December 2

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December 2 in recent years 2008 (Tuesday)2007 (Sunday)2006 (Saturday)2005 (Friday)2004 (Thursday)2003 (Tuesday)2002 (Monday)2001 (Sunday)2000 (Saturday)

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.

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 External links

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 crowns himself Emperor of the French, the first French Emperor 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 the French.
1859 - Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.
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.
1908 - Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the age of two
1920 - Following more than a month of Turkish-Armenian War, the Turkish dictated peace treaty is concluded -Treaty of Alexandropol
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 an American ship with a mustard gas stockpile. Numerous fatalities (though the exact death toll is unresolved as the bombing raid itself caused hundreds of deaths too).
1946 - 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, DC.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
2001 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2005 - Van Tuong Nguyen is executed in Singapore for drug trafficking.

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 (d. 1809)
1760 - John Breckinridge, American politician (d. 1806)
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 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),Charles H. Wesley, author writer and Brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Inc.
1892 - 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)
1902 - Howard Koch, American screenwriter (d. 1995)
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 - Adolph Green, American composer (d. 2002)
1914 - Ray Walston, American actor (d. 2001)
1917 - Sylvia Syms, American jazz singer (d. 1992)
1923 - Maria Callas, Greek soprano (d. 1977)
1924 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., American soldier and politician
1924 - Vilgot Sjöman, Swedish writer and film director (d. 2006)
1925 - Julie Harris, American actress
1930 - Gary Becker, American economist, recipient of the Bank of Sweden Prize
1930 - David Piper, British race car driver
1931 - Edwin Meese, American lawyer, U.S. attorney general and presidential advisor
1931 - Nigel Calder, British science writer
1931 - Hatsumi Masaaki, Founder and head of the Bujinkan Dojo organization
1931 - Wynton Kelly, American jazz pianist (d. 1971)
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
1939 - Francis Fox, Canadian politician, member of the Senate
1943 - Wayne Allard, American politician
1944 - Ibrahim Rugova, first President of Kosovo (d. 2006)
1944 - Botho Strauß, German author
1944 - Dionysis Savvopoulos, Greek musician and songwriter
1944 - Inger Davidson, Swedish politician
1945 - Penelope Spheeris, American film director
1946 - Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (d. 1997)
1947 - Isaac Bitton, French rock band drummer (Les Variations)
1947 - Ivan Atanassov Petrov, Bulgarian neurologist
1947 - Tommy Jenkins, English football player
1948 - T. Coraghessan Boyle, American writer
1950 - Bob Kevoian, American radio personality
1951 - Adrian Devine, American baseball pitcher
1952 - Carol Shea-Porter, American Congresswoman
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
1958 - George Saunders, American writer
1960 - Nicholas Dingley alias Razzle, British Drummer (Hanoi Rocks)
1960 - Rick Savage, British bassist (Def Leppard)
1962 - Kardam, Prince of Turnovo, titular Bulgarian royal family
1963 - Ann Patchett, American novelist
1963 - Ron Sutter, National Hockey League player
1966 - Jinsei Shinzaki, Japanese professional wrestler
1968 - Lucy Liu, American actress
1968 - Nate Mendel, American bassist (Foo Fighters)
1968 - Rena Sofer, American actress
1968 - Chris Wedge, American animator
1968 - Darryl Kile, baseball player (d. 2002)
1970 - Treach, American rapper (Naughty by Nature)
1971 - Wilson Jermaine Heredia, American actor
1971 - Francesco Toldo, Italian Football Player (Inter Milan)
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, professional baseball player
1977 - Siyabonga Nomvethe, South African footballer plays for Aalborg BK
1978 - Nelly Furtado, Canadian singer and songwriter
1978 - Chris Wolstenholme, British bassist (Muse)
1978 - David Rivas, Spanish Footballer plays for Real Betis
1978 - Jason Collins, American basketball player for New Jersey Nets
1978 - Jarron Collins, American basketball player for Utah Jazz
1979 - Yvonne Catterfeld, German singer and actress
1979 - Michael McIndoe, Scottish professional footballer (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
1981 - Isabella Soprano, American pornographic actress
1981 - Danijel Pranjić, Croatian football player plays for SC Heerenveen
1981 - Britney Spears, American singer
1982 - Matt Ware, American football player
1982 - Michelle Banzer, model/beauty queen
1982 - Pizon, American rapper/producer
1982 - Hristos Karipidis, Greek footballer
1983 - Bibiana Candelas, Mexican volleyball player
1983 - Chris Burke (footballer), Scottish footballer plays for Rangers F.C.
1983 - Aaron Rodgers, American football player for Green Bay Packers
1984 - Péter Máté, Hungarian footballer (Reading F.C.)
1985 - Dorell Wright, American basketball player
1986 - Claudiu Keserü, Romanian football player (FC Nantes Atlantique)
1987 - Teairra Mari, American R&B singer
1988 - Alfred Enoch, British Actor
1988 - Soniya Mehra, Indian Actress
1989 - Cassie Steele, Canadian actress