On this day in History - Dec. 03

0741- Saint Zacharias begins his reign as Catholic Pope succeeding Gregory III
1048 - Al-Biruni dies. Mathematician
1154- Pope Anastasius IV dies
1158 - D. Mafalda dies. Queen of Portugal.
1265 - Odofredus dies. Italian jurist
1368 - King Charles VI of France was born (d. 1422)
1533 - Vasili III dies (b. 1479). Grand Prince of Moscow
1552 - St. Francis Xavier dies of fever off the coast of China. He was the leading Roman Catholic missionary of modern times
1560 - Jan Gruter was born (d. 1627). Dutch critic.
1586 - Sir Thomas Herriot introduced potatoes from Colombia to England.
1596 - Nicolo Amati was born (d. 1684). Italian violin maker
1610 - Honda Tadakatsu dies (b. 1548). Japanese general.
1621 - Galileu, Italian astronomer, completed the first telescope.
1684 - Ludvig Holberg was born (d. 1754). Norwegian historian and writer
1721 - German composer Johann Sebastian Bach married his second wife, Anna Magdalena Wilcken, daughter of a trumpeter at Weissenfels.

1753 - Samuel Crompton was born in Firwood, Greater Manchester, UK (d.1827). Inventor of the spinning-mule.
1755 - Gilbert Stuart was born (d. 1828). American painter
1765 - Lord John Philip Sackville dies (b. 1713). English cricketer.
1776 - Johann Spurzheim was born
(d. 1832). German neuroscientist
1789 - Claude Joseph Vernet dies (b- 1714). French painter
1805 - Lewis and Clark Expedition mark their explorations from the Missouri River overland to the Columbia River on a pine tree.
1815 - John Carroll dies (b. 1735). First Roman Catholic archbishop in the U.S.
1818 - Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state
1826 - George McClellan was boorn (d. 1885). U.S. Civil War general
1828 - U.S. presidential election, 1828: Challenger Andrew Jackson beats incumbent John Quincy Adams and is elected President of the United States.
1838 - Cleveland Abbe was born (d. 1916). American meteorologist
1838 - Octavia Hill was born (d. 1912). English housing and open-space activist.
1842 - Ellen Swallow Richards was born (d. 1911).American scientist
1854 - Eureka Stockade: More than twenty goldminers at Ballarat, Australia were killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences. Claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy.
1857 - Joseph Conrad was born (d. 1924). Polish-born writer. Conrad would become one of the greatest English novelist and short-story, whose works include the novels Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907) and the short story Heart of Darkness (1902).
1861 - In a battle during the American Civil War, Federal troops ousted the Confederates from Salem, Missouri.
1882 - Archibald Campbell Tait dies (b. 1811). Archbishop of Canterbury
1883 - Anton Webern was born (d. 1945). Austrian composer
1884 - Rajendra Prasad was born (d. 1963). First President of India
1886 - Manne Siegbahn was born (d. 1978). Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1887 - Sirhc Namyah was born (d. 1944). Composer
1888 - Carl Zeiss dies (b. 1816). German lens maker
1892 - Afanasy Fet dies (b. 1820). Russian poet
1894 - Robert Louis Stevenson dies (b. 1850). Scottish writer.
1895 - Anna Freud was born (d. 1982). Austrian-born psychoanalyst
1899 - Ikeda Hayato was born (d. 1965). Prime Minister of Japan
1900 - Ulrich Inderbinen was born (d. 2004). Swiss mountain guide
1900 - Richard Kuhn was born (d. 1967).Austrian biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1901 - US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
1902 - Robert Lawson dies (b. 1833). New Zealand architect
1904 - The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at Lick Observatory.
1904 - Roberto Marinho was born (d. 2003). Brazilian journalist and business man.
1911 - Nino Rota was born (d. 1979). Italian composer
1912 - First Balkan War ends - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long war.
1912 - Prudente José de Morais Barros dies (b. 1841). President of Brazil
1917 - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29, 1907 and September 11, 1916).
1919 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir dies (b. 1841). French painter
1921 - Phyllis Curtin was born. American soprano
1922 - Sven Nykvist was born. Swedish cinematographer
1925 - Ferlin Husky, American singer
1925 - Kim Dae-jung was born. President of South Korea, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
1925 - George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F is premiered at Carnegie Hall.
1927 - Andy Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa.
1928 - In Rio de Janeiro, a seaplane sunk near Cap Arcona with a group of people paying homage to Alberto Santos-Dumont on board.
1929 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover announces to U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy.
1930 - Jean-Luc Godard was born. French film director
1931 - Franz Josef Degenhardt was born. German author and singer
1932 - Corry Brokken was born. Dutch singer
1933 - Paul J. Crutzen was born. Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1934 - Viktor Gorbatko was born. Cosmonaut
1936 - Radio station WQXR is officially founded
1937 - The Dandy, the world's longest running comic, was first published.
1937 - Bobby Allison was born. American race car driver
1940 - Bugs Bunny was born. Wascally Wabbit
1940 - Manuela Ferreira Leite was born. Portuguese economist and politician
1941 - Christian Sinding dies (b. 1856). Norwegian composer
1942 - Alice Schwarzer was born. German journalist.
1943 - Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy began.
1944 - Greek Civil War starts in Athens
1944 - António Variações was born (d. 1984). Portuguese musician
1944 - Civil war breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between Communists and royalists.
1946 - Joop Zoetemelk was born. Dutch cyclist.
1946 - Poems (Alberto Caeiro) and Odes (Ricardo Reis) of de Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa, were published.
1947 - Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway.
1948 - Ozzy Osbourne was born. English singer
1949 - John Akii-Bua was born (d. 1997). Uganda athlete
1949 - Mickey Thomas was born. American singer (Jefferson Starship)
1949 - Maria Ouspenskaya dies (b. 1876).Russian-born actor
1951 - Rick Mears was born. American race car driver.

