Post by farmgal on Dec 23, 2012 9:51:44 GMT -5
December 03 is the 338th day of this leap year, in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 28 days remaining [until the end of the year.
Days left until November 2014 elections:
Countdown until Obama should have been leaving office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1775 First official US flag raising (aboard naval vessel Alfred.)The earliest reference to this flag is apparently the raising of it on board the Continental ship "Alfred" on December 3, 1775 at Philadelphia supposedly by John Paul Jones. The flag was made by Margaret Manny of Philadelphia; she was paid one pound, two shillings and eight pence for her work on December 2, 1775.
1776 Washington arrives at the banks of the Delaware. In a letter dated December 3, 1776, General George Washington writes to Congress from his headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey, to report that he had transported much of the Continental Army's stores and baggage across the Delaware River to Pennsylvania.
In his letter Washington wrote, Immediately on my arrival here, I ordered the removal of all the military and other stores and baggage over the Delaware, a great quantity are already got over, and as soon as the boats come up from Philadelphia, we shall load them, by which means I hope to have every thing secured this night and tomorrow if we are not disturbed.
Washington then made the critical strategic move of confiscating and burning all the boats along the Delaware to prevent British troops from pursuing his beleaguered forces across the river. The British strategy of chasing Washington across New Jersey, rather than capturing his entire army in Manhattan, seemed to be a stroke of genius. As New Jersey was devastated at the hands of British forces and Washington's men cowered in Pennsylvania, even staunch Patriots, including Thomas Jefferson, considered surrender to the crown.
Also on this day, General Washington received a letter dated November 30 from his second-in-command, General Charles Lee, reporting that he was about to cross into New York near Peekskill on this day in 1776. In an apt reflection of the state of the American fortunes, the British captured General Lee nine days later in New Jersey. Richard Stockton, a leading New Jersey patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was also in British custody and was forced to swear an oath of allegiance to the British king along with thousands of his New Jersey neighbors.
1818 Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.
1834 First US dental society organized (New York)Due to the sorry state in which dentistry found itself, 15 dentists came together in New York City on Dec. 3, 1834, and organized the first dental society in the United States, the Society of Dental Surgeons of the City and State of New York. Hayden was chosen as president, Parmly as vice president, and Brown was named the recording secretary, being elected president in 1839. Unfortunately, the dispute over the propriety of the use of amalgam in practice -- termed the "Amalgam War" -- led to the demise of the organization a few years later.
1835 First US mutual fire insurance company issues first policy (Rhode Island)
1839 Lincoln reaches legal milestone. On this day in 1839, future President Abraham Lincoln advances to another stage in his legal career when he is admitted to practice law in the U.S. Circuit Court. It was during his years practicing law that Lincoln honed his now famous oratorical skills.
Lincoln made the first step toward becoming a lawyer in 1836 when the state of Illinois certified him as being "a person of good moral character." (He did not attend law school but studied on his own while working as a clerk in a law office.) In 1838, he delivered closing arguments in the Jacob Early murder case, persuading the jury that his client, the defendant, had acted in self defense. In 1840, Lincoln was re-elected to the Illinois State Assembly—his third term since 1834—and by 1846 earned a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. By that time, Lincoln had begun to use his debate and speaking skills to help fellow Whigs campaign for state and national offices and, in 1848, he delivered a blistering attack on President James Polk for what Lincoln believed was an ill-advised war against Mexico. He called Polk "a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man" for waging a war that ended up costing the nation 13,780 lives and a whopping $100 million.
After losing his House seat in the election of 1848, Lincoln returned to practicing law in the state of Illinois, where he helped to establish the new Republican Party. His oratorical skills came in handy while speaking out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) and the Dred Scott decision (1857), which both served to perpetuate the practice of slavery, an institution Lincoln saw as immoral. In his 1858 campaign for a seat in the U.S. Senate, as secessionist sentiment brewed among the southern states, Lincoln warned in a campaign speech that "a house divided against itself cannot stand." Although he did not win a Senate seat that year, he earned national recognition as a strong political force. In 1860, Lincoln was elected to the presidency.
Lincoln's skill with words helped soothe an anxious populace throughout the Civil War. His most famous speech is the Gettysburg Address, which he delivered in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. In that speech, Lincoln resolved that those killed in the battle "shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Though less than 300 words, the Gettysburg Address is now considered a defining vision of American democracy.
1847 Frederick Douglass publishes first issue of his newspaper "North Star." After Douglass escaped, he wanted to promote freedom for all slaves. He published a newspaper in Rochester, New York, called The North Star. It got its name because slaves escaping at night followed the North Star in the sky to freedom. Douglass's goals were to "abolish slavery in all its forms and aspects, promote the moral and intellectual improvement of the colored people, and hasten the day of freedom to the Three Millions of our enslaved fellow countrymen."
1856 A severe blizzard began to rage across Iowa and Kansas. It produced as much as 16 inches of snow in Iowa. (David Ludlum)
1901 US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking the Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
1904 The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
1910 Neon lighting, developed by French physicist Georges Claude, made its public debut at the Paris Motor Show. The coloured light is produced by passing electrical current through inert gases in a vacuum tube. This effect was produced following decades of experiments to create a practical alternative to incandescent lighting. Neon signage came to America when Earle C. Anthony bought two signs for $2400 in Paris and installed them in his Los Angeles Packard dealership. Neon gas glows a fiery orange-red; argon is soft lavender; argon gas enhanced with mercury is brilliant blue. More than 150 colors can be achieved by combining different gasses (including krypton, xenon and helium) and phosphors that coat the inside of the glass tube.
