December 2 is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 29 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events[link]

• 1409 – The University of Leipzig opens.
• 1755 – The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
• 1763 – Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what became the United States.
• 1775 – The USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.
• 1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French, the first French Emperor in a thousand years.
• 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz – French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte 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 – French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.
• 1852 – Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French (Napoleon III).
• 1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.
• 1867 – At Tremont Temple in Boston, 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.
• 1908 – Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the age of two
• 1917 – An armistice is signed between Russia and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk and peace talks leading to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk began.
• 1920 – Following more than a month of Turkish-Armenian War, the Turkish dictated Treaty of Alexandropol is concluded.
• 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 the United States 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 initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
• 1943 – A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo and transport ships, including an American Liberty ship, the John Harvey, with a stockpile of World War I-era mustard gas.
• 1946 – The British Government invites 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".
• 1954 – The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and the Republic of China, is signed in Washington, D.C..
• 1956 – The Granma yacht reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente province and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution.
• 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 not to 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.
• 1975 – Pathet Lao seizes power in Laos, and establishes the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
• 1976 – Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.
• 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.
• 1982 – At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.
• 1988 – Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.
• 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 – Glenbrook rail accident near Sydney, New South Wales.
• 1999 – The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.
• 2001 – Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Births[link]

• 1578 – Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer and music theorist (d. 1640)
• 1595 – Henry Lawes, English musician and composer (d. 1662)
• 1694 – William Shirley, Colonial Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1771)
• 1703 – Ferdinand Konščak, 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 (d. 1809)
• 1760 – John Breckinridge, American politician and 5th United States Attorney General (d. 1806)
• 1760 – Joseph Graetz, German composer, organist, and music educator (d. 1826)
• 1810 – Henry Yesler, American entrepreneur and politician (d. 1892)
• 1811 – Jean-Charles Chapais, French Canadian politician, Father of the Canadian Confederation (d. 1885)
• 1817 – Heinrich von Sybel, German historian (d. 1895)
• 1825 – Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (d. 1891)
• 1846 – Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, French statesman (d. 1904)
• 1859 – Georges Seurat, French painter (d. 1891)
• 1863 – Charles Ringling, American circus owner (d. 1926)
• 1866 – Harry Burleigh, African American composer, arranger, and professional singer (d. 1949)
• 1884 – Erima Harvey Northcroft, New Zealand lawyer and judge (d. 1953)
• 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)
• 1891 – Charles H. Wesley, author writer and Brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Inc. (d. 1987)
• 1893 – Leo Ornstein, Russian-born composer and pianist (d. 2002)
• 1894 – Warren William, American Broadway and film actor (d. 1948)
• 1895 – Harriet Cohen, British pianist (d. 1967)
• 1897 – Hovhannes Bagramyan, Marshall of the Soviet Union (d. 1982)
• 1898 – Indra Lal Roy, Indian pilot (d. 1918)
• 1899 – John Barbirolli, British conductor (d. 1970)
• 1899 – John Cobb, British racing driver (d. 1952)
• 1899 – Ray Morehart, American baseball player (d. 1989)
• 1901 – Raimundo Orsi, Argentine-born footballer (d. 1986)
• 1906 – Peter Carl Goldmark, Hungarian-born recording engineer (d. 1977)
• 1910 – Russell Lynes, American art historian, photographer, author and managing editor of Harper's Magazine (d. 1991)
• 1914 – Bill Erwin, American actor (d. 2010)
• 1914 – Adolph Green, American composer (d. 2002)
• 1914 – Ray Walston, American actor (d. 2001)
• 1915 – Prince Mikasa, Japanese royal
• 1917 – Sylvia Syms, American jazz singer (d. 1992)
• 1921 – Carlo Furno, Cardinal Grand Master Emeritus of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
• 1922 – Iakovos Kambanelis, Greek poet, playwright, lyricist, and novelist
• 1923 – Maria Callas, Greek soprano (d. 1977)
• 1924 – Alexander Haig, American Soldier & Civil servant, 7th Supreme Allied Commander Europe, 5th White House Chief of Staff and 59th United States Secretary of State (d. 2010)
• 1924 – Vilgot Sjöman, Swedish writer and film director (d. 2006)
• 1925 – Julie Harris, American actress
