On this day in History - Dec. 03
- 0741- Saint Zacharias begins his reign as Catholic Pope succeeding Gregory III
- 1154 - Pope Anastasius IV , died
- 1552 - Francisco Xavier died (age 48), Jesuit missionary, in China, where he contracted a fever while waiting for permission to preach.
- 1586 - Sir Thomas Herriot introduced potatoes from Colombia to England.
- 1621 - Galileo invented the telescope.
- 1803 - Hector Berlioz, born , French composer (Symphony Fantastique
- 1818 - Illinois became the 21st state in the United States.
- 1828 - U.S. presidential election, 1828: Challenger Andrew Jackson beats incumbent John Quincy Adams and is elected President of the United States.
- 1857 - Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowskij ("Joseph Conrad"), Born in Poland, 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).
- 1894 - Robert Louis Stevenson, died in Samoa, [b. 1850 ] Scotish, novelist and poet, author of Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
- 1899 - Ikeda Hayato, born , Japanese prime minister (d. 1965)
- 1904 - Roberto Marinho, born , Brazilien jornalist and business man
- 1912 - First Balkan War ends - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long war.
- 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 A. Renoir French painter and sculptor died at age 78.
- 1925 - "Concerto in F," by George Gershwin, had its world premiere at New York's Carnegie Hall, with Gershwin himself at the piano.
- 1930 - Jean-Luc Godard, born, French film director
- 1930 - Andy Williams, singer (Moon River, Andy Williams Show), was born in Wall Lake, Iowa.
- 1940 - Manuela Ferreira Leite born, portuguese politician: Minister of Education and Minister of Finances
- 1943 - Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy began.
- 1944 - Greek Civil War starts in Athens
- 1946 - Poemas de Alberto Caeiro y Odes de Ricardo Reis, de Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa, were published.
- 1948 - Ozzy Osbourne, born, singer
- 1953 - The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and Republic of China is signed in Washington, DC.
- 1960 - Daryl Hannah, born, actress - Vidé Daryl Hannah photo
- 1960 - Julianne Moore, born, actress
- 1963 - Nelson Mandela's treason trial begins in South Africa.
- 1967 - Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard performed the world's first successful human heart transplant.
- 1970 - Christian Karembeu, born, French football (soccer) player
- 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 -President Nixon commuted Jimmy Hoffa's jail term.
- 1978 - Luis Herrera Campins es elegido presidente de la República de Venezuela.
- 1975 - Laos falls to communist forces; Lao People's Democratic Republic proclaimed
- 1976 - Patrick Hillery becomes the sixth President of Ireland
- 1979 - 11 people were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum, where the British rock group The Who was performing.
- 1984 - A cloud of deadly poison gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing over 4.000 people.
- 1955 - Britain and Egypt agree on independence for Sudan.
- 1987 - Mariana Torres, born , Mexican actress
- 1989 - Fernando Martín Espina died (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.
- 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.
- 1995 - The US and Europe signed a trans-Atlantic trade and security accord in Madrid, Spain.
- 1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. However, The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty.
- 1997 - Walt Disney Chairman Michael Eisner exercised stock options for a profit of $565 million.
- 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
- 1999 - 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.
- 2000 - Sandra Baldwin was elected the first female president of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
- 2000 - Gwendolyn Brooks, 83, poet, died of cancer. Gwendolyn Brooks promoted an understanding of Black culture through her candid, compassionate poetry and became the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
- 2001 - 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.
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