TODAY IN HISTORY: December 3

1736: Astronomer Anders Celsius takes measurements that confirm Newton's theory that the Earth was an ellipsoid rather than the previously accepted sphere.

1847: Frederick Douglass publishes the first issue of his newspaper, North Star.

1854: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences

1917: After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.

1931: The antacid Alka Seltzer goes on sale.

1944: The Greek Civil War breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece between communists and royalists.

1950: Paul Harvey begins his national radio broadcast in the U.S.

1984: Do They Know It's Christmas single written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure and sung by Band Aid is released in the U.K.

1992: The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.

1997: The National Basketball Association's Golden State Warriors terminate guard Latrell Sprewell's four-year, US $32million contract for attacking coach P.J. Carlesimo.

1989: Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. president George H. W. Bush declare the Cold War over.

1999: NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.

2014: Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot dead unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., resigns.