• 1927 – Prabhakar Thokal, Indian cartoonist
• 1928 – Gerhard Kaufhold, German footballer (d. 2009)
• 1930 – Gary Becker, American economist, recipient of the Bank of Sweden Prize
• 1930 – David Piper, British race car driver
• 1931 – Nigel Calder, British science writer
• 1931 – Wynton Kelly, American jazz pianist (d. 1971)
• 1931 – Masaaki Hatsumi, founder and head of the Bujinkan Dojo organization
• 1931 – Edwin Meese, American jurist and 75th United States Attorney General
• 1933 – Mike Larrabee, American athlete (d. 2003)
• 1933 – K. Veeramani, Indian anti-caste activist
• 1934 – Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Secretary of State and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church
• 1934 – Sissela Bok, Swedish philosopher and ethicist
• 1934 – Andre Rodgers, baseball player (d. 2004)
• 1935 – David Hackett Fischer, American historian
• 1937 – Manohar Joshi, Indian politician
• 1939 – Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician
• 1939 – Francis Fox, Canadian politician, member of the Senate
• 1939 – Harry Reid, American politician
• 1943 – Wayne Allard, American politician
• 1944 – Cathy Lee Crosby, American actress
• 1944 – Inger Davidson, Swedish politician
• 1944 – Ibrahim Rugova, first President of Kosovo (d. 2006)
• 1944 – Dionysis Savvopoulos, Greek musician and songwriter
• 1944 – Botho Strauß, German author
• 1945 – Penelope Spheeris, American film director
• 1946 – Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (d. 1997)
• 1947 – Isaac Bitton, French rock band drummer (Les Variations)
• 1947 – Tommy Jenkins, English football player
• 1947 – Ivan Atanassov Petrov, Bulgarian neurologist
• 1948 – T. Coraghessan Boyle, American writer
• 1949 – Ron Raines, American actor
• 1950 – Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd on Whale Wars.
• 1950 – Amin Saikal, Afghan-Australian academic
• 1950 – Benjamin Stora, French historian
• 1950 – Bob Kevoian, American radio personality
• 1951 – Adrian Devine, American baseball pitcher
• 1952 – Carol Shea-Porter, American Congresswoman
• 1952 – Rob Mounsey, American Musician
• 1954 – Dan Butler, American actor
• 1954 – Stone Phillips, American television journalist
• 1956 – Steven Bauer, American actor
• 1957 – Dagfinn Høybråten, Norwegian politician
• 1958 – George Saunders, American writer
• 1958 – Uladzimir Parfianovich, Belarusian canoer
• 1959 – Frank Dietrich, German footballer
• 1959 – Boman Irani, Indian actor
• 1960 – Nicholas Dingley alias Razzle, British drummer (Hanoi Rocks) (d. 1984)
• 1960 – Rick Savage, British bassist (Def Leppard)
• 1960 – Justus von Dohnányi, German actor
• 1962 – Kardam, Prince of Turnovo, titular Bulgarian royal family
• 1963 – Dan Gauthier, American actor
• 1963 – Ann Patchett, American novelist
• 1963 – Rich Sutter, Canadian hockey player
• 1963 – Ron Sutter, Canadian hockey player
• 1963 – Brendan Coyle, English actor
• 1966 – Jinsei Shinzaki, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1967 – Laurie Morgan, Channel Islands chief minister
• 1968 – Darryl Kile, baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1968 – Lucy Liu, American actress
• 1968 – Nate Mendel, American bassist (Foo Fighters)
• 1968 – Rena Sofer, American actress
• 1970 – Treach, American rapper (Naughty by Nature)
• 1970 – Yang Hyun Suk, South Korean record producer
• 1970 – Joe Lo Truglio, American actor, writer and comedian
• 1971 – Wilson Jermaine Heredia, American actor
• 1971 – Francesco Toldo, Italian football player
• 1971 – Mine Yoshizaki, Japanese mangaka
• 1972 – Sergei Zholtok, Latvian ice hockey player (d. 2004)
• 1973 – Graham Kavanagh, Irish footballer
• 1973 – Monica Seles, Yugoslavian-born tennis player
• 1973 – Jan Ullrich, German cyclist
• 1976 – Eddy Garabito, Dominican baseball player
• 1976 – Masafumi Gotō, Japanese singer (Asian Kung-Fu Generation)
• 1977 – Siyabonga Nomvethe, South African footballer
• 1978 – Jarron Collins, American basketball player
• 1978 – Jason Collins, American basketball player
• 1978 – Nelly Furtado, Portuguese-Canadian singer and songwriter
• 1978 – Luigi Malafronte, Italian footballer
• 1978 – Peter Moylan, Australian baseball player
• 1978 – Maëlle Ricker, Canadian snowboarder, Olympic Gold Medalist
• 1978 – David Rivas, Spanish footballer
• 1978 – Chris Wolstenholme, British bassist (Muse)
• 1979 – Melissa Archer, American actress
• 1979 – Yvonne Catterfeld, German singer and actress
• 1979 – Michael McIndoe, Scottish professional footballer
• 1980 – Adam Kreek, Canadian rower
• 1981 – Danijel Pranjić, Croatian football player
• 1981 – Britney Spears, American singer, dancer and entertainer
• 1982 – Michelle Banzer, model/beauty queen
• 1982 – Christos Karipidis, Greek footballer
• 1982 – Pizon, American rapper/producer
• 1982 – Matt Ware, American football player
• 1983 – Chris Burke, Scottish footballer
• 1983 – Bibiana Candelas, Mexican volleyball player
• 1983 – Jana Kramer, American actress
• 1983 – Aaron Rodgers, American football player
• 1983 – Daniela Ruah, Portuguese actress
• 1984 – Péter Máté, Hungarian footballer
• 1985 – Amaury Leveaux, French swimmer
• 1985 – Dorell Wright, American basketball player
• 1986 – Claudiu Keserü, Romanian footballer
• 1986 – Adam Le Fondre, English footballer
• 1986 – Tal Wilkenfeld, Australian electric bass player
• 1987 – Teairra Mari, American R&B singer
• 1988 – Alfred Enoch, British actor
• 1988 – Soniya Mehra, Indian actress
• 1989 – Cassie Steele, Canadian actress
• 1990 – Hikaru Yaotome, Japanese idol (Hey! Say! JUMP)
• 1990 – Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, Ghanaian footballer
• 1991 – Brandon Knight, American basketball player
• 1993 – Kostas Stafylidis, Greek footballer

