3rd December, on this day

1347 Pope Clemens VI declares Roman tribunal Coke di Rienzo as heretics
1557 1st Covenant of Scottish protestants form
1586 Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England, from Colombia
1621 Galileo perfects the telescope
1678 Edmund Halley receives Master of Arts degree from Queen's College, Oxford
1685 Charles II bars Jews from settling in Stockholm, Sweden
1694 English parliamentary election set for every 3 years
1775 1st official US flag raising (aboard naval vessel Alfred)
1800 Battle of Hohenlinden, which was an Austrian Defeat
1805 Lewis and Clark Expedition mark their explorations from the Missouri River overland to the Columbia River on a pine tree.
1818 Illinois admitted as 21st US state
1828 Andrew Jackson elected 7th President of US, John C Calhoun Vice-President
1836 In the first fatal railway derailment in Britain, three people are killed in Corby near Carlisle in Cumbria
1835 1st US mutual fire insurance company issues 1st policy (Rhode Island)
1847 Frederick Douglass publishes 1st issue of his newspaper "North Star"
1854 Eureka Stockade : In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.
1863 Longstreet abandons his siege at Knoxville TN
1864 Skirmish at Thomas' Station, Georgia
1868 Trial of Jefferson Davis starts; 1st blacks on US trial jury
1870 Battle of Villiers ends : Germans defeat French
1878 Settlers arrive at Petach Tikvah, Israel
1881 Henry M Stanley finds Leopoldville/Kinshasa
1893 Ndebeles destroy Rhodesia
1901 US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking the Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
1904 The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
1907 George Cohan's musical "Talk of the Town" premieres in New York NY
1908 Edward Elgar's 1st Symphony in A, premieres
1911 Neon lighting the French physicist George Claude, goes on public display for the first time at the Paris Motor Show
1912 Naval Battle of Elli : Greek navy defeats Ottoman fleet & forces it to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles straits
1912 Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria sign weapons pact
1914 Netherlands army shoots up geïnterneerde Belgian soldiers: 8 killed
1917 Official opening of the Quebec Bridge over the St Lawrence River, the world's longest cantilever bridge
1920 Turkey and Armenia agree to peace treaty
1922 1st successful technicolor movie (Tall of the Sea), shown in New York, NY
1926 A real mystery. British crime writer Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey. She is found 11 days later staying under an assumed name at a hotel at Harrogate in Yorkshire. The writer claims she has no idea what she is doing there!
1926 Manchester Guardian (German Reichswehr/Red Army work together)
1929 Great Depression : US President Herbert Hoover announces to the 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 Air-borne chemicals combine with fog to kill 60 (Meuse Valley, Belgium)
1930 Richard Rodgers/L Hart's musical "Evergreen" premieres in London
1931 Alka Seltzer goes on sale
1932 General Kurt von Schleicher becomes chancellor of Germany
1934 Italian colonial Tripoli and Cyrenaica annexed to Libya
1938 AAU's decides to continue linear measuring system over metric
1939 Dmitri Shostakovich's 6th Symphony, premieres
1941 Hitler views Poltava. Ukraine
1943 Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy begins
1943 Howard Hanson's 4th Symphony, premieres
1944 British order to disarm, causes general strike in Greece. The Greek Civil War breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between communists and royalists.
1944 Hungarian death march of Jews ends
1944 Mussert puts Seyss-Inquart plan for small Nazi-Europe
1944 US 5th Armour division occupies Brandenburg Hürtgenwald
1946 US government asks UN to order dictator Franco out of Spain
1947 Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" premieres in New York
1948 "Pumpkin Papers" come to light (claimed to be from Alger Hiss)
1948 1st US woman army officer not in medical corps sworn-in
1948 Chinese refugee ship "Kiangya" explodes in E China Sea, killing 1,100
1952 Marcos Perez Jiménez elected President of Venezuela
