December 2
From Freepedia
(Redirected from 2 December)
December 2 is the 336th day (337th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 29 days remaining.
Contents |
Events
- 1409 - The University of Leipzig opens.
- 1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
- 1804 - At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned as the first Emperor of France in a thousand years.
- 1805 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz - French troops under Napoleon decisively defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.
- 1823 - US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts (later be called the Monroe Doctrine).
- 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 violently overthrows the Second Republic.
- 1852 - Napoleon III becomes Emperor of France.
- 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.
- 1915 - Albert Einstein publishes the general theory of relativity.
- 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 Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
- 1939 - La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
- 1942 - Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
- 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."
- 1961 - Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was 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 - The United Arab Emirates is formed.
- 1972 - Gough Whitlam becomes the first Australian Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years.
- 1975 - The communist Pathet Lao seizes power in Laos, and establishes the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
- 1982 - At the University of Utah, Barney Clark, becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.
- 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.
- 1991 - The first version of QuickTime was released.
- 1993 - War on Drugs: 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.
- 2000 - The Smashing Pumpkins play their final gig.
- 2001 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- 2004 - The Nintendo DS launches in Japan.
- 2004 - Brian Williams succeeds Tom Brokaw as host of NBC Nightly News.
- 2005 - Microsoft releases its Xbox 360 video game console in Europe.
Births
- 1578 - Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer and music theorist (d. 1640)
- 1694 - William Shirley, Colonial Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1771)
- 1703 - Ferdinand Konscak, Croatian explorer (d. 1759)
- 1738 - Richard Montgomery, Irish-American soldier (d. 1775)
- 1760 - John Breckinridge, American politician (d. 1806)
- 1817 - Heinrich von Sybel, German historian (d. 1895)
- 1846 - Pierre Marie René Ernest Waldeck-Rousseau, French statesman (d. 1904)
- 1859 - Georges Seurat, French painter (d. 1891)
- 1863 - Charles Ringling, American circus owner (d. 1926)
- 1885 - George Richards Minot, American physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
- 1891 - Otto Dix, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1969)
- 1892 - Leo Ornstein, Russian-born composer and pianist (d. 2002)
- 1895 - Harriet Cohen, English pianist (d. 1967)
- 1898 - Indra Lal Roy, Indian pilot (d. 1918)
- 1899 - John Barbirolli, English conductor (d. 1970)
- 1906 - Peter Goldmark, Hungarian-born inventor and engineer (d. 1977)
- 1914 - Adolph Green, American composer (d. 2002)
- 1914 - Ray Walston, American actor (d. 2001)
- 1923 - Maria Callas, American soprano (d. 1977)
- 1924 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., American politician
- 1925 - Julie Harris, American actress
- 1930 - Gary Becker, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 - Edwin Meese, American politician
- 1933 - Michael Larrabee, American athlete (d. 2003)
- 1934 - Andre Rodgers, baseball player (d. 2004)
- 1939 - Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician
- 1939 - Harry Reid, American politician
- 1943 - Wayne Allard, American politician
- 1944 - Botho Strauß, German author
- 1945 - Penelope Spheeris, American film director
- 1946 - Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (d. 1997)
- 1946 - John Banks, New Zealand politician
- 1952 - Michael McDonald, American musician
- 1954 - Dan Butler, American actor
- 1957 - Dagfinn Høybråten, Norwegian politician
- 1960 - Rick Savage, English bass player (Def Leppard)
- 1962 - Tracy Austin, American tennis player
- 1968 - Lucy Liu, American actress
- 1968 - Nate Mendel, American bassist (Foo Fighters)
- 1968 - Chris Wedge, American animator, creator of Ice Age and Robots
- 1973 - Monica Seles, Serbian-born tennis player
- 1973 - Jan Ullrich, German cyclist
- 1978 - Nelly Furtado, Canadian singer and songwriter
- 1979 - Yvonne Catterfield, German singer and actress
- 1981 - Britney Spears, American singer
Deaths
- 1348 - Emperor Hanazono of Japan (b. 1297)
- 1381 - John of Ruysbroeck, Flemish mystic
- 1463 - Archduke Albert VI of Austria (b. 1418)
- 1469 - Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1416)
- 1515 - Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and statesman (b. 1453)
- 1547 - Hernán Cortés, Spanish explorer and conqueror (b. 1485)
- 1552 - Francis Xavier, Spanish Catholic missionary (b. 1506)
- 1594 - Gerardus Mercator, Flemish cartographer (b. 1512)
- 1665 - Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, French socialite (b. 1588)
- 1694 - Pierre Paul Puget, French artist (b. 1622)
- 1719 - Pasquier Quesnel, French Jansenist theologian (b. 1634)
- 1723 - Philip II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France (b. 1674)
- 1726 - Samuel Penhallow, English-born American colonist and historian (b. 1665)
- 1747 - Vincent Bourne, English classical scholar (b. 1695)
- 1748 - Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician (b. 1662)
- 1774 - Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer and organist (b. 1720)
- 1814 - Marquis de Sade, French writer (b. 1740)
- 1849 - Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen of William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)
- 1859 - John Brown, American abolitionist (hanged) (b. 1800)
- 1892 - Jay Gould, American entrepreneur (b. 1836)
- 1931 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)
- 1944 - Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist (b. 1874)
- 1944 - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian fascist (b. 1876)
- 1950 - Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist (b. 1917)
- 1963 - Thomas J. Hicks, American runner (b. 1875)
- 1963 - Sabu, Indian-born actor (b. 1924)
- 1969 - Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, Russian politician (b. 1881)
- 1974 - Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1897)
- 1976 - Danny Murtaugh, baseball player and manager (b. 1917)
- 1980 - Romain Gary, Lithuanian-born writer (b. 1914)
- 1982 - Marty Feldman, English comedian (b. 1933)
- 1983 - Fifi d'Orsay, French Canadian actress (b. 1904)
- 1985 - Aniello Dellacroce, American gangster (b. 1914)
- 1986 - Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born actor, musician, band leader, and composer (b. 1917)
- 1987 - Luis Federico Leloir, French-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 1987 - Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Russian physicist (b. 1914)
- 1988 - Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra)
- 1990 - Aaron Copland, American composer (b. 1900)
- 1993 - Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug dealer (b. 1949)
- 1995 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (b. 1913)
- 1997 - Big Daddy, English professional wrestler (b. 1930)
- 2002 - Ivan Illich, Austrian priest and philosopher (b. 1926)
- 2002 - Arno Peters, German historian (b. 1916)
- 2003 - Alan Davidson, British author (b. 1924)
- 2004 - Alicia Markova, English ballerina (b. 1910)
- 2004 - Mona Van Duyn, American poet (b. 1921)
Holidays and observances
External links
December 1 - December 3 - November 2 - January 2 -- listing of all days
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