1914 Walter Johnson accepts money from Federal League. In 1913, the Federal League played in several smaller market cities with few former major leaguers, but in 1914, Joe Tinker led the way for ML players to pursue bigger paychecks in the upstart league. On December 3, 1914, Walter Johnson signed a two-year contract with the Chi-Feds, for the 1915 and 1916 seasons. Chi-Feds owner Charles Weeghman, one of the principals in the Federal League, refused to disclose the amount he would pay Johnson, but it was speculated to be in the neighborhood of $40,000 for two seasons, making "Barney" one of the highest paid players in the game. Johnson had tested the waters and thought better of it. Reportedly he felt if he jumped to the Feds, he would let his teammates and fans down, but it's also likely that he feared a legal battle which he was ill-suited to finance.
1922 The first really successful Technicolor motion picture film was released. The movie, shown at the Rialto Theatre in New York City, was The Toll of the Sea, derived from Madame Butterfly but shifted to China. It was filmed using the early two-color System 2. The Technicolor camera
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.todayinsci.com/12/12_03.htm
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.amug.org/~jpaul/dec03.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_3
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/c/o/scott_chf.htm
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/civil-war-breaks-out-in-athens
There are 28 days remaining [until the end of the year.
Days left until November 2014 elections:
Countdown until Obama should have been leaving office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1776 Washington arrives at the banks of the Delaware. In a letter dated December 3, 1776, General George Washington writes to Congress from his headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey, to report that he had transported much of the Continental Army's stores and baggage across the Delaware River to Pennsylvania.
In his letter Washington wrote, Immediately on my arrival here, I ordered the removal of all the military and other stores and baggage over the Delaware, a great quantity are already got over, and as soon as the boats come up from Philadelphia, we shall load them, by which means I hope to have every thing secured this night and tomorrow if we are not disturbed.
Washington then made the critical strategic move of confiscating and burning all the boats along the Delaware to prevent British troops from pursuing his beleaguered forces across the river. The British strategy of chasing Washington across New Jersey, rather than capturing his entire army in Manhattan, seemed to be a stroke of genius. As New Jersey was devastated at the hands of British forces and Washington's men cowered in Pennsylvania, even staunch Patriots, including Thomas Jefferson, considered surrender to the crown.
Also on this day, General Washington received a letter dated November 30 from his second-in-command, General Charles Lee, reporting that he was about to cross into New York near Peekskill on this day in 1776. In an apt reflection of the state of the American fortunes, the British captured General Lee nine days later in New Jersey. Richard Stockton, a leading New Jersey patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was also in British custody and was forced to swear an oath of allegiance to the British king along with thousands of his New Jersey neighbors.
1818 Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.
1834 First US dental society organized (New York)Due to the sorry state in which dentistry found itself, 15 dentists came together in New York City on Dec. 3, 1834, and organized the first dental society in the United States, the Society of Dental Surgeons of the City and State of New York. Hayden was chosen as president, Parmly as vice president, and Brown was named the recording secretary, being elected president in 1839. Unfortunately, the dispute over the propriety of the use of amalgam in practice -- termed the "Amalgam War" -- led to the demise of the organization a few years later.
1835 First US mutual fire insurance company issues first policy (Rhode Island)
1839 Lincoln reaches legal milestone. On this day in 1839, future President Abraham Lincoln advances to another stage in his legal career when he is admitted to practice law in the U.S. Circuit Court. It was during his years practicing law that Lincoln honed his now famous oratorical skills.
Lincoln made the first step toward becoming a lawyer in 1836 when the state of Illinois certified him as being "a person of good moral character." (He did not attend law school but studied on his own while working as a clerk in a law office.) In 1838, he delivered closing arguments in the Jacob Early murder case, persuading the jury that his client, the defendant, had acted in self defense. In 1840, Lincoln was re-elected to the Illinois State Assembly—his third term since 1834—and by 1846 earned a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. By that time, Lincoln had begun to use his debate and speaking skills to help fellow Whigs campaign for state and national offices and, in 1848, he delivered a blistering attack on President James Polk for what Lincoln believed was an ill-advised war against Mexico. He called Polk "a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man" for waging a war that ended up costing the nation 13,780 lives and a whopping $100 million.
After losing his House seat in the election of 1848, Lincoln returned to practicing law in the state of Illinois, where he helped to establish the new Republican Party. His oratorical skills came in handy while speaking out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) and the Dred Scott decision (1857), which both served to perpetuate the practice of slavery, an institution Lincoln saw as immoral. In his 1858 campaign for a seat in the U.S. Senate, as secessionist sentiment brewed among the southern states, Lincoln warned in a campaign speech that "a house divided against itself cannot stand." Although he did not win a Senate seat that year, he earned national recognition as a strong political force. In 1860, Lincoln was elected to the presidency.
Lincoln's skill with words helped soothe an anxious populace throughout the Civil War. His most famous speech is the Gettysburg Address, which he delivered in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. In that speech, Lincoln resolved that those killed in the battle "shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Though less than 300 words, the Gettysburg Address is now considered a defining vision of American democracy.
1856 A severe blizzard began to rage across Iowa and Kansas. It produced as much as 16 inches of snow in Iowa. (David Ludlum)
1901 US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking the Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
1904 The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
recorded the red and blue-green images simultaneously through a single lens using a beam splitter and color filters to record the images stacked one on top of the other. System 1 had used additive colour with filters on two projected images. System 2 used two dyed matrix prints cemented back to back to form a the final release print. The process was developed by Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, who founded Technicolor Motion Picture Corp. in 1915.
1923 First Congressional open session broadcast via radio (Washington DC)
1924 Prizefighter Jack Sharkey loses his boxing license. The New York State Boxing Commission revoked his boxing card after Sharkey knocked down referee Eddie Purdy during a match. Sharkey was the American world heavyweight-boxing champion from June 21, 1932, when he defeated Max Schmeling in 15 rounds at Long Island City, N.Y., until June 29, 1933, when he was knocked out by Primo Carnera in six rounds in New York City.
