Today in history
Today is Wednesday, Dec. 2, the 336th day of 2015. There are 29 days left in the year.
Highlight in history
On Dec. 2, 1995, NASA launched the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint project of the United States and the European Space Agency, on a $1 billion mission to study the sun and interplanetary space; since then, SOHO has discovered 3,000 comets.
On this date
In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
In 1823, President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harpers Ferry the previous October. Artist Georges-Pierre Seurat was born in Paris.
In 1927, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its Model A automobile that replaced its Model T.
In 1939, New York Municipal Airport-LaGuardia Field (later LaGuardia Airport) went into operation as an airliner from Chicago landed at one minute past midnight.
In 1942, an artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.
In 1954, the U.S. Senate passed, 67-22, a resolution condemning Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., saying he had “acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”
In 1961, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would eventually lead Cuba to Communism.
In 1970, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors; its first director was William D. Ruckelshaus.
In 1980, four American churchwomen were raped and murdered outside San Salvador. (Five El Salvador national guardsmen were later convicted of murdering nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel, and lay worker Jean Donovan.)
In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.
In 1990, composer Aaron Copland died in North Tarrytown, New York, at age 90. Actor Bob Cummings died in Woodland Hills, California, at age 80.
Ten years ago: North Carolina inmate Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th person executed since the U.S. resumed capital punishment in 1977. Singapore executed a Vietnamese-born Australian heroin trafficker (Nguyen Tuong Van) despite a warning by Australian Prime Minister John Howard that the hanging would sour relations between the two countries.
Five years ago: The House voted, 333-79, to censure Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., for financial and fundraising misconduct; it was only the 23rd time that the House had invoked its most serious punishment short of expulsion. LeBron James scored 38 points to lead the visiting Miami Heat to a 118-90 victory over the host Cleveland Cavaliers; it was James’ first game back in the city where he had played for seven years before leaving via free agency. The tiny desert nation of Qatar beat out the United States as the 2022 World Cup host (however, questions have since been raised about the bidding process).