Deaths[link]

• 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 of Florence (b. 1416)
• 1515 – Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and statesman (b. 1453)
• 1547 – Hernán Cortés, Spanish explorer and conqueror (b. 1485)
• 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)
• 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 (b. 1800)
• 1860 – Alfred Bunn, British theatrical manager (b. 1796)
• 1888 – Namık Kemal, Turkish poet (b. 1840)
• 1892 – Jay Gould, American entrepreneur (b. 1836)
• 1899 – Gregorio del Pilar, Filipino general (b. 1875)
• 1918 – Edmond Rostand, French poet and dramatist (b. 1868)
• 1924 – Kazimieras Būga, Lithuanian philologist (b. 1879)
• 1931 – Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)
• 1936 – John Ringling, American circus owner (b. 1866)
• 1943 – Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian author and journalist (b. 1902)
• 1944 – Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist (b. 1874)
• 1944 – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian writer (b. 1876)
• 1944 – Eiji Sawamura, Japanese baseball player (b. 1917)
• 1950 – Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist (b. 1917)
• 1953 – Reginald Baker, Australian athlete and actor (b. 1884)
• 1953 – Tran Trong Kim, Vietnamese scholar and politician (b. 1883)
• 1957 – Harrison Ford, American actor (b. 1884)
• 1957 – Manfred Sakel, Polish psychiatrist (b. 1902)
• 1963 – Sabu Dastagir, Indian-born American actor (b. 1924)
• 1963 – Thomas Hicks, British-born American runner (b. 1875)
• 1966 – Giles Cooper, Anglo-Irish playwright (b. 1918)
• 1967 – Billy Chapman, English footballer (b. 1902)
• 1968 – Adamson-Eric (Eric Adamson), Estonian painter (b. 1902)
• 1969 – José María Arguedas, Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist (b. 1911)
• 1969 – Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, Russian politician (b. 1881)
• 1972 – Yip Man, Chinese martial artist (b. 1893)
• 1974 – Max Weber, Swiss politician (b. 1897)
• 1976 – Danny Murtaugh, American baseball player and manager (b. 1917)
• 1980 – Roza Eskenazi, Greek singer (b. 1890s)
• 1980 – Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, Pakistani politician (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 organized crime figure (b. 1914)
• 1985 – Philip Larkin, English writer and jazz critic (b. 1922)
• 1986 – Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born actor and band leader (b. 1917)
• 1986 – John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist (b. 1912)
• 1987 – Luis Federico Leloir, French-born chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1906)
• 1987 – Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Russian physicist (b. 1914)
• 1988 – Karl-Heinz Bürger, German SS-Oberführer (b. 1904)
• 1988 – Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (b. 1922)
• 1990 – Aaron Copland, American composer (b. 1900)
• 1990 – Robert Cummings, American actor (b. 1908)
• 1992 – Michael Gothard, English actor (b. 1939)
• 1993 – Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug trafficker (b. 1949)
• 1995 – Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (b. 1913)
• 1995 – Roxie Roker, American actress (b. 1929)
• 1997 – Shirley Crabtree, British professional wrestler (b. 1930)
• 1997 – Michael Hedges, American guitarist (b. 1953)
• 2000 – Gail Fisher, American actress (b. 1935)
• 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 – Kenneth Lee Boyd, American convicted murderer (b. 1948)
• 2005 – Van Tuong Nguyen, Thai-born Australian drug smuggler (b. 1980)
• 2005 – Nat Mayer Shapiro, American painter (b. 1919)
• 2005 – William P. Lawrence, American naval officer (b. 1930)
• 2006 – Mariska Veres, Dutch singer (Shocking Blue) (b. 1947)
• 2007 – Jennifer Alexander, Canadian ballet dancer (b. 1972)
• 2008 – Edward Samuel Rogers, Canadian entrepreneur (b. 1933)
• 2008 – Kathleen Baskin-Ball, American religious figure (b. 1958)
• 2008 – Odetta, American singer (b. 1930)
• 2009 – Maggie Jones, English actress (b. 1934)
• 2009 – Eric Woolfson, Scottish singer and producer (The Alan Parsons Project) (b. 1945)
• 2009 – Foge Fazio, American college football coach (b. 1938)

Holidays and observances[link]

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Bibiana
  • Channing Moore Williams (Anglican Communion)
  • Chromatius
• International Day for the Abolition of Slavery (International)
• National Day (Laos)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: December 2

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada