Today in History - December 3
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1347 Dec 3, Pope
Clemens VI declared Roman tribune, Cola di Rienzi, a heretic.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1468 Dec 3, Lorenzo the
Magnificent and his brother Giuliano succeeded their father, Piero de
Medici, as rulers of Florence, Italy.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1469 Dec 3, Piero de' Medici (53),
ruler of Florence, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1557 Dec 3, The 1st Covenant of
Scottish protestants formed.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1621 Dec 3, Galileo invented the
telescope. [see Aug 25, 1609]
(MC, 12/3/01)
1660 Dec 3, Jacques Sarazin (70),
French sculptor and painter, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1678 Dec 3, Edmund Halley received
an MA from Queen's College, Oxford.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1684 Dec 3, Ludvig Baron Holberg,
founder of Danish & Norwegian literature, was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1685 Dec 3, Charles II barred Jews
from settling in Stockholm, Sweden.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1729 Dec 3, Padre Antonio
Francisco J. Jose Soler, composer (Fandango), was born in Olot, Spain.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1753 Dec 3, Samuel Crompton,
English inventor (mule-jenny spinning machine), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1755 Dec 3, Gilbert Stewart,
portrait painter, was born.
(HN, 12/3/00)
1762 Dec 3, France ceded to Spain
all lands west of the Mississippi- the territory known as Upper
Louisiana. [see Nov 3]
(CO, Grolier's, 11/10/95)(HN, 12/3/98)
1789 Dec 3, Claude-Joseph Vernet,
French seascape painter, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1795 Dec 3, Rowland Hill,
introduced 1st adhesive postage stamp (1840), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1800 Dec 3, US state electors met
and cast their ballots for the presidency. A tie resulted between
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
(http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjtime3c.html)
1800 Dec 3, Austrians were
defeated by the French at the Battle of Hohenlinden, near Munich.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1803 Dec 3, Hector Berlioz, French
composer (Symphony Fantastique), was born. [see Dec 11]
(MC, 12/3/01)
1806 Dec 3, Henry Alexander Wise
(d.1876), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1818 Dec 3, Illinois was admitted
as the 21st state.
(AP, 12/3/97)(HN, 12/3/98)
1826 Dec 3, George Brinton
McClellen (d.1885), Union general who defeated Robert E. Lee at
Antietam and ran against Abraham Lincoln for president, was born.
(HN, 12/3/98)(MC, 12/3/01)
1828 Dec 3, Andrew Jackson was
elected 7th president of the United States over John Quincy Adams.
Resentment of the restrictive credit policies of the first central
bank, the Bank of the United States, fueled a populist backlash that
elected Andrew Jackson.
(AP, 12/3/97)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A11)(WSJ, 6/10/98,
p.A18)
1833 Dec 3, Carlos Juan Finlay,
Cuban epidemiologist, was born.
(HN, 12/3/00)
1833 Dec 3, Oberlin College in
Ohio, the first truly coeducational school of higher learning in the
United States, opened its doors.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1834 Dec 3, 1st US dental society
was organized in NY.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1835 Dec 3, 1st US mutual fire
insurance company issued 1st policy in RI.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1847 Dec 3, Frederick Douglass and
Martin R. Delaney established the North Star, an anti-slavery paper.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1857 Dec 3, Joseph Conrad
(d.1924), novelist, was born in Berdychiv, Poland, as Teodor Jozef
Konrad Korzeniowski. He is best known for “Heart of Darkness.” His work
“The Secret Agent” had a profound effect on Unabomber Theodore J.
Kaszynski in the late 20th cent. Conrad also wrote the short story “The
Informer.”
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A3)(HN, 12/3/98)(AP, 12/3/07)
1862 Dec 3, Confederate rebels
attacked a Federal forage train on the Hardin Pike near Nashville,
Tenn.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1863 Dec 3, Confederate General
Longstreet abandoned his siege at Knoxville, Ten., and moved his army
east and north toward Greeneville. This withdrawal marked the end of
the Fall Campaign in Tennessee.
(HN, 12/3/98)(MC, 12/3/01)
1864 Dec 3, Major General William
Tecumseh Sherman met up with some resistance from Confederate troops at
Thomas Station on his march to the sea.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1872 Dec 3, George Smith,
Assyriologist at the British Museum, presented a lecture before the
Biblical Archeology Society in London, on Assyrian tablets that
described an ancient flood as part of an epic whose hero was named
Gilgamesh.
(ON, 11/07, p.4)
1876 Dec 3, Hermann Goetz (35),
composer, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1894 Dec 3, Robert Louis Stevenson
(b.1850), Scottish-American writer, died in Samoa. He was the author of
such works as "Treasure Island," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "The Master
of Ballantrae," "The Silverado Squatters, "Kidnapped" and "Travels with
a Donkey." In 2005 Clair Harman authored “Robert Louis Stevenson: A
Biography.”
(Smith., 8/95, p.51-58)(AP, 12/3/97)(Econ, 1/29/05,
p.79)
1897 Dec 3, Kate O'Brien, Irish
writer (Without My Cloak), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1906 Dec 3, The U.S. Supreme Court
ordered Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders extradited to
Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1907 Dec 3, George M. Cohan's
musical "Talk of the Town," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1908 Dec 3, Edward Elgar's 1st
Symphony in A premiered.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1910 Dec 3, Neon lights were 1st
publicly seen at the Paris Auto Show.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1910 Dec 3, Mary Baker Eddy
(b.1821), founder of the Church of Christ, Science (the Christian
Science movement), died.
(MC, 12/3/01)(WSJ, 9/26/03, p.W17)
1911 Dec 3, Nino Rota, composer
(Torquemada), was born in Milan, Italy. He composed operas and
orchestral music and taught at Italy's Bari Conservatory. He also wrote
scores for Federico Fellini and other film directors.
(WSJ, 3/5/99, p.W10)(MC, 12/3/01)
1912 Dec 3, Turkey, Serbia,
Montenegro, Greece & Bulgaria signed a weapons pact.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1915 Dec 3, The U.S. expelled
German attaches on spy charges.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1916 Dec 3, French commander
Joseph Joffre was dismissed after his failure at the Somme. General
Robert Nivelle became the new French commander-in-chief.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1918 Dec 3, The Allied Conference
ended in London; Germany was required to pay to full limits for the
war.
(HN, 12/3/02)
1919 Dec 3, Pierre A. Renoir (78),
French painter and sculptor, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1922 Dec 3, Sven Nykvist, Swedish
cinematographer, was born.
(HN, 12/3/00)
1922 Dec 3, The 1st successful
Technicolor movie, Tall of the Sea, was shown in NYC.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1924 Dec 3, John Backus, inventor
(FORTRAN computer language), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1925 Dec 3, "Concerto in F," by
George Gershwin, had its world premiere at New York's Carnegie Hall,
with Gershwin himself at the piano.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1925 Dec 3, Jean-Luc Godard,
French film director, was born. In 2004 Colin MacCabe authored the
biography "Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy."
(HN, 12/3/98)(SSFC, 1/18/04, p.M1)
1925 Dec 3, The League of Nations
ordered Greece to pay an indemnity for the October invasion of
Bulgaria.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1926 Dec 3, British reports
claimed that German soldiers were being trained in the USSR.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1930 Dec 3, Andy Williams, singer
(Moon River, Andy Williams Show), was born in Wall Lake, Iowa.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1931 Dec 3, Miles Laboratories
introduced Alka Seltzer. [see Feb 21]
(SFEC, 8/28/98, Z1 p.8)(MC, 12/3/01)
1933 Dec 3, Paul Crutzen, Dutch
chemist, was born.
(HN, 12/3/00)
1937 Dec 3, Stephen Rubin, English
attorney and shoe manufacturer (Reebok, Adidas), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1941 Dec 3, Hitler viewed Poltava,
Ukraine.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1943 Dec 3, Howard Hanson's 4th
Symphony premiered.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1943 Dec 3, Battle of Monte
Cassino, Italy began.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1944 Dec 3, US 5th Armour division
occupied Brandenburg, Hertzgenwald.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1944 Dec 3, A British order to
disarm caused a general strike in Greece.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1944 Dec 3, Hungarian death march
of Jews ended.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1947 Dec 3, The Tennessee Williams
play “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway with Marlon Brando
as Stanley Kowalski and Jessica Tandy as Blanche DuBois and Kim Hunter
as Stella Kowalski. Brando’s first film was “The Men” directed by Fred
Zinnemann.
(TMC, 1994, p.1947)(SFC, 3/15/97,
p.A19)(SFEM,10/19/97, DB p.11) (AP, 12/3/97)
1948 Dec 3, The "Pumpkin Papers"
came to light. The House Un-American Activities Committee announced
that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of
secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1948 Dec 3, Chinese refugee ship
"Kiangya" exploded in East China Sea killing 1,100. [see Dec 4]
(MC, 12/3/01)
1950 Dec 3, The Chinese closed in
on Pyongyang, Korea and UN forces withdrew southward.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1953 Dec 3, The musical "Kismet"
opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theater for 583 performances.
(AP, 12/3/99)(MC, 12/3/01)
1953 Dec 3, Eisenhower criticized
McCarthy for saying communists are in Republican party.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1954 Dec 3, Samuel Barber's
"Prayers of Kierkegaard," premiered.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1954 Dec 3, William Walton's opera
"Troilus & Cressida," premiered in London.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1956 Dec 3, England & France
pulled troops out of Egypt.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1960 Dec 3, Daryl Hannah, film
star, was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SSFC, 3/14/04, Par p.18)
1960 Dec 3, The Frederick Loewe
& Alan Jay Lerner musical "Camelot" opened on Broadway.
