TODAY HISTORY IN
Today is Tuesday, Dec. 3, the 337th day of 2019. There are 28 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Dec. 3, 1979, 11 people were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum, where the British rock group The Who was performing.
On this date:
■ 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 1960, the Lerner and Loewe musical “Camelot,” starring Julie Andrews as Guenevere, Richard Burton as King Arthur and Robert Goulet as Lancelot, opened on Broadway.
■ In 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.
■ 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 1980, Bernadine Dohrn, a former leader of the radical Weather Underground, surrendered to authorities in Chicago after more than a decade as a fugitive.
■ In 1991, radicals in Lebanon released American hostage Alann Steen, who’d been held captive nearly five years.
■ In 1999, Tori Murden of the United States became the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean alone as she arrived at the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, 81 days after leaving the Canary Islands near the coast of Africa.
■ In 2001, in the wake of bombings that had killed 26 Israelis, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a war on terror. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge asked Americans to return to a high state of alert, citing threats of more terrorist attacks.
■ In 2002, thousands of personnel files released under a
court order showed that the Archdiocese of Boston went to great lengths to hide priests accused of abuse, including clergy who’d allegedly snorted cocaine and had sex with girls aspiring to be nuns.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama hosted a White House-sponsored jobs forum, where he said he’d heard many “exciting ideas” and proposals and expressed hope some could be put into action quickly. Pope Benedict XVI and visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to upgrade Vatican-Kremlin ties to full diplomatic relations. Comcast and GE announced joint venture plans, with Comcast owning a 51 percent controlling stake in NBC Universal.
Five years ago: A Staten Island, New York, grand jury declined to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man stopped on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.
One year ago: A casket containing the body of former President George H.W. Bush was flown from Texas to Washington to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Jean-Luc Godard is
89. Singer Jaye P. Morgan is
88. Actor Nicolas Coster is 86. Actress Mary Alice is 78. Rock singer Ozzy Osbourne is 71. Rock singer Mickey Thomas is 70. Country musician Paul Gregg (Restless Heart) is
65. Actor Steven Culp is 64. Actress Daryl Hannah is 59. Actress Julianne Moore is
59. Olympic gold medal figure skater Katarina Witt is
54. Actor Brendan Fraser is
51. AActress Lauren Roman is 44. Pop-rock singer Daniel Bedingfield is 40. Actress/ comedian Tiffany Haddish is
40. Actress Anna Chlumsky is
39. Actress Dascha Polanco is 37. Pop/rock singer-songwriter Andy Grammer is 36. Americana musician Michael Calabrese (Lake Street Dive) is
35. Actress Amanda Seyfried is
34. Actor Michael Angarano is
32. Actor Jake T. Austin is 25. Thought for Today: “Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.” — Joseph Conrad, Polish-born English novelist (born this date in 1857, died 1924).