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1 - 28 of 28 Interesting & Fun 2nd of December Facts: |
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| 1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire. |
| 1804 - At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned as the first Emperor of France in a thousand years. |
| 1805 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz - French troops under Napoleon defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force. |
| 1823 - Monroe Doctrine: US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts. |
| 1845 - Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West. |
| 1851 - Newly-elected French President Charles Louis Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic. |
| 1859 - Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry. |
| 1861 - The small Oregon town of Champoeg is flooded by the Willamette River. No deaths occurred. |
| 1867 - In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States. |
| 1899 - Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought. |
| 1927 - Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile. |
| 1930 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover goes before Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy. |
| 1942 - Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. |
| 1946 - British Government invited four Indian leaders, Nehru, Baldev Singh, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan to obtain the participation of all parties in the Constituent Assembly. |
| 1947 - Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan. |
| 1954 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." |
| 1961 - In a nationally-broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism. |
| 1970 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations. |
| 1971 - Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates. |
| 1972 - Gough Whitlam becomes the first Australian Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years. |
| 1975 - Pathet Lao seizes power in Laos, and establishes the Lao People's Democratic Republic. |
| 1988 - Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state. |
| 1990 - A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932. |
| 1993 - Space Shuttle program: STS-61 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. |
| 1999 - The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive. |
| 2000 - The Smashing Pumpkins perform for the last time at The Metro in Chicago. |
| 2004 - Brian Williams succeeds Tom Brokaw as host of NBC Nightly News. |
| 2005 - Kenneth Boyd becomes the 1,000th person to be executed in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. |
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