1925 "Concerto in F," by George Gershwin, premieres at Carnegie Hall. When he was 25 years old, his jazz-influenced "Rhapsody in Blue" premiered in New York's Aeolian Hall at the concert, "An Experiment in Music." Gershwin followed this success with his orchestral work "Piano Concerto in F, Rhapsody No. 2" and "An American in Paris". At its premier in New York's Carnegie Hall the work was well received, but the reviews were mixed which many critics unable to classify it as jazz or classical. Indeed, there was a great variety of opinion among Gershwin's contemporaries; Stravinsky thought the work was one of genius, whereas Sergei Prokofiev disliked it intensely.
1926 Yuma, AZ, was soaked with 1.10 inch of rain, and by the 10th of the month had received 4.43 inches, making it the wettest December of record. The average annual rainfall for Yuma is 3.38 inches. (3rd-10th) (The Weather Channel)
1931 Alka Seltzer goes on sale. Alka-Seltzer was introduced in 1931 by Miles Laboratories (purchased by Bayer in 1979). The product was originally used by some consumers as a remedy for hangovers. Alka-Seltzer's effervescent (fizzing) tablets release their active ingredients when dissolved in water. Each Alka-Seltzer tablet, which comes in origianl, lemon-lime, and cherry flavors, contains 1,916 milligrams of sodium bicarbonate, 1,000 milligrams of citric acid, and 325 milligrams of aspirin.
1933 Joe Lilliard QBs Chicago Cardinals; last NFL black until 1946.
1933 Connie Mack sells Mickey Cochrane to Detroit Tigers for $100,000 and catcher Johnny Pasek. Cochrane is named Detroit manager. The spark of the Athletics' championship teams of 1929-30-31, he had an average batting mark of .346 for those three years. Led Detroit to two league championships and a World Series title in 1935." Cochrane's lifetime .320 average is the highest of any ML catcher.
1938 AAU's decides to continue linear measuring system over metric.
1944 Frank Sinatra was in the Columbia Records studio recording "Old Man River." After a brief stint with Harry James, Sinatra joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1940 where he rose to fame as a singer. His vast appeal to the "bobby soxers," as teenage girls were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had appealed mainly to adults up to that time. It was as a featured singer with Dorsey that Sinatra made his earliest film appearances, such as the 1942 Eleanor Powell/Red Skelton comedy, Ship Ahoy in which the uncredited singer performed a couple of songs. He later signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist with some success, particularly during the musicians' recording strikes. Vocalists were not part of the musician union and were allowed to record during the ban by using a cappella vocal backing.
1944 NFL Cardinals-Pittsburgh merger dissolves. In 1944, owing to player shortages caused by World War II, the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the "Card-Pitts," or derisively as the "Carpets" as they were winless that season.
1947 Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" premieres in New York NY. "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened Dec. 3 1947 and sent shockwaves through the theater community. The play opened to a half-hour's standing ovation. One reviewer wrote, "'Williams is certainly the Eugene O'Neill of the present period.'" The play ran for 855 performances.
1948 First US woman army officer not in medical corps sworn-in. The director of the WACs, Colonel Mary A. Hallaren, became the first commissioned female officer in the U.S. Army. The WACs still were not equal. They were limited in numbers, had no command authority over men, were restricted from combat training and duties, had additional restrictions on claiming dependents, and aside from their Director, no woman could be promoted above the rank of lieutenant colonel.
1948 "Pumpkin Papers" come to light (claimed to be from Alger Hiss). The Pumpkin Papers consist of sixty-five pages of retyped secret State Department documents, four pages in Hiss's own handwriting of copied State Department cables, and five rolls of developed and undeveloped 35 mm film. The film included fifty-eight frames, mostly photos of State and Navy Department documents. The name "Pumpkin Papers" comes from the fact that the rolls of 35 mm film were found wrapped in waxed paper inside a hollowed-out pumpkin on Whittaker Chambers's Maryland farm. In response to a HUAC subpoena, Chambers on the evening of December 2, 1948 dramatically led two HUAC investigators to the patch, where the film had been placed by Chambers only the previous day.
1950 Cleveland Browns last NFL team with no-pass game (beat Philadelphia 13-7). After the Cleveland Browns, in their first NFL game, beat the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles, 35-10, Philadelphia coach Greasy Neale criticized them for passing too much. In a rainy rematch, the Browns didn't throw a single pass but still beat the Eagles, 13-7. Ironically, Cleveland's only touchdown came when Warren Lahr intercepted one of Philadelphia's 23 pass attempts and ran it into the endzone. Cleveland Browns' Horace Gillom sets club record with 12 punts.
1953 "Kismet" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 583 performances. The original "Kismet" was a huge hit in 1953. Based on the works of 19th Century Russian composer Alexander Borodin (the opera Prince Igor), Kismet's plot was very loosely based on a 1911 melodrama, revamped into a comedy by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis. The original starred the Alfred Drake as Hajj, the beggar poet of ancient Baghdad.
1953 Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy for saying communists are in Republican party. But after the Eisenhower administration took power, McCarthy continued his attacks, even suggesting that the President;s nominees for important ambassador positions were disloyal or subversive. Republican leaders could not persuade McCarthy, a member of their own party, to halt his attacks on a Republican administration. The news media gave McCarthy significant attention, but his charges never led to a single indictment or conviction. "I just won't get into a pissing contest with that skunk," the President declared.
1955 "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford topped the charts. In eleven days following its release, 400,000 singles are sold. Demand for the song was so great, that Capitol geared all its pressing plants nationwide to meet the deluge of orders. In Twenty-four days, over one million records were sold, and "Sixteen Tons" became the fastest-selling single in Capitol's history. By November, it had captured the top spot on every major record chart in the country, and by December 15 (less than two months after it's release) more than 2,000,000 copies were sold, making it the most successful single ever recorded.
