain form United Arab Emirates
1971 - Zayid bin Sultan Al Nuhayyan of Abu Dhabi becomes
pres of UAE
1972 - "December Giant" largest sinkhole in US
collapses (Alabama)
1972 - "Via Galactica" closes at Uris Theater NYC
after 7 performances
1972 - 60th CFL Grey Cup: Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeats
Saskatchewan, 13-10
1972 - In 1 of their worst trades Yanks get Rich McKinney
for Stan Bahnsen
1973 - 62nd Davis Cup: Australia beats USA in Cleveland
(5-0)
1973 - Capital Centre (USAir Arena) in Wash DC opens
1973
- US Air Arena opens in Landover Maryland, Bullets beat Seattle, 98-96
1974 - Cowhide, rather than just horsehide, can be used to
make baseballs
1974 - Giant Baba beats Jack Brisco in Kagoshimi, to become
NWA champ
1974 - Soyuz 16 launched into Earth orbit for 6 days
1975 - 7 South Moluccans hijack train at Wijster Drente, 3
killed
1975 - G S Chappell gets ton in each inn of 1st Test Cricket
as capt v WI
1975 - Laos king Sisavang Vatthana resigns, republic forms
1975 - Lao People's Democratic Republic founded (National
Day)
1976 - Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba replacing
Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.
1978 - Chanting "Allah is great," anti-Shah
protesters poured through Tehran
1978 - Neil Diamond & Barbra Striesand's "You Don't
Bring Me Flowers" hits #1
1978 - Streisand & Diamond's "You Don't Bring Me
Flowers," goes #1
1979 - Crowds attack US embassy at Tripoli Libya
1979 - Foots Walker becomes 1st Cleve Cavalier to score a
triple-double
1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1980 - 4 American Maryknoll nuns killed by death squads in El Salvador
1981 - Fernando Valenzuela (Dodgers) wins NL Rookie of the
Year
1981 - Moscone Convention Center, SF opens at 11:30 AM
1981 - Spanish government requests membership in NATO
1982 - 1st permanent artificial heart successfully implanted
(U of Utah) in retired dentist Barney Clark; lived 112 days with Jarvic-7 heart
1984 - 4th meeting of Giants-Jets, Giants even series at 2
with 20-10 win
1984 - Bob Holland takes 9-83 for NSW against South
Australia, SCG
1984 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1985 - "Mystery of Edwin Drood" opens at Imperial
Theater NYC for 608 perfs
1985 - Philipine Chief staff Gen Fabian speaks of B Aquino's
murder
1985 - Rupert Holmes' musical "Mystery of Edwin
Drood," premieres in NYC
1986 - Dow-Jones index hits record 1,955.57
1987 - Chicago City Council elects Eugene Sawyer acting
mayor
1987 - Jennifer Steele, 17, of Colo becomes Miss Teen of
America [Approx]
1987 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1987 - "334" club forms as 334 brave Devil fans
journey through 20" of snow to attend NJ Devils 7-5 victory over Calgary
at Meadowlands
1988 - "Naked Gun" premieres, a movie based on
TV's "Police Squad"
1988 - 5 gunmen who hijacked Soviet Aeroflot jet, surrender
in Israel
1988 - STS-27 Atlantis launched (Secret military mission)
1988 - UN votes 151-2 (Isr & US) to move PLO debate to
Geneva, Brit abstains
1989 - 55th Heisman Trophy Award: Andre Ware, Houston (QB)
1989 - KHJ-TV in Los Angeles CA changes call letters to
KCAL-TV
1989 - Vishwanath Pratap Singh sworn in as president of
India
1990 - 1st parlimentary election in newly reunified Germany
1990 - 1st time 12 people in space
1990 - 79th Davis Cup: USA beats Australia in St Petersburg
(3-2)
1990 - Beth Daniel/Davis Love wins LPGA J C Penney Golf
Classic
1990 - US 69th manned space mission STS 35 (Columbia 11)
launches into orbit
1991 - Bobby Bonilla signs record $29 million-5 year pact
with NY Mets
1991 - Muslim Shites release American held in Lebanon
hostage Joseph Cicippio
1992 - WQEW-AM radio replaces WQXR on 1560 in NYC
1993 - A Websters musical "Sunset Promenade"
premieres in LA
1993 - Dow-Jones hits record 3702.11
1993 - Houston Rockets tie NBA record of 15-0 start
1993 - Space shuttle STS-61 (Endeavour 5), launches
1994 - "Cobb" premieres
1994 - Achille Lauro (Willem Ruys) sinks off the coast of
Somalia
Composer Andrew Lloyd WebberComposer Andrew Lloyd Webber
1994 - Andrew Lloyd Webber admitted to the hospital for ulcer treatment
1994 - Jury finds Heidi Fleiss guilty of running a call girl
ring
1995 - 17th ACE Cable Awards
1997 - MCI Center opens in Wash DC, Wizards vs SuperSonics
1999 - The United Kingdom devolves political power in
Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.