(AP, 12/3/99)(MC, 12/3/01)
1964 Dec 3, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed
Reindeer" 1st aired on TV.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1964 Dec 3, Police arrested 824
students at the University of California at Berkeley, one day after the
students stormed the administration building and staged a massive
sit-in as part of the Free Speech Movement. It was the largest mass
arrest in US history.
(AP, 12/3/98)(SSFC, 12/29/02, p.M5)
1965 Dec 3, Katarina Witt, figure
skater (Olympic-Gold-1984, 88), was born in Staaken, GDR.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1965 Dec 3, Beatles began their
final UK concert tour in Glasgow.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1965 Dec 3, The National Council
of Churches asked the U.S. to halt the massive bombings in North
Vietnam.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1967 Dec 3, The 20th Century Ltd.,
the famed luxury train, completed its final run from New York City to
Chicago.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1967 Dec 3, Surgeons in Cape Town,
South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed the first human
heart transplant at the Groote Shur Hospital. Louis Washkansky lived 18
days with the new heart. The first heart transplant operation in the
U.S. was on December 6, 1967, in New York City.
(AP, 12/3/97)(HNQ, 1/9/99)
1969 Dec 3, John Lennon was
offered the role of Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1971 Dec 3, The 3rd Indo-Pakistani
war began when India intervened in the Pakistani civil war. Pakistan
attacked Indian airfields and India mobilized its army after nearly 10
million refugees poured into India. The India-Pakistani civil war ended
with independence for East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A12)(SSFC,
12/30/01, p.A22)
1972 Dec 3, A Spantax Convair 990A
charter carrying West German tourists crashed in Tenerife, Canary
Island, and 155 died.
(www.secret-tenerife.com/2006/03/tenerife-air-disasters-in-perspective.shtml)
1973 Dec 3, Pioneer 10 passed
Jupiter (1st fly-by of an outer planet).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10)
1975 Dec 3, King Savang Vatthana
of Laos abdicated his throne and the communist Lao People's Democratic
Republic (LPDR) was established.
(www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2770.htm)
1976 Dec 3, Fidel Castro was
elected president of Cuba.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)
1977 Dec 3, The State Department
proposed the admission of 10,000 more Vietnamese refugees to the United
States.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1978 Dec 3, William Grant Still
(b.1895), the first important black symphonic composer, died.
(WSJ, 12/9/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grant_Still)
1979 Dec 3, Christie's in
Switzerland auctioned a thimble for a record sum. A London dealer bid
$18,000 for a Meissen porcelain thimble that dated to about 1740.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thimble)
1979 Dec 3, In Ohio 11 people were
killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum, where
The Who, a British rock group, was performing.
(AP, 12/3/97)(HN, 12/3/98)
1980 Dec 3, Bernadine Dohrn, a
former leader of the radical Weather Underground, surrendered to
authorities in Chicago after more than a decade as a fugitive.
(AP, 12/3/00)
1980 Dec 3, In El Salvador
peasants discovered the bodies of nuns Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford, Maura
Clark, and lay worker Jean Donovan and buried them.
(AP, 12/2/00)
1984 Dec 3, More than 4,000 people
died and 200,000 were injured after a gas escaped from a pesticide
plant operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, India. 40 tons
of vaporous methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide, monomethyl amine,
carbon monoxide and possibly 20 other chemicals were released after an
explosion. Over the years, according to the Indian government, some
15,000 people have died from effects of the gas.
(WSJ, 11/27/96, p.A1)(HN, 12/3/98)(SFEC, 3/5/00,
p.A23)(AP, 12/3/04)
1987 Dec 3, Four days before his
summit with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to sign a treaty banning
intermediate-range nuclear missiles, President Reagan said in an
interview with television network anchormen that there was a reasonably
good chance of progress toward a treaty on long-range weapons.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1988 Dec 3, Barry Sanders of
Oklahoma State University won the Heisman Trophy.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1988 Dec 3, In South Africa, 11
black funeral mourners were slain in Natal Province in an attack blamed
on security forces.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1989 Dec
3, The East German SED Politburo resigned. 3 days later Communist
leader Egon Krenz stepped down as Chairman of the Council of State.
(http://tinyurl.com/akpba)
1989 Dec 3, In Malta Presidents
George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announce the official end to the Cold
War.
(HN, 12/3/02)
1990 Dec 3, A Northwest Airlines
DC-9 collided on the ground with a Northwest Boeing 727 at Detroit
Metropolitan Airport, resulting in a fire that claimed eight lives.
(AP, 12/3/00)
1990 Dec 3, President Bush began a
five-nation South American tour as he arrived in Brazil.
(AP, 12/3/00)
1991 Dec 3, Embattled US White
House chief of staff John H. Sununu resigned; he was succeeded by
Samuel K. Skinner.