1956 Wilt Chamberlain's first collegiate basketball game (scores 52). A high school legend at famed Overbrook High School in the heart of Philadelphia, Chamberlain was the most coveted schoolboy recruit in the country. He opted for the storied basketball program at the University of Kansas, where he led the Jayhawks into the 1957 NCAA finals, losing in triple overtime to top-ranked North Carolina. Chamberlain scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds against Northwestern on Dec. 3, 1956.
1960 "Camelot" opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. Julie Andrews played the leading roles in the musical written by Lerner and Loewe. Robert Goulet also got rave reviews. "Camelot" had a run of 873 performances. "Camelot" was the follow up to Lerner and Loewe's smash hit "My Fair Lady". This musical is based on T.H. White's novel "The Once and Future King". Seven weeks after its Toronto opening, "Camelot" opened in New York, on December 3, 1960 and was appraised as being the most lavish spectacle ever seen on Broadway. It had the biggest advanced sales in Broadway history up to that time.
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents' decision to forbid protests on UC property.
1967 First human heart transplant performed (Dr Christiaan Barnard, South Africa at the Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.). The patient, 53-year-old dentist Louis Washkansky, was given the heart of a 25-year-old auto crash victim named Denise Darvall. Washkansky died from infection 18 days later, but the transplant made Barnard one of the world's most famous surgeons The next patient, Philip Blaiberg, lived for nearly two years. Since then, many thousands of human heart transplants have been performed.
1967 Final run of "20th Century Limited", famed New York-Chicago luxury train. The 20th Century Limited was a passenger train operated by the New York Central (NYC) railroad. The train was operated between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along the railroad's famed "Water Level Route" along the Hudson River and the southern shore of Lake Erie. The NYC inaugurated this train as direct competition to the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited. Making few station stops along the way and as few breaks for water and coal as possible, trains on this route routinely could make the 800-mile journey in only fifteen and one-half hours. Known for its speed as well as for its style, passengers walked to and from the train on a plush, red carpet which was rolled out at station stops and specially designed for the 20th Century Limited. The locomotive and passenger cars were designed in an Art Deco style in blues and grays.
1968 Baseball rules change to favor hitters. The Baseball Rules Committee made several major changes to the game resulting in the most modifications to be implemented at one time in the history of the game. They included: the pitcher's mound being lowered from fiteen inches to ten, the strike zone being decreased from the shoulders-to-knees to armpits-to-knees, tighter enforcement and penalties for illegal pitches, extra-inning ties resuming from the point of interruption instead of being replayed and finally the study of artificial surfaces on ball fields and the pros and cons of turf.
1973 The National Hockey League put an end to the reserve clause in future player contracts.
1973 Pioneer 10 passes Jupiter (first fly-by of an outer planet) On November 26, 1973 the encounter with Jupiter began. On that date Pioneer 10 detected a sudden change in the inter-planatary medium as the spacecraft crossed the point -the bow shock- at which the magnetic presence of Jupiter first becomes evident. At noon, the next day, Pioneer 10 entered the Jovian magnetosphere at a distance of 96 RJ from the planet. By December 2, the spacecraft had crossed the orbit of Callisto, the outermost of the large Galilean satellites. December 3, 1973 Pioneer 10 reached its closest point to Jupiter, 130,000 Km above ten Jovian cloud tops.
1976 In Chicago, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) was formally organized. The bulk of membership derived from former affiliates of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.
1979 11 trampled to death in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert in Cincinnati. The December 3, 1979 Who concert tragedy in Cincinnati, Ohio, ranks as the most horrific rock concert incident in the United States. Eleven rock fans were crushed to death and scores injured because of gross crowd management failings.
1979 Christie's auctions a thimble for a record $18,400
1982 Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center removed the respirator of Barney Clark, one day after the retired dentist became the world's first recipient of a permanent artificial heart, the Jarvik-7. Surgery was performed by Dr. William DeVries in cooperation with the inventor, Dr. Robert Jarvik. Clark had actually visited the veterinary laboratory at the University of Utah and watched calves that had received the artificial hearts. Near death, with his own heart practically useless, Clark agreed to the experiment. He said, "It may not work that well for me. I'll do it for the next patient." He lived 112 days on the artificial heart. Of the next four implants, the longest survivor was William Schroeder, who lived 620 days.
1982 A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
1983 In his last season as basketball coach of DePaul, Ray Meyer won game #700. In his 42 years as head coach of the Blue Demons from 1942-84, the man known simply as "Coach" compiled a record of 724-354 (.671). In his storied career, 13 of his teams advanced to the NCAA Tournament and seven of his squads played in the National Invitational Tournament. Coach Ray Meyer won his 700th college game when the freshman center Dallas Comegys scored 21 points to spark DePaul to a 69-66 victory over Illinois State. Meyer, 69 years old, became only the fifth major-college coach and the first in 20 years to reach the 700-victory plateau
1983 Birmingham, AL, was drenched with 9.22 inches of rain in 24 hours. The rains caused severe flash flooding which literally submerged traffic. (The Weather Channel)
1984 Shortly after midnight, the inhabitants of the city of Bhopal, India, became victims of the world's worst industrial disaster. Over 40 tonnes of highly poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked out of the Union Carbide pesticide factory. Poisonous gases enveloped an area of 40 sq.kms. killing thousands of people in its immediate wake. Over 500,000 suffered from acute breathlessness, pain in the eyes and vomiting as they ran in panic to get away from the poison clouds that hung close to the ground for more than four hours. In 1989, after years of litigation, Union Carbide agreed to pay the Indian government $470 million in damages. In return, the government agreed to drop criminal charges against the company and its former chairman.