1952 - Mel Smith was born. British comic actor and director, best known for 'Not The Nine o'Clock News' (1979-81) and 'Alas Smith and Jones' (1984-6) with Griff Rhys Jones.
1953 - The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and Republic of China is signed in Washington, DC.
1955 - Steven Culp was born. American actor
1955 - María Izquierdo dies (b. 1902). Mexican painter.
1959 - Gustavo Barroso dies (b. 1888). Brazilian witer, journalist and politician. He was President of the Academia Brasileira de Letras
1960 - Daryl Hannah was born. American actress [ 'Splash' (1994) and 'The Gingerbread Man' (1997)].
1960 - Julianne Moore was born. American actress.
1963 - Nelson Mandela's treason trial begins in South Africa.
1964 - Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and massive sit-in at the administration building protesting the UC Regents' decision to forbid Vietnam War protests on UC property.
1965 - Steve Harris was born. American actor
1965 - Katarina Witt was born. German figure skater
1967 - At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, 53-year-old Louis Washkansky becomes the first human to receive a heart transplant, but dies 18 days later from double pneumonia. The transplant team was headed by Christiaan Barnard.
1967 - The luxury train 20th Century Limited completes its last run from New York City, New York to Chicago, Illinois (the train was inaugurated on June 15, 1902).
1968 - Brendan Fraser was born. American actor
1970 - Christian Karembeu was born. French footballer
1970 - October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libération du Québec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Government of Canada grants five terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.
1971 - Pakistan launches airstrikes on Indian airfields. Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins as India retaliates with a massive invasion of East Pakistan.
1971 -President Nixon commuted Jimmy Hoffa's jail term.
1972 - Bill Johnson dies (b. 1872). American musician
1973 - Emile Christian dies (b. 1895). American musician
1973 - Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
1973 - Jan Ullrich was born. German cyclist
1973 - Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, dies, Président of Mexico (1952-1958).
1975 - Colm Lohan was born. Irish thinker
1975 - Laos falls to communist forces; Lao People's Democratic Republic proclaimed
1976 - Patrick Hillery becomes the sixth President of Ireland
1978 - Luis Herrera Campins is elected President of Venezuela.
1979 - Rainbow Sun Francks was born. Canadian actor
1979 - In Cincinnati, Ohio, a stampede for seats at Riverfront Coliseum during a Who concert kills eleven fans. 1980 - Bom Povo Português, film directed by Rui Simões is awarded with the Prizes of The Public and of The Critic in the IV International Movie Show of São Paulo (IV Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo).
1979 - Dhyan Chand dies (b. 1905). Indian hockey player.
1980 - Oswald Mosley dies (b. 1896). British politician
1982 - A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that would be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
1984 - Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
1987 - Mariana Torres, born , Mexican actress
1989 -Fernando Martín Espina dies (age 27). Spanish basketball player
1989 - Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end (some commentators from both nations exaggerated the wording and independently declared the Cold War over).
1990 - At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with a Boeing 727 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crewmembers 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, tasked with ensuring humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia.
1992 - The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil runs aground in a storm while on approach to La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.
1993 - Frank Zappa dies. American guitarist and composer.
1995 - The US and Europe signed a trans-Atlantic trade and security accord in Madrid, Spain.
1995 - Luís Filipe Castro Mendes, Portuguese poet receives the Prize D. Dinis from Fundação da Casa de Mateus.
1997 - 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
1997 - Walt Disney Chairman Michael Eisner exercised stock options for a profit of $565 million.
1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.
1998 - The gravures of Foz Côa (Portugal) are declaraded World Heritage by Unesco.
1999 - After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 miles, Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
1999 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
1999 - Madeline Kahn dies (b. 1942). American actor and comedian
1999 - Scatman John dies (b. 1942). American singer
2000 - Gwendolyn Brooks dies (b. 1917). American poet. He promoted an understanding of Black culture through her candid, compassionate poetry and became the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
2002 - Glenn Quinn dies (b. 1970). Irish actor.
2003 - David Hemmings dies (b. 1941). English actor
2004 - Shiing-Shen Chern dies (b. 1911). Chinese mathematician
Feast day of Saint Francis Xavier
Feast day also of Saint Birinus