TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, DEC. 3, the 337th day of 2017. There are 28 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1967, a surgical team in Cape Town, South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who lived 18 days with the donor organ, which came from Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old bank clerk who had died in a traffic accident.
In 1818, Illinois was admitted as the 21st state.
In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States by the Electoral College.
In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio — the first truly coeducational school of higher learning in the United States — began holding classes.
In 1925, George Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” had its world premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall, with Gershwin at the piano.
In 1926, English mystery writer Agatha Christie, 36, disappeared after driving away from her home in Sunningdale, Berkshire. Christie turned up 11 days later at a hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire.
In 1947, the Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway.
In 1953, the musical “Kismet,” featuring the song “Stranger in Paradise,” opened on Broadway.
In 1965, the Beatles’ sixth studio album, “Rubber Soul,” was released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone. It was released in the U.S. by Capitol Records three days later.
In 1984, thousands of people died after a cloud of methyl isocyanate gas escaped from a pesticide plant operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, India.
In 1992, the first telephone text message was sent by British engineer Neil Papworth, who transmitted the greeting “Merry Christmas” from his work computer in Newbury, Berkshire, to Vodafone executive Richard Jarvis’ mobile phone.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Movie director Jean-Luc Godard is 87. Singer Jaye P. Morgan is 86. Actress Mary Alice is 76. Rock singer Ozzy Osbourne is 69. Actress Heather Menzies Urich and rock singer Mickey Thomas are 68. Country musician Paul Gregg (Restless Heart) is 63. Actresess Daryl Hannah and Julianne Moore are 57. Olympic gold medal figure skater Katarina Witt is 52. Actor Brendan Fraser and singer Montell Jordan are 49. Actresses Liza Lapira and Lauren Roman are 42. Poprock singer Daniel Bedingfield is 38. Actress Anna Chlumsky is 37. Actor Brian Bonsall is 36. Americana musician Michael Calabrese (Lake Street Dive) is 33. Actress Amanda Seyfried is 32. Actor Jake T. Austin is 23.