TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, DEC. 2, the 337th day of 2016. There are 29 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1816, the first savings bank in the United States, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.
In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
In 1823, President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harpers Ferry the previous October. Artist Georges-Pierre Seurat was born in Paris.
In 1927, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its Model A automobile that replaced its Model T.
In 1939, New York Municipal AirportLaGuardia Field (later LaGuardia Airport) went into operation as an airliner from Chicago landed at one minute past midnight.
In 1942, an artificially created, selfsustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.
In 1954, the U.S. Senate passed, 67-22, a resolution condemning Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., saying he had “acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”
In 1961, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would eventually lead Cuba to Communism.
In 1970, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors under its first director, William D. Ruckelshaus.
In 1980, four American churchwomen were raped and killed outside San Salvador. (Five El Salvador national guardsmen were later convicted of murdering nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel, and lay worker Jean Donovan.)
In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.
In 1991, American hostage Joseph Cicippio, held captive in Lebanon for more than five years, was released.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III is 85. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is 77. Actress Cathy Lee Crosby is 72. Movie director Penelope Spheeris is 71. Actor Ron Raines is 67. Country singer John Wesley Ryles is 66. Actor Keith Szarabajka is 64. Actor Dan Butler and broadcast journalist Stone Phillips are 62. Actor Dennis Christopher is 61. Actor Steven Bauer is 60. Country singer Joe Henry and rock musician Rick Savage (Def Leppard) are 56. Actor Brendan Coyle is 53. Rock musician Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters), actresses Suzy Nakamura, Lucy Liu and Rena Sofer, and rock singer Jimi HaHa (Jimmie’s Chicken Shack) are all 48. Rapper Treach (Naughty By Nature) and actor Joe Lo Truglio are 46. International Tennis Hall-ofFamer Monica Seles is 43. Singer Nelly Furtado is 38. Pop singer Britney Spears is 35. Actress-singer Jana Kramer, actresses Yvonne Orji (TV: “Insecure”) and Daniela Ruah, and NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers are 33. Actor Alfred Enoch is 28. Pop singer/songwriter Charlie Puth is 25. Actresses Daniella and Deanna Canterman are 24.