(AP, 12/3/01)
1991 Dec 3, Radicals in Lebanon
released American hostage Alann Steen, who had been held captive nearly
five years.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1992 Dec 3, The U.N. Security
Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help
starving Somalia.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1992 Dec 3, The Greek tanker
Aegean Sea spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil when it ran
aground at La Coruna, Spain.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1993 Dec 3, Britain's Princess
Diana, saying she was fed up with media's intrusions, announced she
would be limiting her public appearances.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1994 Dec 3, Elizabeth Glaser, who
became an AIDS activist after she and her two children were infected
with HIV via a blood transfusion, died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age
47.
(AP, 12/3/99)
1994 Dec 3, Rebel Serbs in Bosnia
failed to keep a pledge to release hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers, some
already held for more than a week.
(AP, 12/3/99)
1995 Dec 3, President Clinton,
wrapping up a five-day European trip, authorized a vanguard of 700
American troops to open a risky mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 12/3/00)
1995 Dec 3, The US and Europe
signed a trans-Atlantic trade and security accord in Madrid, Spain.
(WSJ, 12/4/95, p.A-9)
1996 Dec 3, In Hawaii Judge Kevin
Chang ruled that the state had to issue marriage licenses to same-sex
couples (allow gay marriages), prompting an appeal.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.A3)(AP, 12/3/97)
1996 Dec 3, The Justice Department
barred 16 Japanese army veterans suspected of World War II atrocities
from entering the United States.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1996 Dec 3, In Burma riot police
dispersed hundreds of student demonstrators and detained dozens outside
Rangoon at the Schwedagon Pagoda.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A13)
1996 Dec 3, In France a bomb
exploded in the Paris subway at the Port-Royal station. Two (4) people
were killed and dozens injured. It appeared to be the work of Algerian
extremists.
(WSJ, 12/4/96, p.A1)(AP, 12/3/97)
1996 Dec 3, In Mexico Fernando
Balderas, lawyer-journalist, and his wife Yolanda Figueroa and 3
children were beaten to death. The couple had reported exposes on drugs
and corruption in the government. Balderas published the magazine
Fourth Power. Alejandro Perez, the family chauffeur, later confessed to
participating in the killings with 2 others because Balderas had raped
the gardener’s wife and attempted to rape his wife. Balderas had helped
his wife write “The Boss of the Gulf,” about drug cartel leader Juan
Garcia Abrego.
(SFC, 12/7/96, p.A10)(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B4)
1996 Dec 3, In Belgrade, Serbia,
Milosevic gagged the independent radio stations, Radio B-92 and Boom
93. Protests continued.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C2)
1997 Dec 3, President Clinton
hosted his first town hall meeting on America's race relations in
Akron, Ohio.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1997 Dec 3, It was reported that
former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, Edward J. DeBartolo, owner of the
SF 49ers, and three others were about to be indicted for alleged fraud.
DeBartolo was caught offering to pay the governor as much as $400,000
for a riverboat casino license.
(SFC, 12/3/97, p.A1)(SFC, 12/4/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 3, Walt Disney Chairman
Michael Eisner exercised stock options for a profit of $565 million.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 3, In Canada as many as
120 countries began signing a ban on land mines in Ottawa. The US,
China, Russia, Iraq were among those countries refusing to sign the ban.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 3, South Korea struck a
deal with the International Monetary Fund for a record $55 billion
bailout of its foundering economy.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1997 Dec 3, In Norway Dr.
Christian Sandsdalen was convicted for the mercy killing in Jun 1996 of
Bodil Bjerkmann (45), who suffered from multiple sclerosis. He was the
first Norwegian tried for mercy killing.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C4)
1997 Dec 3, In Poland Cardinal
Jozef Glemp chastised Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk for his daily broadcasts of
hate and rage mingled with prayer sessions. Rydzyk began broadcasting
over Radio Maryja in 1991 and has become the 4th most popular station
in Poland with 5 million listeners, mostly among older, religious
observant women.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A22)
1997 Dec 3, Pres. Yeltsin
announced that Russia is ready to cut troop strength in the Baltic
region by 20% by Jan 1, 1999.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C4)
1997 Dec 3, In Rwanda Hutu rebels
attacked a prison and released 507 jailed comrades in Bulinga.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C4)
1998 Dec 3, Republicans jettisoned
campaign fund-raising from their inquiry of President Clinton, clearing
the way for a historic House Judiciary Committee vote on articles of
impeachment over President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky
and his effort to cover it up.