1953 "Kismet" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 583 performances
1953 Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy for saying communists are in Republican party
1953 Premier of Dmitri Shostakovich's 5th String Quartet
1954 Samuel Barber's "Prayers of Kierkegaard" premieres
1954 William Walton's opera "Troilus and Cressida" premieres in London
1956 England and France pull troops out of Egypt
1958 Indonesian parliament accepts nationalisation of Dutch businesses
1959 State of emergency on Cyprus ends
1960 Frederick Loewe/Alan Jay Lerner's "Camelot" premieres Majestic Theater NYC for 873 performances
1961 Anton Geesink becomes 1st not-Japanese judo world champion
1961 Beatles meet future manager Brian Epstein
1961 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1962 Edith Spurlock Sampson sworn-in as 1st US black female judge
1962 Pravda criticizes western art
1963 Launch of Britain's second Nuclear submarine, HMS Valiant
1964 Free Speech Movement : Police arrests 800 sit-in students at University of California at Berkeley
1964 "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" 1st airs on TV
1965 USSR launches Luna 8; crashes on Moon
1965 Beatles begin final UK concert tour in Glasgow
1967 1st human heart transplant performed (Dr Christiaan Barnard, South Africa)
1967 Final run of "20th Century Limited", famed New York-Chicago luxury train
1967 Derek Clayton runs world record marathon (2:09:36.4)
1967 Ex-President Sukarno under house arrest in Indonesia
1969 John Lennon is offered role of Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar
1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
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 Canadian government grants five terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.
1971 Beginning of Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and India's official entry to the Bangladesh Liberation War in support of Mukti Bahini
1971 President Nixon commutes Jimmy Hoffa's jail term
1972 Convair 990A charter crashes in Tenerife Canary Island, 155 die
1973 Pioneer 10 passes Jupiter (1st fly-by of an outer planet)
1976 Dr Patrick J Hillery elected President of Ireland
1976 An assassination attempt is made on Bob Marley. He is shot twice, but plays a concert two days later
1979 In Cincinnati, 11 American teenagers are trampled to death at a concert given by British group The Who
1979 Christie's auctions a thimble for a record $18,400
1979 Iran accepts constitution
1981 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1982 A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin
1983 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1984 Bhopal disaster : 2,000 die from Union Carbide poison gas emission in Bhopal, India
1984 Oldest groom - Harry Stevens, 103, weds Thelma Lucas, 83, in Wisconsin
1988 British Health Minister Edwina Currie controversially claims that most eggs produced in Britain are affected by salmonella. Soon afterwards she is forced to resign
1989 George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev end summit in Malta and 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, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 7 passengers and 1 crew member aboard flight 1482.
1991 Hulk Hogan defeats Undertaker to become 4th time WWF champion
1991 Muslim Shiites release US hostage Alan Steen
1991 White House Chief of Staff John Sununu resigns
1992 United Nations Security Council Resolution 794 : UN Security Council votes unanimous for US led forces to enter Somalia
1992 The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.
1993 Diana, Princess of Wales, announces she will be vastly reducing her number of public engagements and drastically cutting down the number of organisations and charities she can actively support
1997 In the continuing crisis over BSE in British cattle, the Government announces a ban on the sale of meat 'on the bone' including steaks; roast ribs and oxtail
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.
1999 NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere
2005 XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.

