On this day, Dec. 3
1818 Illinois was admitted as the 21st state.
1828 Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States by the Electoral College.
1947 The Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway.
1964 Police arrested some 800 students at the University of California at Berkeley, one day after the students stormed the administration building and staged a massive sit-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).
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.
1979 11 people were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum, where the British rock group The Who was performing.
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.
1991 Radicals in Lebanon released American hostage Alann Steen, who had been held captive nearly five years.
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.
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. 2020 Facebook said it would start removing false claims about COVID-19 vaccines.
Today’s birthdays: Singer Jaye P. Morgan, 91. Actor Nicolas Coster, 89. Rock singer Ozzy Osbourne, 74. Rock singer Mickey Thomas, 73. Country musician Paul Gregg (Restless Heart), 68. Actor Steven Culp, 67. Actor Daryl Hannah, 62. Actor Julianne Moore, 62. Olympic gold medal figure skater Katarina Witt, 57. Actor Brendan Fraser, 54. Singer Montell Jordan, 54. Actor Royale Watkins, 53. Actor Bruno Campos, 49. Actor Holly Marie Combs, 49. Actor Liza Lapira, 47. Pop-rock singer Daniel Bedingfield, 43. Actor/comedian Tiffany Haddish, 43. Actor Anna Chlumsky, 42. Actor Jenna Dewan, 42. Actor Brian Bonsall, 41. Actor Dascha Polanco, 40. Pop/ rock singer-songwriter Andy Grammer, 39. Americana musician Michael Calabrese (Lake Street Dive), 38. Actor Amanda Seyfried, 37. Actor Michael Angarano, 35. Actor Jake T. Austin, 28.