(AP, 12/3/03)
1998 Dec 3, Digital MP3
file-squishing technology was reported as a threat to recording
industry. MPEG Layer 3 was a compression technology that allowed CD
quality music to be sent over the Internet. The Rio portable player by
Diamond Multimedia was released to stores in the midst of piracy
concerns.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 3, A scientific report
from the Multispecies Monitoring Committee said that the cod fishing in
the Gulf of Maine has collapsed due to overfishing.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 3, A 4-day conference in
Washington, attended by 44 countries, the Vatican and over a dozen
Jewish organizations, produced guidelines for documenting Nazi plunder
to resolve claims on confiscated art.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A18)
1998 Dec 3, In Europe the central
banks of 11 countries issued a coordinated interest-rate cut in
response to softening economic conditions.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 3, In Vienna 33 nations
signed the Wassenaar Arrangement limiting arms exports. The agreement
included export controls on the most powerful data-scrambling
technologies.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.B2)
1998 Dec 3, In Japan it was
reported that the Jul-Sep quarter fell 0.7%. It was the 4th consecutive
decrease in GDP.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 3, In the Philippines a
fire burned the Catholic Bahay Kalinga orphanage in Manila and at least
28 people were killed including 23 children.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A21)(WSJ, 12/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 3, In Romania Brother
Cleopa, an Orthodox monk, died at age 87 at the 14th century Sihastra
Monastery. He was renowned for his lectures and sermons, some of which
were published under the title “Talks with Brother Cleopa,” in
Sobornost, an ecumenical Orthodox and Anglican journal published in
Oxford.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1998 Dec 3, Yugoslav border guards
killed 8 ethnic Albanians as they tried to cross the border into
Kosovo. In Pristina Hizri Talla, a senior guerrilla commander was
killed along with Kosovar journalist Afrim Maliqi and student Ilir
Durmishi.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C9)
1999 Dec 3, Pres. Clinton offered
to reduce bombing practice on Vieques in the spring and use only dummy
bombs plus $40 million in economic incentives with phase out in 5
years. Puerto Rico rejected the offer.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)
1999 Dec 3, The WTO negotiations
in Seattle collapsed with no agreement reached on an agenda for talks.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 3, Regular but restricted
passenger service from NY to Havana was resumed for the 1st time in
nearly 4 decades with a flight by Marazul Charters.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A6)
1999 Dec 3, Tori Murden (36) of
the United States became the 1st woman to complete a rowboat crossing
of the Atlantic. Her 81-day, 7 hr. and 31 min. trip began in the Canary
Islands and finished at Fort-du-Bas in Guadeloupe.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)
1999 Dec 3, The Mars Polar Lander
touched down at the Martian South Pole. 2 probes burrowed into the
polar surface to test for water and carbon dioxide. NASA failed to make
contact with the $165 million lander following setdown.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A2)(SFC, 12/3/99, p.A3)(SFC,
12/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 3, Ice in Arctic waters
was reported to be shrinking by about 14,000 square miles annually.
Global warming from human activity was suspected.
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.A6)
1999 Dec 3, In Worcester, Mass., 6
firefighters died after 4 tried to rescue 2 who were in trouble in a
burning warehouse. A homeless couple who allegedly knocked over a
candle were later charged with involuntary manslaughter.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A2)(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A13)
1999 Dec 3, Oscar-nominated
actress Madeline Kahn died at age 57.
(AP, 12/3/00)
1999 Dec 3, A 129 country
environmental conference in China agreed to provide poor countries an
additional $440 million over 3 years to stop using chemicals that harm
the ozone layer.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 3, In Chechnya some 250
Russian soldiers were reported killed by rebels south of Grozny.
Separately as many as 40 Chechen civilians were killed when Russian
troops fired on a refugee convoy.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A12)(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A27)
1999 Dec 3, In the Maldives a
helicopter crashed enroute to Male and killed all 10 people onboard.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 3, In Monaco billionaire
banker Edmund Safra (67), founder of the Republic National Bank of New
York, was suffocated to death in a fire set by intruders at his home in
Monte Carlo. His American nurse, Ted Maher (41), was jealous of other
servants and later admitted that he had set the fire and fabricated the
intruder story to gain attention. Maher was convicted in 2002 and
sentenced to 10 years in prison. Maher escaped but was soon captured.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/2/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
9/11/05, Par p.2)
2000 Dec 3, In Florida Circuit
Judge Sanders Sauls finished listening to testimony on Al Gore’s
request for a hand count of 13,000 ballots in 2 counties.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 3, The cable TV Showtime
station aired the premier of “Queer as Folk,” a drama about homosexuals
based on a British series.
(SFC, 12/1/00, p.C1)
2000 Dec 3, Sandra Baldwin was
elected the first female president of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Baldwin resigned in May 2002 after she admitted lying about her
academic credentials.
(AP, 12/3/05)
2000 Dec 3, Space shuttle
Endeavour's astronauts attached the world's largest, most powerful set
of solar panels to the international space station.
