Today In History
Today is Thursday, Dec. 3, the 337th day of 2015. There are 28 days
left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Dec. 3, 1965, The
Beatles' sixth studio album, "Rubber Soul," was released in the United
Kingdom by Parlophone (it was released in the U.S. by Capitol Records
three days later). On this date: In 1810, British forces captured
Mauritius from the French, who had renamed the island nation off
southeast Africa "Ile de France. In 1818, Illinois was admitted as the
21st state. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United
States by the Electoral College. In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio the
first truly coeducational school of higher learning in the United
States began holding classes. In 1925, George Gershwin's Concerto in F
had its world premiere at New York's Carnegie Hall, with Gershwin at
the piano. In 1947, the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named
Desire" opened on Broadway. In 1953, the musical "Kismet," featuring
the song "Stranger in Paradise," opened on Broadway. In 1960, the
Lerner and Loewe musical "Camelot" opened on Broadway. In 1967,
surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard
performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who
lived 18 days with the new heart. The 20th Century Limited, the famed
luxury train, completed its final run from New York to Chicago. In
1979, 11 people were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati's
Riverfront Coliseum, where the British rock group The Who was
performing. In 1984, thousands of people died after a cloud of methyl
isocyanate gas escaped from a pesticide plant operated by a Union
Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, India. In 1991, radicals in Lebanon
released American hostage Alann (cq) Steen, who'd been held captive
nearly five years. Ten years ago: 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.
Insurgents killed 19 Iraqi soldiers in a coordinated ambush northeast
of Baghdad. Vice Adm. Frederick L. "Dick" Ashworth, USN (Ret.), the
weaponeer aboard the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki,
Japan, died in Phoenix, Arizona, at age 93. Five years ago: During a
surprise holiday-season visit to Afghanistan, President Barack Obama
told cheering U.S. troops at Bagram Air Field they were succeeding in
their mission to fight terrorism; however, foul weather prevented Obama
from meeting with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul to address frayed
relations. The Labor Department reported the U.S. unemployment rate had
risen in November 2010 to 9.8 percent after three straight months at
9.6 percent. One year ago: A Staten Island, New York, grand jury
declined to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July 2014
chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man stopped on
suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Herman Badillo, a Bronx
politician who was the first person born in Puerto Rico to become a
U.S. congressman, died at age 85. Today's Birthdays: Movie director
Jean-Luc Godard is 85. Singer Jaye P. Morgan is 84. Actor Nicolas
Coster is 82. Actress Mary Alice is 74. Rock singer Ozzy Osbourne is
67. Actress Heather Menzies Urich is 66. Rock singer Mickey Thomas is
66. Country musician Paul Gregg (Restless Heart) is 61. Actor Steven
Culp is 60. Actress Daryl Hannah is 55. Actress Julianne Moore is 55.
Olympic gold medal figure skater Katarina Witt is 50. Actor Brendan
Fraser is 47. Singer Montell Jordan is 47. Actor Royale Watkins is 46.
Actor Bruno Campos is 42. Actress Holly Marie Combs is 42. Actress Liza
Lapira is 40. Actress Lauren Roman is 40. Pop-rock singer Daniel
Bedingfield is 36. Actress Anna Chlumsky (KLUHM'-skee) is 35. Actor
Brian Bonsall is 34. Actress Dascha Polanco (TV: "Orange is the New
Black") is 33. Pop/rock singer-songwriter Andy Grammer is 32. Actress
Amanda Seyfried is 30. Actor Michael Angarano is 28. Actor Jake T.
Austin is 21. Thought for Today: "Facing it, always facing it, that's
the way to get through. Face it. Joseph Conrad, Polish-born English
novelist (born this date in 1857, died 1924).