December 3rd 2005

Blast 'kills al-Qaeda commander'

Iraqi soldiers killed in ambush

Green activists rally worldwide

December 3rd 2006

Chile's Pinochet has heart attack

Lawyers lodge Saddam death appeal

Beirut protests keep pressure on

December 3rd 2007

Monitors denounce Russia election

US report plays down Iran threat

Teddy row teacher returning home

December 3rd 2008

US presses Pakistan over Mumbai

Zimbabwe 'asks for cholera help'

Nations sign cluster bomb treaty

December 3rd 2009

Somalia ministers killed by suicide bomb

Damascus bus explosion kills 3

Italy 'to send 1,000 extra troops'

December 3rd 2010

Obama hails US Afghan 'progress'

Spanish airports forced to close

Military spaceplane touches down

December 3rd 2011

Birthdates which occurred on December 3rd:

1368 Charles VI [the Well-Beloved] king of France (1380-1422)
1483 Nicolaus von Amsdorf German reformation theologist
1576 Marsilio Casentini composer
1668 Casimir Schweizelsperg composer
1684 Ludvig Baron Holberg a founder of Danish & Norwegian literature
1729 Padre Antonio Francisco J Jose Soler Olot Spain, composer (Fandango)
1750 Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel composer
1752 Georg-Friederich Fuchs composer
1753 Samuel Crompton English inventor (mule-jenny spinning machine)
1755 Gilbert Stuart US, portrait painter (painted Washington)
1758 Josef Gelinek composer
1795 Sir Rowland Hill introduced 1st adhesive postage stamp (1840)
1797 Francis P Kenrick Irish/US archbishop of Baltimore
1800 France Preseren Slovenian poet (Krst pri Savici)
1806 Henry Alexander Wise Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), died in 1876
1809 Thomas Alfred Davies Brevet Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1899
1822 Charles Adam Heckman Brigadier-General (Union volunteers), died in 1896
1826 Edmond van der Straeten Belgian lawyer/musicologist
1826 George Brinton McClellan Major General (Union Army), died in 1885
1829 Green Berry Raum Brigadier-General (Union volunteers), died in 1909
1838 Cleveland Abbe US, meteorologist (Father of the Weather Bureau)
1838 Octavia Hill British reformer, leader of open-space movement
1842 Ellen Henrietta Richards US, chemist (American Home Economics Association-1st president)
1857 Joseph Conrad Poland, novelist (Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness)
1862 Jules Renkin Belgian jurist/minister/premier (1931-32)
1864 Herman Heijermans Jr Dutch writer (Kamertjeszonde, Diamond City)
1875 Bernhard Lichtenberg German clergyman/antifascist
1883 Anton [Friedrich Wilhelm] von Webern Vienna Austria, 12-tone composer
1883 Albert "Tibby" Cotter cricketer (great Aussie quick of early century)
1885 Marchien Zwitsers farmer in Lutten (died at 109 years old)
1886 Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn Swedendish physicist (röntgen spectroscope, Nobel 1924)
1888 Ion Nonna Otescu composer
1895 Anna Freud Austrian/English psychoanalytist/daughter of Sigmund Freud
1896 Boleslaw Szabelski composer
1896 John Urzidil Austria/US writer (Die erbeuteten Frauen)
1897 Kate O'Brien Irish writer (Without My Cloak)
1898 Lev Konstantinovich Knipper composer
19-- Brian Lando actor (Benjamin Carroll-Guns of Paradise)
19-- Moe Keale Honolulu HI, actor (Truck-Hawaii 5-0)
1900 Lester Matthews Nottingham England, (Sir Dennis-Adventures of Fu Manchu)
1900 Richard Kuhn Austria, biochemist, worked with vitamins (Nobel 1938)
1902 Willem Arnold de Vries Robbe composer
1904 Juan E Yrausquin founder (Party of Patriot Arubans)/minister
1905 Leslie Ames cricketer (England wicket-keeper of 30's Outstanding bat)
1907 Connee Boswell New Orleans LA, singer (Pete Kelly's Blues)
1907 Andrew Hutchings teachers' leader
1908 Halsey Stevens Scott NY, composer (Triskelion)
1908 Nigel M Balchin [Mark Spade] English author (Business for Pleasure)
1910 Robert Arthur Hughes missionary/surgeon
1911 Dana Suesse songwriter (You Ought to be in Pictures)
1911 Nino Rota Milan Italy, composer (Torquemada)
1913 Omer Vanaudenhoven Flemish industrial/resistance fighter
1914 Irving Fine Boston MA, composer (Toccata)
1919 Charles Craig opera singer
1921 Hans G Kresse Dutch cartoonist (Eric the Viking)
1923 Tom Fears NFL end (Los Angeles Rams)
1923 Maria Callas opera singer
1923 Trevor Bailey England, cricket all-rounder (batted & ran)
1924 John Backus inventor (FORTRAN computer language)
1925 Ken Funston South African cricket batsman (18 Tests during 1950's)
1926 Hans Gunther Franz Otte composer
1926 Hans Otte German composer/pianist