(AP, 12/3/01)
2000 Dec 3, Gwendolyn Brooks,
African-American poet, died at age 83. Brooks won a 1949 Pulitzer Prize
for her 2nd book of poetry, “Annie Allen.” She was the poet laureate of
Illinois since 1968.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.E3)
2000 Dec 3, In Chechnya rebels
struck numerous check points and at least 13 Russian soldiers
were killed.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 3, In Venezuela a
referendum was scheduled on suspending the leaders of the nation’s
labor unions for 180 days pending new labor elections. Voters in a 20%
turnout approved the referendum to oust the leaders of the labor
unions. This paved the way for a government-dominated workers’
federation.
(SFC, 11/14/00, p.A17)(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A14)(WSJ,
12/5/00, p.A1)
2001 Dec 3, Tom Ridge, dead of
Homeland Security, ordered a state of high alert across the US to at
least the end of Ramadan in 2 weeks.
(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 3, Sec. of State Powell
met in Romania with officials from 55 nations in a conference on
fighting terrorism.
(WSJ, 12/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 3, Gov. Davis of
California met with Pres. Fox and Mexican legislators in Mexico City to
discuss economic solutions on mutual interests.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 3, In New Jersey Judge
Clarkson S. Fisher began jailing striking teachers, who defied his
back-to-work order.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 3, Enron took steps to
bolster its weak financial footing following its historic bankruptcy
filing, arranging $1.5 billion in financing and slashing 4,000 jobs, or
20 percent of its work force.
(AP, 12/3/02)
2001 Dec 3, Dean Kamen, inventor,
unveiled his battery-powered, 12 mph Segway Human Transporter in NYC.
Kamen had spent $100 million over the last decade to develop the
vehicle. In 2003 Steve Kemper authored "Code Name Ginger," the story of
the Segway's development.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A2)(WSJ, 6/17/03, p.D5)
2001 Dec 3, A test US anti-missile
launched from Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands successfully hit
a dummy warhead from Vandenberg Air Base in California, 4,800 miles
away.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A4)
2001 Dec 3, Some 3,000 Taliban
surrendered at Char Dara, 6 miles west of Kunduz. Pashtuns battled
Taliban forces at Kandahar’s airport. The UN evacuated staff at
Mazar-e-Sharif due to Northern Alliance infighting.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A11)(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A1,15)
2001 Dec 3, In Argentina the
government put a 90-day partial freeze on bank accounts to help stem a
run on banks. Weekly withdrawals were limited to $250.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A12)
2001 Dec 3, Israel struck the West
Bank and Gaza Strip and destroyed 3 Palestinian Authority helicopters.
In the wake of bombings that killed 26 Israelis, PM Ariel Sharon
declared war on terror. Arafat was effectively confined to Ramallah
after Israel destroyed his helicopters.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/3/02)(SFC, 11/11/04,
p.A18)
2002 Dec 3, Thousands of personnel
files released under a court order showed that the Archdiocese of
Boston went to great lengths to hide priests accused of abuse,
including clergy who allegedly snorted cocaine and had sex with girls
aspiring to be nuns.
(AP, 12/3/03)
2002 Dec 3, In western Algeria 6
soldiers and 6 suspected Islamic militants were killed during fighting
in the Stamboul forest.
(AP, 12/8/02)
2002 Dec 3, In Burundi Pres.
Pierre Buyoya and Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the main faction of the
Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, agreed to a cease-fire in
their 9-year civil war (effective Dec 30), in theory leaving only one
rebel group fighting in a conflict that has killed more than 200,000
people.
(AP, 12/3/02)
2002 Dec 3, U.N. weapons
inspectors made their first unannounced visit to one of Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces.
(AP, 12/3/03)
2002 Dec 3, An Israeli soldier in
Ramallah shot and killed a 95-year-old Palestinian woman as her taxi
tried a back road to go around an Israeli checkpoint.
(SFC, 12/4/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 3, Shanghai will host the
2010 World Exposition after bidding fiercely to organize an event
expected to fuel millions of dollars of investment, Expo officials
announced in Monaco.
(Reuters, 12/3/02)
2003 Dec 3, US federal authorities
arrested 57 Hells Angles Motorcycle club members in 5 Western states on
drugs, firearms and racketeering charges. The charges stemmed from a
casino brawl in Laughlin, Nev., in Apr. 2002 that left 3 dead.
(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/5/03, p.A25)
2003 Dec 3, A California state
commission denied a Texas company's plan to sell GloFish,
genetically-altered glow-in-the-dark fish. National sales of the
transgenic fish were set for Jan.
(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A2)
2003 Dec 3, A Colorado state judge
in Denver declared the new school voucher plan to be unconstitutional.
(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 3, It was reported that
England planned to spend $17 billion to transform its health care
system with information technology to make all medical records
available in a secure central database.
(WSJ, 12/3/03, p.B1)
2003 Dec 3, David Hemmings (62),
British film actor, died after shooting scenes for "Samantha's Child."
In 1966 he starred as the photographer in Antonioni's "Blowup."