1987 Stormy weather in the northwestern U.S. finally began to abate, but not before Gold Beach OR was drenched with 7.94 inches of rain in 24 hours. Low pressure spread snow from the Upper Mississippi Valley to the Central Appalachians. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
1988 Gale force winds ushered cold air into the northeastern U.S., and produced snow squalls in the Lower Great Lakes Region. Winds gusted to 48 mph at Buffalo NY. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 Heavy snow and high winds created blizzard conditions in northern New England. Snowfall totals in Maine ranged up to 31 inches, at Limestone. Presque Isle ME reported a record 30 inches of snow in 24 hours, along with wind gusts to 46 mph. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 George Bush & Mikhail Gorbachev end summit in Malta. Off the coast of Malta in a Soviet ship named the Maxim Gorky, U.S. President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met within weeks of the fall of the Berlin Wall to discuss the rapid changes in Europe. Bush expressed support for perestroika and other reforms in the Eastern bloc, and both men recognized the lessening of tensions that had defined the Cold War. No agreements were signed at the summit, but to so
1990 NL batting champ Willie McGee signs as a free agent with the Giants. George Brett pinch hits a single in Kansas City's finale, a 5-2 loss to Cleveland, to end the season at .329 and win the AL batting crown, his 3rd in three decades. Willie McGee's .335 wins the National League batting title despite having been traded out of the league in August. He hits .324 overall. McGee signed as a free agent with the Giants, ending his 3-month stint across the bay with Oakland.
1990 At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 7 passengers and 1 crew member aboard flight 1482.
1992 UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid is distributed in Somalia.
1997 "1776" opens at Gershwin Theater NYC. "1776" is the title of a Broadway musical and the 1972 film. Peter Stone wrote its book and Sherman Edwards the music and lyrics. Peter H. Hunt directed the movie, which starred William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson and Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin. Although it tells the story of what happened at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1776 leading up to the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and it accurately portrays the serious personal and political issues at stake -- usually in the characters' own words, written by them at the time -- it remains a musical comedy.
1997 Latrell Sprewell attacks his coach P J Carlesimo. Latrell Sprewell will live in infamy as the player who attacked and threatened to kill his coach. During a Golden State Warriors practice in 1997, Sprewell snapped, choking P.J. Carlesimo before returning about 20 minutes later to continue the assault. NBA Commissioner David Stern suspended Sprewell for 82 games before an arbitrator reduced the sentence to 68 games, costing Sprewell $6.4 million and his shoe deal with Converse. Sprewell deemed the punishment too harsh. "I wasn't choking P.J. that hard," Sprewell told "60 Minutes". "I mean, he could breathe."
1999 Tori Murden of the US rows across the Atlantic Ocean. Tori Murden, a 36-year-old adventuress from Louisville, Ky., rowed American Pearl through tranquil waters to Fort-du-Bas on the southeast coast of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. It took 81 days, 2,961 miles and one punishing tropical storm after leaving Los Gigantes on Tenirife, the largest island in the Azores off the coast of Africa. Having tried again from the opposite direction, armed with the same grit and determination and willingness to face the unknown, she succeeded. It was approximately the same route Columbus sailed on his second western voyage in 1493-but without the manpower and companionship he enjoyed.
1999 NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
1999 Six firefighters are killed in the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire in Worcester, Massachusetts.
2005 XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.
2007 Winter storms cause the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars in damages are blamed on the floods.
Births
1765 Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (d 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island. The image of George Washington featured in the painting has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for over a century, and on various U.S. Postage stamps of the 19th century and early 20th century came from one of his portraits.
1822 Charles Adam Heckman Brigadier-General (Union volunteers), fought in many of the early battles in North Carolina and later served in the Army of the James during the siege of Petersburg. (d 1896)
1826 George Brinton McClellan (d 1885) major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly (November 1861 to March 1862) as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union. Although McClellan was meticulous in his planning and preparations, these characteristics may have hampered his ability to challenge aggressive opponents in a fast-moving battlefield environment. He chronically overestimated the strength of enemy units and was reluctant to apply principles of mass, frequently leaving large portions of his army unengaged at decisive points.
1829 Green Berry Raum lawyer, author, and U.S. Representative from Illinois, as well as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He served in the Western Theater, seeing action in several major battles while leading first an infantry regiment and then a brigade. He also presided over the Internal Revenue Service for seven years and was a prolific author of historical non-fiction books concerning politics and general Illinois history. (d 1909)
1833 Carlos Juan Finlay (d 1915) Cuban epidemiologist who contributed to the etiology and pathology of yellow fever. He pioneered the recognition of the mosquito as the agent of transmission from infected to healthy humans, which idea he published in 1881. This disease can cause horrible deaths in epidemic numbers. His experimental work pointed to the mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Despite the publication of his significant work in 1886, his ideas were ahead of their time, and ignored by the medical community until 20 years later, then 14 years after his death. His work was taken up by the Reed Commission in 1900. Finlay served in Cuba as the chairman of the commission on infectious diseases, Havana (1899-1902) and chief sanitary officer (1902-09).
1838 Cleveland Abbe (d 1916) U.S. astronomer and first meteorologist, born in New York City, the "father of the U.S. Weather Bureau," which was later renamed the National Weather Service. Abbe inaugurated a private weather reporting and warning service at Cincinnati. His weather reports or bulletins began to be issued on Sept. 1, 1869. The Weather Service of the United States was authorized by Congress on 9 Feb 1870, and placed under the direction of the Signal Service. Abbe was the only person in the country who was already experienced in drawing weather maps from telegraphic reports and forecasting from them. Naturally, he was offered an important position in this new service which he accepted, beginning 3 Jan 1871, and was often the official forecaster of the weather.
