Today in History: Sunday, December 02, 2012
On Dec. 2, 1942, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.
1804 Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.
1823 President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.
1954 The Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R Wis., for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
1961 Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would lead Cuba to Communism.
1969 The Boeing 747 jumbo jet debuted.
1980 Four American churchwomen were raped, murdered and buried in El Salvador. (Five national guardsmen were later convicted of murder.)
1982 Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center performed the first implant of a permanent artificial heart in a human. Barney Clark lived 112 days with the device.
1990 Chancellor Helmut Kohl's center-right coalition easily won the first free all-German elections since 1932.
1990 Composer Aaron Copland died at age 90.
1993 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin.
1999 A power-sharing cabinet of Protestants and Catholics sat down together for the first time in Northern Ireland.
2001 Enron filed for Chapter 11 protection in one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. History.
2010 The House voted to censure Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., for financial and fundraising misconduct.