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.A27)
2003 Dec 3, The head of the Iraqi
Governing Council renewed his demand that a proposed transitional
legislature be elected by Iraqi voters, a move opposed by U.S.
occupation officials. Leaders of the top political parties agreed with
the US-led administration to create a militia picked by the parties and
governing council.
(AP, 12/3/03)(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A16)
2003 Dec 3, Ivory Coast security
forces fired tear gas at protesters who rallied for a 3rd day outside
the main French military base, demanding that peacekeepers withdraw to
allow resumed government attacks on rebels.
(AP, 12/3/03)
2003 Dec 3, A UN tribunal
convicted and sentenced a radio news director and a newspaper editor to
life imprisonment for their role in promoting the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2003 Dec 3, In northern Senegal a
passenger bus and a cement truck collided, killing 22 people and
injuring 35 others.
(AP, 12/3/03)
2003 Dec 3, It was reported that
Syria's president had agreed to a proposal to halt violence along
Israel's northern border if Israel promises to end flights over Lebanon
and not attack its territory.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2004 Dec 3, US
Pres. George W. Bush signed a law extending normal trade relations to
Laos.
(AFP, 12/8/04)
2004 Dec 3, It was announced that
US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was staying on the job.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2004 Dec 3, Tommy G. Thompson
(63), US sec. of health and human services, announced his resignation
and expressed concern over the threat of global flu and the possibility
of a terrorist attack on the nation’s food supply.
(SFC, 12/4/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 3, It was reported that
methamphetamine initially revs up the dopamine nervous system in the
brain and that sex is the No. 1 reason people use it. The effect of an
IV hit of meth is the equivalent of 10 orgasms all on top of each other
lasting for 30 minutes to an hour, with a feeling of arousal that lasts
for another day and a half. After you have been using it a little bit
longer you can't have sex even when you're high. Nothing happens. It
doesn't work. Later hair falls out and teeth fall out. A total of 1,083
clandestine methamphetamine labs were cleaned up in Tennessee in 2003.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 3, A boat carrying at
least 91 Dominican migrants apparently trying to reach Puerto Rico
illegally capsized, killing eight people.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 3, In France Liberation's
founding CEO Serge July announced the start of exclusive negotiations
with Banker Edouard de Rothschild over a $27 million capital increase
that would let the banker acquire 37 percent of the popular daily.
(AP, 12/3/04)
2004 Dec 3, In Germany 3 Iraqi
citizens of Kurdish origin were arrested for plotting to kill Iraqi PM
Ayad Allawi. In 2008 the 3 men were convicted and sentenced to prison.
The Stuttgart state court convicted the three men of attempted
participation in murder and membership in terrorist organization Ansar
al-Islam, a radical Islamic group linked to al-Qaida.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2004 Dec 3, In western Guatemala 2
buses collided head-on along a mountain highway, and one toppled into a
nearby ravine, killing 21 people and injuring at least 20.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 3, India's foreign
exchange reserves vaulted $3.8 billion in the week through Dec. 3 to a
record $130.72 billion, as foreign capital poured into Asia's
fourth-biggest economy and the dollar slid against the euro.
(Reuters, 12/11/04)
2004 Dec 3, Insurgents launched
two major attacks against a Shiite mosque and a police station in
Baghdad, killing 30 people, including at least 16 police officers.
(AP, 12/3/04)
2004 Dec 3, Ramush Haradinaj (36)
was elected prime minister of Kosovo.
(http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041213-112138-1866r.htm)
2004 Dec 3, Sheikh Hassan Yousef,
a top Hamas leader, said the militant group would accept the
establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as
well as a long-term truce with Israel.
(AP, 12/3/04)(SFC, 12/4/04, p.A3)
2004 Dec 3, In Russia 15 people
were killed when a fire broke out in a furniture factory warehouse in
the Moscow region.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 3, Ukraine’s Supreme
Court overturned the results of the disputed presidential elections and
ordered a new runoff by Dec 26.
(SFC, 12/4/04, p.A1)
2005 Dec 3, In Silicon Valley,
Ca., Adobe Systems merged with Macromedia.
(Econ, 12/10/05, p.70)
2005 Dec 3, Retired Navy vice
admiral Frederick L. "Dick" Ashworth, the weaponeer aboard the B-29
that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, died in Phoenix at age
93.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2005 Dec 3, Peter Haas Sr. (86),
former CEO and president of Levi Strauss, died in SF.
(SFC, 12/5/05, p.B4)
2005 Dec 3, In Bangladesh police
said they had arrested over 200 suspected Islamic militants in a
three-day sweep after suicide bombers killed at least nine people and
wounded scores in a spate of attacks this week.
