Historical Events on 3 Dec

Historical Events on 3 Dec

1800 - War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden, French General Moreau defeats the Austrian Archduke John near Munich decisively, coupled with First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte's victory at Marengo effectively forcing the Austrians to sign an armistice a
1805 - Lewis and Clark Expedition mark their explorations from the Missouri River overland to the Columbia River on a pine tree.
1818 - Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.
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.
1901 - US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking the Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
1904 - The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
1912 - First Balkan War: The Naval Battle of Elli takes place.
1912 - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long First Balkan War.
1917 - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.
1929 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover announces to the U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy.
1944 - The Greek Civil War breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between communists and royalists.
1964 - Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents' decision to forbid protests on UC property.
1967 - At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky).
1967 - The luxury train 20th Century Limited completes its last run from New York City to Chicago (the train was inaugurated on June 15, 1902).
1970 - October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libération du Québec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Canadian governme
1971 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: India invades West Pakistan and a full scale war begins claiming hundreds of lives.
1973 - Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
1976 - An assassination attempt is made on Bob Marley-He is shot twice-plays a concert two days later
1979 - In Cincinnati, Ohio, eleven fans are killed during a stampede for seats before a Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum.
1979 - Shadow Traffic begins broadcasting in the New York City metropolitan area.
1982 - A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
1984 - Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000-600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industri
1989 - Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end (some commentators from both nations exaggerate
1990 - At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crew members aboard flight 1482.
1992 - UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid is distributed in 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.
1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.
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.

Historical Events on 2 Dec

Historical Events on 2 Dec

1409 - The University of Leipzig opens.
1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
1804 - At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French, the first French Emperor in a thousand years.
1805 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz - French troops under Napoleon defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.
1823 - Monroe Doctrine: US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts.
1845 - Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
1848 - Franz Josef I becomes Emperor of Austria.
1851 - Newly-elected French President Charles Louis Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.
1852 - Napoleon III becomes Emperor of the French.
1859 - Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.
1867 - In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
1899 - Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.
1908 - Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the age of two
1920 - Following more than a month of Turkish-Armenian War, the Turkish dictated peace treaty is concluded -Treaty of Alexandropol
1927 - Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
1930 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover goes before the United States Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
1939 - New York City's La Guardia Airport opens.
1942 - Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
1943 - A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks an American ship with a mustard gas stockpile. Numerous fatalities (though the exact death toll is unresolved as the bombing raid itself caused hundreds of deaths too).
1946 - British Government invites four Indian leaders, Nehru, Baldev Singh, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan to obtain the participation of all parties in the Constituent Assembly.
1947 - Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan.
1954 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
1954 - The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and the Republic of China, is signed in Washington, DC.
1956 - The Granma yacht reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente province and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution.
1961 - In a nationally-broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
1962 - Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to not make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress.
1970 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.
1971 - Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.
1972 - Gough Whitlam becomes the first Australian Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years.
1975 - Pathet Lao seizes power in Laos, and establishes the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
1976 - Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.
1977 - The first World Series Cricket "supertest" match played between Australia and West Indies
1980 - Four U.S. nuns and churchwomen, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel, are murdered by a death squad in El Salvador.
1988 - Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.
1990 - A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932.
1993 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed in Medellín.
1993 - Space Shuttle program: STS-61 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
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.