December 2

is the 336th day (337th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 29 days remaining.

Events

1409 - The University of Leipzig opens.
1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
1804 - At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned as the first Emperor of France in a thousand years.
1805 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz - French troops under Napoleon defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.
1823 - Monroe Doctrine: US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts.
1845 - Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
1848 - Franz Josef I becomes Emperor of Austria.
1851 - Newly-elected French President Charles Louis Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.
1852 - Napoleon III becomes Emperor of France.
1859 - Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.
1861 - The small Oregon town of Champoeg is flooded by the Willamette River. No deaths occurred.
1867 - In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
1899 - Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.
1927 - Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
1930 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover goes before Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
1939 - New York City's La Guardia Airport opens.
1942 - Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
1946 - British Government invited four Indian leaders, Nehru, Baldev Singh, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan to obtain the participation of all parties in the Constituent Assembly.
1947 - Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan.
1954 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
1961 - In a nationally-broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
1962 - Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to not make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress.
1970 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.
1971 - Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.
1972 - Gough Whitlam becomes the first Australian Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years.
1975 - Pathet Lao seizes power in Laos, and establishes the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
1980 - Four U.S. nuns and churchwomen, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel, are murdered by a death squad in El Salvador.
1988 - Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.
1990 - A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932.
1991 - Apple release the first version of QuickTime.
1993 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed in Medellín.
1993 - Space Shuttle program: STS-61 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
1999 - The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.
2000 - The Smashing Pumpkins perform for the last time at The Metro in Chicago.
2001 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2004 - Brian Williams succeeds Tom Brokaw as host of NBC Nightly News.
2005 - Microsoft's Xbox 360 is launched in Europe.
2005 - Van Tuong Nguyen is executed in Singapore for drug trafficking.
2005 - Kenneth Boyd becomes the 1,000th person to be executed in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Births

1578 - Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer and music theorist (d. 1640)
1694 - William Shirley, Colonial Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1771)
1703 - Ferdinand Konscak, Croatian explorer (d. 1759)
1710 - Bertinazzi, Italian actor and writer (d. 1783)
1738 - Richard Montgomery, Irish-born soldier (d. 1775)
1754 - William Cooper, American judge
1760 - John Breckinridge, American politician (d. 1806)
1817 - Heinrich von Sybel, German historian (d. 1895)
1825 - Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (d. 1891)
1846 - Pierre Marie René Ernest Waldeck-Rousseau, French statesman (d. 1904)
1859 - Georges Seurat, French painter (d. 1891)
1863 - Charles Ringling, American circus owner (d. 1926)
1885 - George Richards Minot, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize (d. 1950)
1886 - Harry Burleigh, American composer (d. 1949)
1891 - Otto Dix, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1969)
1892 - Leo Ornstein, Russian-born composer and pianist (d. 2002)
1895 - Harriet Cohen, British pianist (d. 1967)
1898 - Indra Lal Roy, Indian pilot (d. 1918)
1899 - John Barbirolli, British conductor (d. 1970)
1901 - Raimundo Orsi, Argentine-born footballer (d. 1986)
1906 - Peter Carl Goldmark, Hungarian-born recording engineer (d. 1977)
1914 - Adolph Green, American composer (d. 2002)
1914 - Ray Walston, American actor (d. 2001)
1923 - Maria Callas, American soprano (d. 1977)
1924 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., American soldier and politician
1925 - Julie Harris, American actress
1930 - Gary Becker, American economist, recipient of the Bank of Sweden Prize
1931 - Edwin Meese, American politician
1933 - Michael Larrabee, American athlete (d. 2003)
1933 - K. Veeramani, Indian anti-caste activist
1934 - Andre Rodgers, baseball player (d. 2004)
1935 - David Hackett Fischer, American historian
1939 - Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician
1939 - Harry Reid, American politician
1943 - Wayne Allard, American politician
1944 - Ibrahim Rugova, first President of Kosovo (d. 2006)
1944 - Botho Strauß, German author
1945 - Penelope Spheeris, American film director
1946 - Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (d. 1997)
1950 - Bob Kevoian, American radio personality
1954 - Dan Butler, American actor
1954 - Stone Phillips, American television journalist
1957 - Dagfinn Høybråten, Norwegian politician
1958 - Uladzimir Parfianovich, Belarusian canoer
1958 - Eric L. Harry, American novelist
1960 - Rick Savage, British bassist (Def Leppard)
1966 - Jinsei Shinzaki, Japanese professional wrestler
1968 - Lucy Liu, American actress
1968 - Nate Mendel, American bassist (Foo Fighters)
1968 - Chris Wedge, American animator
1970 - Sarah Silverman, American comedian
1971 - Wilson Jermaine Heredia, American actor
1972 - Sergei Zholtok, Latvian ice hockey player (d. 2004)
1973 - Monica Seles, Yugoslavian-born tennis player
1973 - Jan Ullrich, German cyclist
1976 - Eddy Garabito, Professional baseball player
1978 - Nelly Furtado, Canadian singer and songwriter
1978 - Chris Wolstenholme, British bassist (Muse)
1979 - Yvonne Catterfeld, German singer and actress
1981 - Britney Spears, American singer
1982 - Matt Ware, American football player
1987 - Teairra Mari, African-American R&B singer
1988 - Alfred Enoch, British actor