1841 Clara H. Scott, American music teacher and composer. A contributor to the collections published by Horatio R. Palmer, she is best remembered today as author and composer of the hymn, "Open My Eyes, That I May See." (d 1897)
1842 Ellen Swallow Richards (d 1911) (née Ellen Henrietta Swallow) American chemist and founder of the home economics movement in the United States. She was the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduated with a B.S. in 1873, and stayed on as a chemistry assistant. She set to work analyzing Boston's water supply. In Nov 1876, she created the Woman's Laboratory at MIT where women could learn the rudiments of science. In 1884, MIT made Richards its first woman faculty member. She helped develop a new curriculum in air, water, and sewage chemistry. However, she also saw the home and child-rearing as complex and important work, saying the women who did it should be educated. She spent thirty years developing the concept of domestic science.
1842 Charles Alfred Pillsbury (d 1899), U.S. flour industrialist and the founder & namesake of the Pillsbury Company.
1842 Phoebe Apperson Hearst (d 1919) American philanthropist, feminist, suffragist, and the mother of William Randolph Hearst,
1857 Carl Koller (d 1944) Czech-born American ophthalmic surgeon whose introduction of cocaine as a surface anesthetic in eye surgery on 16 Sep 1884 inaugurated the modern era of local anesthesia. He was a colleague of Sigmund Freud, who in 1884 was interested in the use of cocaine to cure morphine addiction. Koller noticed cocaine had a numbing effect on the tongue and, after experimenting with animals, introduced it as a local anaesthetic in ophthalmology. It was also quickly adopted for nose and throat surgery and for dentistry. Cocaine was isolated in 1859 and was synthesized in 1885. It became evident that this agent produced erosion of the corneal epithelium in high doses or with repeated use. Later, less toxic, synthetic local anesthetics such as tetracaine and proparacaine were developed.
1902 Mitsuo Fuchida, (d 1976) Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a bomber pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known for leading the first air wave attacks on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Fuchida was responsible for the coordination of the entire aerial attack working under the overall fleet commander Vice Admiral Chûichi Nagumo. After World War II ended, Fuchida became a Christian and an evangelist preacher. In 1960, he became an American citizen the pilot who flew the lead plane in Japan's air attack on Pearl Harbor (12/7/1941). Following WWII, through representatives of the Pocket Testament League, Fuchida was converted to Christianity in 1950.
1921 Phyllis Curtin (née Smith) American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in other works by this composer.[1] She was a dedicated song recitalist and retired from singing in 1984. She was the sixth master of Branford College (1979-1982).
1924 John Backus (d 1988) American computer scientist who invented the FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) programming language in the mid 1950s. He had previously developed an assembly language for IBM's 701 computer when he suggested the development of a compiler and higher level language for the IBM 704. As the first high-level computer programming language, FORTRAN was able to convert standard mathematical formulas and expressions into the binary code used by computers. Thus a non-specialist could write a program in familiar words and symbols, and different computers could use programs generated in the same language. This paved the way for other computer languages such as COBOL, ALGOL and BASIC.
1925 Ferlin Husky American singer who became well-known as a country-pop chart-topper under various names, including Terry Preston and Simon Crum. In the 1950s and 60s, Husky had several hits, including "Gone" and "Wings of a Dove", each reaching number one on the country charts. In 2010, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
1927 Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams American pop singer. Andy Williams has recorded 18 Gold and three Platinum certified albums. He had his own TV variety show from 1962–71 in which he performed with Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin, Ray Charles, Elton John, Ella Fitzgerald, Simon & Garfunkel, Mama Cass, Shirley Bassey, Bing Crosby, The Osmonds, Dusty Springfield, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, The Carpenters, Jack Benny, Bette Davis, Dean Martin, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan and many other superstars. He also owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri.
1931 Jaye P. Morgan born Mary Margaret Morgan, Mancos, Colorado) retired popular music American singer actress and game show panelist.
1934 Eddie Bernice Johnson politician from the state of Texas, currently representing the state's 30th congressional district in the U.S. House.
1937 Robert Arthur Allison former NASCAR Winston Cup driver and was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers. His two sons, Clifford Allison and Davey Allison followed him into racing, and both died within a year of each other.
1940 Jeffrey Roy Holland member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Holland is accepted by the LDS Church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the ninth most senior apostle among the ranks of the Church.
1942 Peter C. Schultz American ceramicist who, working with Corning Glass researchers Robert Maurer and Donald Keck, made optical fiber, capable of carrying 65,000 times more information than conventional copper wire, a practical reality. In 1970, Maurer, Keck, and Schultz designed and produced the first optical fiber with optical losses low enough for wide use in telecommunications. Optical fiber is made from silicon dioxide (pure sand) and quartz powder to make a hollow rod. A heated gas is then blown through the hollow rod to leave a thin deposit of ultrapure glass on the inside of the rod. The tube is then heated and collapsed into a solid rod with and ultrapure glass core. These "rods" of glass are thinner than a hair and can bend or flex, they are very resilient.
1949 Mickey Thomas, American singer (Jefferson Starship)
1951 Rick Mears, American race car driver
1952 Benny Hinn, American televangelist
1955 Warren Jeffs, American convicted polygamist
1960 Daryl Hannah, American actress
1963 Terri Schiavo, American right to die figure (d. 2005)
Deaths
1815 John Carroll, (b 1735) first Roman Catholic bishop and archbishop in the United States — serving as the ordinary of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He is also known as the founder of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in the United States, and the Georgetown Preparatory School, the oldest Catholic day and boarding school in the United States.
1910 Mary Baker Eddy (b 1821) founder of the Christian Science religion.
1928 Ezra Meeker (b 1830) early pioneer who traveled the Oregon Trail by ox cart as a young man. Beginning in his 70s, he worked tirelessly to memorialize the trail, repeatedly retracing the trip of his youth. He was the principal founder of Puyallup, Washington.
