Dec 2 in History

1804 — Napoleon crowns himself emperor of France and Josephine as Empress in an elaborate ceremony in the Cathedral de Notre-Dame in Paris.

1837 — Dr Joseph Bell, Scottish physician believed to be the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, is born in Edinburgh. The author meets him in 1877 at Edinburgh Medical School, where Bell is one of his professors.

1856 — In the Battle of Ndondakusuka (or Tugela) more than 23,000 people die in a war between the two eldest sons of Zulu King Mpande. Cetshwayo defeats Mbuyasi at Ndondakusuka, a kraal built by Dingaan, in the bloodiest reported civil-war battle in Southern Africa. The battle follows the valley of a stream that becomes known as Mathambo (Place of Bones) near Mandini. All Mbuyasi’s followers, including five other sons of the king, women and children, are massacred and many drown in the river. Thousands of bodies wash up at the Tugela Mouth. 1867 — People wait in mile-long queues at Steinway Hall, NYC, to hear British author Charles Dickens give his first public reading in the US. He performs 76 readings until April 1868, netting about $30,000.

1877 — Camille Saint-Saëns’s (French) opera “Samson et Dalila”, premieres in Weimar, Germany, having previously been rejected in Paris for its portrayal of biblical subject matter.

1908 — Xuantong Emperor (Aisin Gioro Puyi), two years and 10 months old, ascends the Dragon Throne after the death of his uncle, Guangxu Emperor. He is forced to abdicate on February 12 1912 after the Xinhai Revolution, ending the Qing Dynasty and 2,000 years of imperial rule in China.

1927 — Ford Motor Company sells its first Model A, the successor to the Model T.

1946 — Gianni Versace, founder of the famous fashion house, is born in Reggio Calabria, Italy.

1950 — Vic Toweel, SA boxer, sets a record for the most knockdowns in a championship fight. He retains his bantamweight world title at Wembley Stadium, Johannesburg, when he floors Danny O’Sullivan of England 14 times before the bout is stopped in the 10th round. It earns a place in the Guinness Book of Records (which is first published in 1955).

1971 — The British withdraw from its 1819 Perpetual Treaty of Maritime Peace obligations in the Trucial States (a British Protectorate) and the United Arab Emirates emerges, comprising six sheikdoms — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ajman and Fujairah. Ra’s al-Khaimah joins on February 10 1972. 1993 — Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (the wealthiest criminal in history) is killed in a shootout with Colombian National Police in his hometown of Medellin, a day after his 44th birthday. 7.