1927 Ferlin Husky country singer (Born to Lose, Gone)
1927 Isabelle Harriet Lucas actress/singer (Outland, Comics)
1929 Clarence Ford sax player
1929 Paul Harris Turok composer
1929 Werner Rackwitz German musicologist (Händel-Renaissance)
1930 Andy Williams Wall Lake IA, singer (Moon River, Andy Williams Show)
1930 Jean-Luc Godard French film director (Alphaville, Hail Mary, Breathless)
1930 Phyllis Curtin Clarksburg WV, soprano (NYC Opera)
1931 Jaye P Morgan Mancos CO, singer/actress (Gong Show, Night Patrol)
1931 Ellen Blazer Dutch TV director (Sonja)
1932 Corry Brokken Dutch singer
1934 Nicolas Coster London England, actor (Lionel-Santa Barbara, Robert Delaney-Another World, Electric Horseman)
1934 Viktor Vassilyevich Gorbatko USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 7, 24, 37/36)
1937 Bobby Allison auto racer (3 time winner of Daytona 500)
1937 Stephen Rubin English attorney/shoe manufacturer (Reebok, Adidas)
1938 José Serebrier Montevideo Uruguay, conductor/composer (Star Wagon)
1938 Martyn Taylor teacher/campaigner
1941 Mary Alice Indianola MS, newscaster (CBS, Lettie-Different World)
1943 Valerie Perrine Galveston TX, actress (Slaughterhouse 5)
1945 Laura Dean Staten Island NY, composer/choreographer (Drumming)
1948 Diane Kurys [Emir Kusturica] Sarajevo, bass guitarist
1948 Ozzy Osbourne England, rock vocalist (Black Sabbath-Bark at the Moon)
1949 Heather Menzies Toronto Ontario, actress (Jessica-Logan's Run)
1949 Christopher John Seward aid worker
1949 Mickey Thomas Cairo GA, rock vocalist (Jefferson Airplane, Starship)
1950 John Akii-bua Uganda, 400 meter hurdler (Olympics-gold-1972)
1950 Muntu Myeza South African anti-apartheid activist
1951 Mike Stock rocker (Stock, Aitken & Waterman-Road Block)
1951 Rick Mears Indy-car racer (over 25 wins)
1951 Danger Alberto Juantorena Cuba, 800 meter runner (Olympics-gold-1976)
1951 James Turner Brewer Maywood IL, basketball player (Olympics-silver-1972)
1951 Riki Chosyu [Mitsuo Yoshida] wrestler (NJPW/All-Japan)
1952 Mel Smith author (Morons From Outer Space)
1952 Don Barnes rock guitarist (38 Special)
1952 Duane Roland rock guitarist (Molly Hatchet)
1953 Franz Klammer Austria, downhill skier (Olympics-gold-1976)
1954 Paul Gregg country singer (Restless Heart-Wheels)
1955 Melody Anderson Edmonton Alberta, actress (Natalie Dillon-All My Children, Flash Gordon, Brooke-Manimal)
1956 Hart Bochner Los Angeles CA, actor/director (Rich & Famous)
1959 Kathy Jordan Bryn Mawr PA, tennis player (US Opens Doubles 1981)
1960 Mike Ramsey US, ice hockey player (Olympics-gold-1980)
1960 Daryl Hannah actress (Splash, Blade Runner)
1961 Julianne Moore actress (Lost World, 9 Months)
1962 Tammy Jackson WNBA forward/center (Houston Comets)
1963 Ashley De Silva Sri Lankan Cricket wicketkeeper (1993)
1963 Steve Hegg Dana Point CA, road cyclist (Olympics-16th-84, 96)
1964 Darryl Hamilton Baton Rouge LA, outfielder (Texas Rangers)
1964 Toi Cook cornerback (Carolina Panthers)
1965 Katarina Witt Staaken German Democratic Republic, figure skater (Olympics-gold-1984, 88)
1965 Tammy Jacques Auburn ME, cyclist (Olympics-96)
1966 Lisa Lightfoot Australian middle distance runner (Olympics-96)
1967 David Diaz Melbourne Victoria, Australasia golfer
1967 Greg Sutton NBA guard (Philadelphia 76ers)
1967 Katie Henderson Santa Monica CA, WPVA volleyball (US Open-25th-1993)
1968 Brendan Fraser Indianapolis IN, actor (School Ties, 20 Bucks)
1968 Isabel Cueto West Germany, tennis star
1968 Kevin Telles actor (Party Camp)
1969 Ed King NFL guard (New Orleans Saints)
1969 Kwamie Lassiter NFL defensive back (Arizona Cardinals)
1970 Charles Hope WLAF guard (Frankfurt Galaxy)
1970 Jennifer Rothschild [Rubin] actress (Judas Project)
1970 Laura Schuler ice hockey forward (Canada, Olympics-98)
1970 Lindsey Hunter NBA guard (Detroit Pistons)
1970 Paul Byrd Louisville KY, pitcher (New York Mets)
1972 Eva Nemcova WNBA forward/guard (Cleveland Rockers)
1972 Peter Wright US, 1500 meter freestyle (Olympics-96)
1973 Andrew McNally Australian baseball pitcher (Olympics-1996)
1973 Brian Loyd Lynwood CA, baseball catcher (Olympics-bronze-96)
1974 Ralph Staten safety (Baltimore Ravens)
1975 Lauren E Roman Wilmington NC, actress (Laura Kirk-All My Children)
1975 Nadine Neumann Sydney New South Wales Australia, swimmer (Olympics-96)
1977 David Sales cricketer (Northampton batsman, 210 on fc debut 1996)
1980 Anna Chlumsky Chicago IL, actress (My Girl)
1981 Brian Bonsall actor (Family Ties, Star Trek Next Generation)