(AFP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, In Brazil the Greek
billionaire Athina Roussel Onassis (20) married Alvaro Afonso de
Miranda (32) a Brazilian Olympic equestrian in a palm-tree lined estate
in Sao Paulo.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 3, Economic officials
from the world's richest countries resumed their pressure on China to
adopt a more flexible exchange rate as they concluded a meeting in
London.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2005 Dec 3, In Canada tens of
thousands of people demonstrated in Montreal, host of the UN Climate
Change Conference, to demand that governments worldwide take concrete
measures against global warming.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 3, It was reported that
the Central African Republic has ordered radio and television stations
to stop broadcasting songs which encourage men to dump their wives,
saying such music is a hindrance to the country's development.
(Reuters, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, Chechnya’s top
election official said a Kremlin-backed political party has won the
largest number of seats in the new parliament.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, Iran's hard-line
constitutional watchdog approved a bill blocking international
inspections of atomic facilities if the nation is referred to the U.N.
Security Council for possible sanctions.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, In Iraq insurgents
ambushed an Iraqi patrol northeast of Baghdad, detonating a roadside
bomb and then firing on the patrol, killing 19 and wounding two.
(Reuters, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, Troops exhumed the
remains of 25 bodies from a mass grave near a former Syrian military
base in eastern Lebanon. About 17,000 Lebanese who disappeared during
1975-90 civil war are still missing, including 61 Lebanese soldiers.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, Malaysia's state media
said Southeast Asian lawmakers want Myanmar expelled from the ASEAN
regional grouping unless it frees democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and
other political prisoners within a year.
(Reuters, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, Myanmar’s government
confirmed for the first time that it has extended pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi's detention for six months.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, Taiwan's opposition
Nationalist Party won an overwhelming victory in island-wide municipal
elections, putting it in position to push its agenda of reunification
with China during the 2008 presidential campaign.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, Ukraine reported its
first outbreak of bird flu, discovered among some 1,500 dead chickens
and geese in the Black Sea region of Crimea.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 3, A rupture in an oil
pipeline caused a fire in western Venezuela, but firefighters quickly
brought the blaze under control. Evidence of sabotage was soon found.
[see Dec 5]
(AP, 12/04/05)(AP, 12/05/05)
2006 Dec 3, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb exploded next to a British convoy in
Kandahar city, and troops speeding away from the scene fired at several
civilian cars. 3 Afghans were killed and 19 people were wounded,
including three British soldiers. In southern Afghanistan an estimated
70 to 80 Taliban militants were killed by NATO soldiers in fighting
after police told military authorities where insurgents had gathered.
(AP, 12/3/06)(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 3, A major political
alliance in Bangladesh staged a nationwide transport blockade to force
electoral reforms. Separate clashes between rival political activists
and police left one man dead and at least 65 people injured.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo
Morales signed contracts giving the government control over foreign
energy companies’ operations.
(SFC, 12/4/06, p.A11)
2006 Dec 3, In southern England 2
firefighters were killed in a blaze at a fireworks factory near Lewes
that injured a dozen others.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 3, Members of Alberta's
ruling Conservative party picked Ed Stelmach (55), a moderate farmer,
as premier of the western Canadian province.
(Reuters, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, A Dubai-based
developer announced that it plans to build a new Russian city on 44,000
acres near Moscow.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, In East Timor a man
was hacked to death and 17 others were injured in overnight gang
fighting in Dili.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, Andris Piebalgs, the
EU Energy Commissioner from Latvia, signed an accord on nuclear
cooperation with Kazakhstan. The EU hoped to increase Kazakhstan
uranium sales to the EU from 3% to 20%.
(WSJ, 12/4/06, p.A6)
2006 Dec 3, Commodore Frank
Bainimarama told Fiji One television that he wants PM Laisenia Qarase
to resign so the military can name a new government for the South
Pacific island nation.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, Haitians cast ballots
in municipal and local elections that were billed as the final step in
the troubled country's return to democratic rule following a bloody
February 2004 revolt that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, Seven Iraqis were
killed and 12 wounded including 3 policemen killed by a suicide bomber
at a checkpoint near the northern city of Kirkuk. The bullet-ridden
body of the Sunni Arab chairman of one of Iraq's leading soccer clubs
was found, several days after he was kidnapped in the capital. A US
soldier was killed during combat in Baghdad.
(AP, 12/3/06)(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 3, Madagascar's president
faced 13 challengers in the first elections since voting five years ago
led to a six-month power struggle that split the Indian Ocean nation
between two governments.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, Mexico’s newly
sworn-in president Felipe Calderon decreed a 10% pay cut for himself
and his cabinet members, echoing a central campaign promise of the
leftist rival he beat by a razor-thin margin.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, In southern Taiwan a
double-decker tour bus crashed into a steep ravine in a scenic mountain
area, killing 22 and seriously injuring two dozen others.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 3, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez won re-election, defeating Manuel Rosales, governor of the
western state of Zulia. With 78% of voting stations reporting, Chavez
had 61% of the vote, to 38% for Rosales.
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.44)(AP, 12/3/06)(AP, 12/3/07)
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