TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, DEC. 2, the 336th day of 2018. Twenty-nine days are left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date 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 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 GeorgesPierre Seurat was born in Paris.
In 1927, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its Model A automobile that replaced its Model T.
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 1957, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first fullscale commercial nuclear facility in the U.S., began operations. The reactor ceased operating in 1982. In 1970, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors under its first director, William D. Ruckelshaus.
In 1993, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin.
In 2001, in one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history, Enron filed for Chapter 11 protection.
In 2015, a couple loyal to Islamic State opened fire at a holiday banquet for public employees in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14 people and wounding 21 others before dying in a shootout with police.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III is 87. Actress Cathy Lee Crosby is 74. Movie director Penelope Spheeris is 73. Country singer John Wesley Ryles is 68. Actor Keith Szarabajka is 66. Actor Dan Butler and broadcast journalist Stone Phillips are 64. Actor Dennis Christopher is 63. Actor Steven Bauer is 62. Actor Brendan Coyle is 55. Rock musician Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters), and actresses Suzy Nakamura, Rena Sofer and Lucy Liu are 50. Actor Joe Lo Truglio is 48. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Monica Seles is 45. Singer Nelly Furtado is 40. Pop singer Britney Spears is 37. Actor Alfred Enoch is 30. Pop singersongwriter Charlie Puth is 27. Actresses Deanna and Daniella Canterman are 26.