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Deaths which occurred on December 3rd:
0450 Petrus Chrysologus 1st archbishop of Ravenna, dies
1137 Lotharius III of Supplinburg, Roman-German emperor (1133-37), dies at 67
1154 Anastasius IV Pope (1153-54), dies
1463 Louis Chalon prince of Orange, dies
1469 Piero de' Medici ruler of Florence, dies at about 53
1491 Thomas Basin French historian/bishop of Lisieux, dies
1533 Vasili III great prince of Moscow (1505-33), dies at 54
1660 Jacques Sarazin French sculptor/painter, dies at about 70
1676 Daniel Stalpaert Amsterdams master builder, buried
1789 Claude-Joseph Vernet French seascape painter, dies
1807 Clara Reeve English author (old English baron), dies
1823 Joseph Pouteau composer, dies at 84
1839 Frederik VI king of Denmark (1808-39)/Norway (1803-14), dies at 71
1857 Christian D Rauch German sculptor, dies at 80
1866 Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda composer, dies at 65
1876 Hermann Goetz composer, dies at 35
1889 Baltasar Saldoni composer, dies at 82
1890 Bill Midwinter cricketer (8 Tests for Australia, 4 for England), dies
1892 William Bonaparte grandson of Lucien, dies
1893 Allan Wilson British/Rhodesian major, dies in battle
1894 Jozef Schadde Flem architect (Antwerp Stock exchange), dies at 76
1894 Robert Louis Stevenson English writer (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde), dies from a cerebral hemorrhage at 45
1910 Mary Baker Eddy founder (Christian Science (Monitor)), dies
1919 Pierre A Renoir French painter/sculptor, dies at 78
1933 Richard Henry Warren composer, dies at 74
1937 Prosper Poullet Belgian mayor, dies
1941 Johann Christian August Sinding composer, dies at 85
1942 Wilhelm Peterson-Berger composer, dies at 75
1944 Delfien Vanhaute Flemish pastor/poet (Ark of Noah), dies at 75
1949 Elin Pelin writer, dies
1949 Maria Ouspenskaya actress (Spookies), dies at 62
1954 Enrique Soro Barriga composer, dies at 70
1957 Frank E Gannett newspaper publisher, dies at 81
1960 Hermann Stephani composer, dies at 83
1961 Jekabs Graubins composer, dies at 75
1961 Mary Charleson actress (Upstairs & Downstairs), dies at 76
1964 Ernst Ginsberg writer, dies
1964 George Brown cricketer (7 Tests for England), dies
1967 Annette Kolb writer, dies at 92
1967 Fred Engelen Flemish actor/director (Kritisch Theater), dies at 54
1967 Manuel A Fraai Curaçao author (Silly Agüero), dies at 70
1969 Ruth White actress (Fugitive), dies of cancer at 55
1973 Michael O'Shea actor (Denny- It's a Great Life), dies at 67
1975 Hugh Thurlow cricketer (one Test for Australia 1932), dies
1975 Jacob Kruijt Dutch sociologist, dies at 76
1976 Mary Nash actress (Philadelphia Story, Till the Clouds Roll By), dies at 91
1978 William Grant Still composer, dies at 83
1984 Virginia Lacy Jones US librarian/presidential advisor, dies at 72
1985 Sam Gillman actor (Sam-Shane), dies at 70
1990 Gavin Reed actor (Body Beneath), dies at 59
1991 Alex Graham British cartoonstrip artist (Fred Basset), dies
1991 Casey Walters actor (True Story of Lynn Stuart), after a stroke at 75
1992 Harry Ellerbe actor (House of Usher, Magnetic Monster), dies at 91
1992 Luis Alcoriza actor/writer/director (Tiburoneros), dies of emphysema
1992 Nureddin Al-Atassi President of Syria (1966-70), dies
1993 Lewis Thomas biologist, dies of cancer at 80
1993 Thomas Mogotlane South African actor (Mapantsula), dies at 40
1994 Dolf Verspoor literary/translator (M Nijhoff prize 1958), dies at 77
1994 Elizabeth Meyer wife of Paul Michael Glaser, dies of AIDS at 47
1994 Giorgi Chanturia President of Georgia, assassinated
1994 Lesley Peacock jazz photogrpaher/author, dies
1994 Said Mekbel Algerian editor in chief (Le Matin), murdered at 57
1995 Jimmy Jewel comedian, dies at 82
1995 Robertson Davies (author) dies at 82
1996 Babrak Karmal PM of Afghánistán (1980-81), dies
1996 Det Glynn teacher/anti-apartheid activist, dies at 84
1996 George Duby historian, dies at 77
1997 Marian Kratochwil artist, dies at 91
1997 Steve Hamilton pitcher (New York Yankees), dies of cancer at 63


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