TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, DEC. 2, the 336th day of 2021. There are 29 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harpers Ferry the previous October. In 1697, London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was consecrated for use, even though the building was still under construction. In 1823, President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere. 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 1980, four American churchwomen were raped and murdered in El Salvador. (Five national guardsmen were convicted in the killings.) 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 1993, Colombian drug lord Pablo
Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin. In 2000, Al Gore sought a recount in South Florida, while George W. Bush flatly asserted, “I’m soon to be the president” and met with GOP congressional leaders. 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 the Islamic State group opened fire at a holiday banquet for public employees in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 21 others before dying in a shootout with police. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III is 90. Former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is 82. Actor Cathy Lee Crosby is 77. Movie director Penelope Spheeris is 76. Actor Ron Raines is 72. Country singer John Wesley Ryles is 71. Actor Keith Szarabajka is 69. Actor Dan Butler and broadcast journalist Stone Phillips are 67. Actor Dennis Christopher is 66. Actor Steven Bauer is 65. Country singer Joe Henry and rock musician Rick Savage (Def Leppard) are 61. Actor Brendan Coyle is 58. Rock musician Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters), actors Suzy Nakamura, Rena Sofer and Lucy Liu, and rock singer Jimi HaHa (Jimmie’s Chicken Shack) are 53. U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough is 52. Rapper Treach (Naughty By Nature) and actor Joe Lo Truglio are 51. International Tennis Hall of Famer Monica Seles is 48. Singer Nelly Furtado is 43. Pop singer Britney Spears is 40. Actor-singer Jana Kramer, actors Yvonne Orji and Daniela Ruah, and NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers are 38. Actor Alfred Enoch is 33. Pop singersongwriter Charlie Puth is 30.