2001 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2005 - Van Tuong Nguyen is executed in Singapore for drug
trafficking.
2008 - Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat resigns after
the 2008 Thailand political crisis.
2012 - 9 people are killed after 30 cars are trapped in
Sasago Tunnel, Japan
2012 - Borut Pahor is elected President of Slovenia
2012 - Pier Luigi Bersani is elected Italian Prime Minister
1804 - Napoleon was crowned emperor of France at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. 1816 - The first savings bank in the U.S., the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business. 1823 - U.S. President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere. 1901 - Gillette patented the KC Gillette Razor. It was first razor to feature a permanent handle and disposable double-edge razor blades. 1917 - During World War I, hostilities were suspended on the eastern front. 1927 - The Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model A automobile. It was the successor to the Model T. 1939 - New York's La Guardia Airport began operations as an airliner from Chicago landed at 12:01 a.m. 1942 - A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated by Dr. Enrico Fermi and his staff at the University of Chicago. 1943 - "Carmen Jones" opened on Broadway. 1954 - The U.S. Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy for what it called "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." The censure was related to McCarthy's controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military and civilian society. 1961 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared in a nationally broadcast speech that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that he was going to lead Cuba to communism. 1969 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people flew from Seattle, WA, to New York City, NY. Most of the passengers were reporters and photographers. 1970 - The Environmental Protection Agency began operating under its first director, William Ruckelshaus. 1980 - The Central Committee of Poland’s Communist Party announced major Politburo changes. The changes were apparently aimed at coping with labor unrest. 1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Barney Clark. He lived 112 days with the device. The operation was the first of its kind. 1985 - A Philippine civilian court acquitted armed forces chief Gen. Fabian C. Ver of charges related to the 1983 shooting death of opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino. 25 other defendants were also acquitted. 1988 - Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan. 1989 - V.P. Singh was sworn in as prime minister of India. 1990 - Chancellor Hekmut Kohl's coalition won the first free all-German elections since 1932. 1990 - The Midwest section of the U.S. prepared for a massive earthquake predicted by Iben Browning. Nothing happened. 1991 - American hostage Joseph Cicippio was released by his kidnappers. He had been held captive in Lebanon for over five years. 1992 - Germany's lower house of parliament voted in favor of the Maastricht Treaty on European unity. 1993 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin. 1993 - The space shuttle Endeavor blasted off on a mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope. 1994 - The U.S. government agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors pickup trucks. Instead a deal was made with GM under which the company would spend more than $51 million on safety and research. 1995 - NASA launched a U.S.-European observatory on a $1 billion dollar mission intended to study the sun. 1997 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of telephone fund-raising by President Clinton and Vice President Gore. It was concluded that they had not violated election laws. 1998 - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates donated $100 million to help immunize children in developing countries. 1999 - The British government transferred political power over the province of Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive. 2001 - Enron Corp. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The filing came five days after Dynegy walked away from a $8.4 billion buyout. It was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. 2010 - NASA announced the discovery of a new arsenic-based life form.
1804 Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor of France in Paris by Pope Pius VII. 1823 President James Monroe outlined his famous doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere. 1859 Abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harper's Ferry. 1942 The first controlled nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated at the University of Chicago. 1954 The Senate voted to condemn Republican senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." 1970 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established. 1982 Barney B. Clark became the first person to receive an artificial heart in a transplant operation. 1988 Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head an Muslim nation. 1990 Composer Aaron Copland died at age 90. 1999 A Protestant and Catholic cabinet convened for the first time in Northern Ireland. 2001 Enron Corp., under CEO Kenneth Lay, filed for bankruptcy.
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/dec02.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