1981 Walter Marvin Knott (d 1889) American farmer who created the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in California. Walter Knott was a somewhat unsuccessful farmer, whose fortunes changed when he nursed several abandoned berry plants back to health. The hybrid boysenberry, named after its creator, Rudolph Boysen, was a cross between a blackberry, red raspberry and loganberry. The huge berries were a hit, and the Knott family sold berries, preserves and pies from a Buena Park, California roadside stand. In 1934, Knott's wife Cordelia (née Hornaday, January 23, 1890 – April 12, 1974) began serving fried chicken dinners, and within a few years, lines outside the restaurant were often several hours long.
1993 Lewis Thomas (b 1913) American physician, researcher, author, and teacher best known for his reflective essays on a wide range of topics in biology. While his specialities are immunology and pathology, in his book, Lives of a Cell, his down-to-earth science writing stresses that what is seen under the microscope is similar to the way human beings live, and he emphasizes the interconnectedness of life. As a research scientist Thomas made an impact by suggesting that an immunosurveillance mechanism protects us from the possible ravages of mutant cells, an idea later championed by Macfarlane Burnett. He also proposed that viruses have played a major role in the evolution of species by their ability to move pieces of DNA from one individual or species to another.
2004 Shiing-shen Chern (b 1911) Chinese-American mathematician and educator whose researches in differential geometry include the development of the Chern characteristic classes in fibre spaces, which play a major role in mathematics and in mathematical physics. "When Chern was working on differential geometry in the 1940s, this area of mathematics was at a low point. Global differential geometry was only beginning, even Morse theory was understood and used by a very small number of people. Today, differential geometry is a major subject in mathematics and a large share of the credit for this transformation goes to Professor Chern."
Christian Feast Day
Saint Birinus (c. 600–649), venerated as a saint, was the first Bishop of Dorchester, and the "Apostle to the West Saxons".
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta (Javier, 7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552 on Shangchuan Island, China) was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre (Spain) and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who dedicated themselves to the service of God at Montmartre in 1534. He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time. He was influential in the spreading and upkeep of Catholicism most notably in India, but also ventured into Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, and other areas which had thus far not been visited by Christian missionaries. In these areas, being a pioneer and struggling to learn the local languages in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. (Roman Catholic Church and Anglican communion)
1923 First Congressional open session broadcast via radio (Washington DC)
1926 Yuma, AZ, was soaked with 1.10 inch of rain, and by the 10th of the month had received 4.43 inches, making it the wettest December of record. The average annual rainfall for Yuma is 3.38 inches. (3rd-10th) (The Weather Channel)
1933 Joe Lilliard QBs Chicago Cardinals; last NFL black until 1946.
1938 AAU's decides to continue linear measuring system over metric.
1944 Frank Sinatra was in the Columbia Records studio recording "Old Man River." After a brief stint with Harry James, Sinatra joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1940 where he rose to fame as a singer. His vast appeal to the "bobby soxers," as teenage girls were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had appealed mainly to adults up to that time. It was as a featured singer with Dorsey that Sinatra made his earliest film appearances, such as the 1942 Eleanor Powell/Red Skelton comedy, Ship Ahoy in which the uncredited singer performed a couple of songs. He later signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist with some success, particularly during the musicians' recording strikes. Vocalists were not part of the musician union and were allowed to record during the ban by using a cappella vocal backing.
1944 NFL Cardinals-Pittsburgh merger dissolves. In 1944, owing to player shortages caused by World War II, the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the "Card-Pitts," or derisively as the "Carpets" as they were winless that season.
1950 Cleveland Browns last NFL team with no-pass game (beat Philadelphia 13-7). After the Cleveland Browns, in their first NFL game, beat the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles, 35-10, Philadelphia coach Greasy Neale criticized them for passing too much. In a rainy rematch, the Browns didn't throw a single pass but still beat the Eagles, 13-7. Ironically, Cleveland's only touchdown came when Warren Lahr intercepted one of Philadelphia's 23 pass attempts and ran it into the endzone. Cleveland Browns' Horace Gillom sets club record with 12 punts.
1953 Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy for saying communists are in Republican party. But after the Eisenhower administration took power, McCarthy continued his attacks, even suggesting that the President;s nominees for important ambassador positions were disloyal or subversive. Republican leaders could not persuade McCarthy, a member of their own party, to halt his attacks on a Republican administration. The news media gave McCarthy significant attention, but his charges never led to a single indictment or conviction. "I just won't get into a pissing contest with that skunk," the President declared.
1955 "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford topped the charts. In eleven days following its release, 400,000 singles are sold. Demand for the song was so great, that Capitol geared all its pressing plants nationwide to meet the deluge of orders. In Twenty-four days, over one million records were sold, and "Sixteen Tons" became the fastest-selling single in Capitol's history. By November, it had captured the top spot on every major record chart in the country, and by December 15 (less than two months after it's release) more than 2,000,000 copies were sold, making it the most successful single ever recorded.
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents' decision to forbid protests on UC property.
1968 Baseball rules change to favor hitters. The Baseball Rules Committee made several major changes to the game resulting in the most modifications to be implemented at one time in the history of the game. They included: the pitcher's mound being lowered from fiteen inches to ten, the strike zone being decreased from the shoulders-to-knees to armpits-to-knees, tighter enforcement and penalties for illegal pitches, extra-inning ties resuming from the point of interruption instead of being replayed and finally the study of artificial surfaces on ball fields and the pros and cons of turf.
1973 The National Hockey League put an end to the reserve clause in future player contracts.
1976 In Chicago, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) was formally organized. The bulk of membership derived from former affiliates of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.
1979 11 trampled to death in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert in Cincinnati. The December 3, 1979 Who concert tragedy in Cincinnati, Ohio, ranks as the most horrific rock concert incident in the United States. Eleven rock fans were crushed to death and scores injured because of gross crowd management failings.
