TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, DEC. 3, the 337th day of 2021. There are 28 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date 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 1818, Illinois was admitted as the 21st state.
In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States by the Electoral College.
In 1947, the Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway.
In 1964, police arrested some 800 students at the University of California at Berkeley, one day after students stormed the administration building and staged a massive sit-in.
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 1979, 11 people were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum, where the British rock group The Who was performing.
In 1992, the Greek tanker Aegean Sea spilled more than 21 million gallons of crude oil when it ran aground off northwestern Spain.
In 1994, AIDS activist Elizabeth Glaser, who along with her two children were infected with HIV because of a blood transfusion, died in Santa Monica, California, at age 47.
In 2000, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black person to win a Pulitzer Prize, died in Chicago at age 83.
In 2010, during a surprise holiday season visit to Afghanistan, President Barack Obama told cheering U.S. troops at Bagram Air Field they were succeeding in their mission to fight terrorism; however, foul weather prevented Obama from meeting with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul to address frayed relations.
In 2015, Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the armed services to open all military jobs to women, removing the final barriers that had kept women from serving in combat, including the most dangerous and grueling commando posts.
In 2017, the second-largest U.S. drugstore chain, CVS, announced that it was buying Aetna, the third-largest health insurer, in order to push much deeper into customer care.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Movie director Jean-Luc Godard is 91. Singer Jaye P. Morgan is 90. Actor Nicolas Coster is 88. Actor Mary Alice is 80. Rock singer Ozzy Osbourne is 73. Rock singer Mickey Thomas is 72. Country musician Paul Gregg (Restless Heart) is 67. Actor Steven Culp is 66. Actors Daryl Hannah and Julianne Moore are 61. Olympic gold medal figure skater Katarina Witt is 56. Actor Brendan Fraser and singer Montell Jordan are 53. Actor Royale Watkins is 52. Actors Bruno Campos and Holly Marie Combs are 48. Actor Liza Lapira is 46. Pop-rock singer Daniel Bedingfield and actor/comedian Tiffany Haddish are 42. Actors Anna Chlumsky and Jenna Dewan are 41. Actor Brian Bonsall is 40. Actor Dascha Polanco is 39. Pop/rock singer-songwriter Andy Grammer is 38. Americana musician Michael Calabrese (Lake Street Dive) is 37. Actor Amanda Seyfried is 36. Actor Michael Angarano is 34. Actor Jake T. Austin is 27.