Deaths

1348 - Emperor Hanazono of Japan (b. 1297)
1381 - John of Ruysbroeck, Flemish mystic
1463 - Archduke Albert VI of Austria (b. 1418)
1469 - Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1416)
1515 - Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and statesman (b. 1453)
1547 - Hernán Cortés, Spanish explorer and conqueror (b. 1485)
1552 - Francis Xavier, Spanish Catholic missionary (b. 1506)
1594 - Gerardus Mercator, Flemish cartographer (b. 1512)
1615 - Louis des Balbes de Berton de Crillon, French general
1665 - Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, French socialite (b. 1588)
1694 - Pierre Paul Puget, French artist (b. 1622)
1719 - Pasquier Quesnel, French Jansenist theologian (b. 1634)
1723 - Philip II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France (b. 1674)
1726 - Samuel Penhallow, English-born American colonist and historian (b. 1665)
1747 - Vincent Bourne, English classical scholar (b. 1695)
1748 - Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician (b. 1662)
1774 - Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer and organist (b. 1720)
1814 - Marquis de Sade, French writer (b. 1740)
1844 - Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko, Polish general and politician (b. 1768)
1849 - Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, wife of William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)
1859 - John Brown, American abolitionist (hanged) (b. 1800)
1860 - Alfred Bunn, British theatrical manager (b. 1796)
1892 - Jay Gould, American entrepreneur (b. 1836)
1918 - Edmond Rostand, French poet and dramatist (b. 1868)
1924 - Kazimieras Būga, Lithuanian philologist (b. 1879)
1931 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)
1943 - Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian author and journalist (b. 1902)
1944 - Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist (b. 1874)
1944 - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian writer (b. 1876)
1950 - Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist (b. 1917)
1957 - Harrison Ford, American actor (b. 1884)
1957 - Manfred Sakel, Polish psychiatrist (b. 1902)
1963 - Thomas J. Hicks, British-born runner (b. 1875)
1963 - Sabu Dastagir, Indian-born American actor (b. 1924)
1966 - Giles Cooper, Irish-born playwright (b.1918)
1968 - Adamson-Eric (Eric Adamson), Estonian painter (b. 1902)
1969 - Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, Russian politician (b. 1881)
1974 - Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1897)
1976 - Danny Murtaugh, baseball player and manager (b. 1917)
1980 - Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1905)
1980 - Romain Gary, Lithuanian-born French writer (b. 1914)
1982 - Marty Feldman, British comedian, writer and actor (b. 1933)
1983 - Fifi d'Orsay, Canadian actress (b. 1904)
1985 - Aniello Dellacroce, American gangster (b. 1914)
1985 - Philip Larkin, English writer and jazz critic (b. 1922)
1986 - Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born actor, musician, band leader, and composer (b. 1917)
1987 - Luis Federico Leloir, French-born chemist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
1987 - Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Russian physicist (b. 1914)
1988 - Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra)
1990 - Aaron Copland, American composer (b. 1900)
1993 - Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug dealer (b. 1949)
1995 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (b. 1913)
1997 - Shirley Crabtree, British professional wrestler (b. 1930)
2002 - Ivan Illich, Austrian priest and philosopher (b. 1926)
2002 - Arno Peters, German historian (b. 1916)
2003 - Alan Davidson, British author (b. 1924)
2004 - Mona Van Duyn, American poet (b. 1921)
2004 - Alicia Markova, British ballerina (b. 1910)
2005 - Van Tuong Nguyen, Australian drug smuggler (hanged) (b. 1980)
2005 - Kenneth Lee Boyd, American convicted murderer (executed) (b. 1948)

Holidays and observances

R.C. Saints - St Bibiana
Laos - National Day
United Arab Emirates - National Day (independence from Britain, 1971)

External links

BBC: On This Day

December 1 - December 3 - November 2 - January 2 — listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: December 2

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links