1979 Christie's auctions a thimble for a record $18,400
1982 A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
1983 Birmingham, AL, was drenched with 9.22 inches of rain in 24 hours. The rains caused severe flash flooding which literally submerged traffic. (The Weather Channel)
1987 Stormy weather in the northwestern U.S. finally began to abate, but not before Gold Beach OR was drenched with 7.94 inches of rain in 24 hours. Low pressure spread snow from the Upper Mississippi Valley to the Central Appalachians. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
1988 Gale force winds ushered cold air into the northeastern U.S., and produced snow squalls in the Lower Great Lakes Region. Winds gusted to 48 mph at Buffalo NY. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 Heavy snow and high winds created blizzard conditions in northern New England. Snowfall totals in Maine ranged up to 31 inches, at Limestone. Presque Isle ME reported a record 30 inches of snow in 24 hours, along with wind gusts to 46 mph. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1990 At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 7 passengers and 1 crew member aboard flight 1482.
1992 UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid is distributed in Somalia.
1997 "1776" opens at Gershwin Theater NYC. "1776" is the title of a Broadway musical and the 1972 film. Peter Stone wrote its book and Sherman Edwards the music and lyrics. Peter H. Hunt directed the movie, which starred William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson and Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin. Although it tells the story of what happened at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1776 leading up to the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and it accurately portrays the serious personal and political issues at stake -- usually in the characters' own words, written by them at the time -- it remains a musical comedy.
1999 Tori Murden of the US rows across the Atlantic Ocean. Tori Murden, a 36-year-old adventuress from Louisville, Ky., rowed American Pearl through tranquil waters to Fort-du-Bas on the southeast coast of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. It took 81 days, 2,961 miles and one punishing tropical storm after leaving Los Gigantes on Tenirife, the largest island in the Azores off the coast of Africa. Having tried again from the opposite direction, armed with the same grit and determination and willingness to face the unknown, she succeeded. It was approximately the same route Columbus sailed on his second western voyage in 1493-but without the manpower and companionship he enjoyed.
1999 NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
1999 Six firefighters are killed in the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire in Worcester, Massachusetts.
2005 XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.
2007 Winter storms cause the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars in damages are blamed on the floods.
Births
1822 Charles Adam Heckman Brigadier-General (Union volunteers), fought in many of the early battles in North Carolina and later served in the Army of the James during the siege of Petersburg. (d 1896)
1829 Green Berry Raum lawyer, author, and U.S. Representative from Illinois, as well as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He served in the Western Theater, seeing action in several major battles while leading first an infantry regiment and then a brigade. He also presided over the Internal Revenue Service for seven years and was a prolific author of historical non-fiction books concerning politics and general Illinois history. (d 1909)
1842 Phoebe Apperson Hearst (d 1919) American philanthropist, feminist, suffragist, and the mother of William Randolph Hearst,
1921 Phyllis Curtin (née Smith) American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in other works by this composer.[1] She was a dedicated song recitalist and retired from singing in 1984. She was the sixth master of Branford College (1979-1982).
1925 Ferlin Husky American singer who became well-known as a country-pop chart-topper under various names, including Terry Preston and Simon Crum. In the 1950s and 60s, Husky had several hits, including "Gone" and "Wings of a Dove", each reaching number one on the country charts. In 2010, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
1927 Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams American pop singer. Andy Williams has recorded 18 Gold and three Platinum certified albums. He had his own TV variety show from 1962–71 in which he performed with Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin, Ray Charles, Elton John, Ella Fitzgerald, Simon & Garfunkel, Mama Cass, Shirley Bassey, Bing Crosby, The Osmonds, Dusty Springfield, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, The Carpenters, Jack Benny, Bette Davis, Dean Martin, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan and many other superstars. He also owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri.
1931 Jaye P. Morgan born Mary Margaret Morgan, Mancos, Colorado) retired popular music American singer actress and game show panelist.
1934 Eddie Bernice Johnson politician from the state of Texas, currently representing the state's 30th congressional district in the U.S. House.
1937 Robert Arthur Allison former NASCAR Winston Cup driver and was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers. His two sons, Clifford Allison and Davey Allison followed him into racing, and both died within a year of each other.
1940 Jeffrey Roy Holland member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Holland is accepted by the LDS Church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the ninth most senior apostle among the ranks of the Church.
1949 Mickey Thomas, American singer (Jefferson Starship)
1951 Rick Mears, American race car driver
1952 Benny Hinn, American televangelist
1955 Warren Jeffs, American convicted polygamist
1960 Daryl Hannah, American actress
1963 Terri Schiavo, American right to die figure (d. 2005)
Deaths
1981 Walter Marvin Knott (d 1889) American farmer who created the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in California. Walter Knott was a somewhat unsuccessful farmer, whose fortunes changed when he nursed several abandoned berry plants back to health. The hybrid boysenberry, named after its creator, Rudolph Boysen, was a cross between a blackberry, red raspberry and loganberry. The huge berries were a hit, and the Knott family sold berries, preserves and pies from a Buena Park, California roadside stand. In 1934, Knott's wife Cordelia (née Hornaday, January 23, 1890 – April 12, 1974) began serving fried chicken dinners, and within a few years, lines outside the restaurant were often several hours long.
Christian Feast Day
Saint Birinus (c. 600–649), venerated as a saint, was the first Bishop of Dorchester, and the "Apostle to the West Saxons".
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta (Javier, 7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552 on Shangchuan Island, China) was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre (Spain) and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who dedicated themselves to the service of God at Montmartre in 1534. He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time. He was influential in the spreading and upkeep of Catholicism most notably in India, but also ventured into Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, and other areas which had thus far not been visited by Christian missionaries. In these areas, being a pioneer and struggling to learn the local languages in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. (Roman Catholic Church and Anglican communion)
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www.amug.org/~jpaul/dec03.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_3
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