TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Saturday, Dec. 2, the 336th day of 2017. There are 29 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Dec. 2, 1942, an artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.
On this date
• 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 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
• 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 Airport-LaGuardia Field (later LaGuardia Airport) went into operation as an airliner from Chicago landed at one minute past midnight.
• 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 full-scale commercial nuclear facility in the U.S., began operations. (The reactor ceased operating in 1982.)
• In 1967, Cardinal Francis Spellman died in New York at age 78.
• In 1970, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors under its first director, William D. Ruckelshaus.
• 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 1997, the film drama “Good Will Hunting” starring Robin Williams, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck was released by Miramax Films.
• In 2015, a couple loyal to Islamic State opened fire at a holiday banquet for public employees in San Bernardino killing 14 people and wounding 21 others before dying in a shootout with police.
Ten years ago
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez suffered defeat as voters rejected sweeping constitutional reforms by 51 to 49 percent. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party swept 70 percent of the seats for a new parliament in a vote whose fairness was called into question by European election monitors. Brian Wilson, Martin Scorsese, Steve Martin, Diana Ross and pianist Leon Fleisher received Kennedy Center honors for their career achievements.
Five years ago
Hundreds of concrete slabs, each weighing more than a ton, fell from the roof of a highway tunnel west of Tokyo, crushing vehicles below and killing nine people. Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Led Zeppelin, Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy and ballerina Natalia Makarova received Kennedy Center Honors.
One year ago
Thirty-six people died when fire erupted in an illegally converted warehouse in Oakland during a dance party (two men have pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter). President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Taiwanese President Tsai Ingwen in a highly unusual move that was bound to antagonize China.