Sunday Times, Australia
Advertiser, Australia
Mercury, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Dec 2 2004
On this day
02dec04
1920 – Armenia cedes territory to Turkey by Treaty of Alexandropol
while Communists seize power in Armenian capital Yerevan and proclaim
a Soviet republic.
1697 – The chancel in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, virtually
destroyed after the Civil War and repaired and redesigned by Sir
Christopher Wren, is formally opened for worship.
1790 – Austrian troops re-enter Brussels and suppress the revolution.
1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor of France in Paris,
taking the crown from attending Pope Pius VII.
1805 – Napoleon wins a brilliant victory at the battle of Austerlitz
against Russia and Austria.
1814 – The Comte de Sade, known as the Marquis de Sade, dies; his
unnatural sexual practices and writings about them led to the term
sadism.
1815 – Britain and Rajah of Nepal sign a peace treaty.
1823 – Gold is discovered in the Fish River near Bathurst, NSW; US
President James Monroe declares the Monroe Doctrine, which opposes
European expansion.
1848 – Austria’s Emperor Ferdinand I abdicates in favour of Franz
Joseph I.
1851 – Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, president of France, suspends the
constitution during a coup. Street fighting breaks out in Paris.
1852 – Second French Empire is proclaimed with Louis-Napoleon
Bonaparte as Emperor Napoleon III.
1854 – Austria concludes alliance with Britain and France.
1856 – France and Spain reach agreement on their frontiers.
1859 – John Brown, American anti-slavery campaigner, is hanged after
an abortive raid on the federal arsenal in Virginia.
1901 – King Camp Gillette patents the first safety razor, which has a
double-edged disposable blade.
1920 – Armenia cedes territory to Turkey by Treaty of Alexandropol
while Communists seize power in Armenian capital Yerevan and proclaim
a Soviet republic.
1932 – Controversial “bodyline” cricket series begins in Sydney
between Australia and England.
1942 – Nuclear chain reaction is demonstrated for the first time by
scientists working on the Manhattan Project underneath the University
of Chicago’s football stadium.
1950 – United Nations agrees to hand over Eritrea to Ethiopia.
1954 – US Senator Joseph McCarthy is censured by the Senate for
browbeating Army personnel with his Communist witch-hunts.
1960 – Australian Government lifts embargo on export of iron ore to
Japan, leading to large expansion of the industry in Western
Australia; The Archbishop of Canterbury visits Pope John XXIII in the
first meeting of the heads of the two major religions.
1961 – Britain refuses Uganda’s request for independence; Cuban
leader Fidel Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist who will lead
Cuba to Communism.
1969 – The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut as 191 people, most
of them reporters and photographers, fly from Seattle to New York
City.
1971 – Britain terminates all treaties with crucial states in Gulf,
leading to formation of United Arab Emirates.
1972 – Gough Whitlam elected Prime Minister of Australia in first ALP
victory in 23 years.
1975 – Israeli jets carry out heavy raids against Palestinian targets
in southern and northern Lebanon, killing 91 people and wounding 150.
Residents of adjacent Lebanese villages in the south are among the
dead and injured.
1982 – In the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University
of Utah Medical Centre implant a permanent artificial heart. Barney
Clark, a retired dentist, lives 112 days with the device.
1986 – More than 16,000 Hindus go on a rampage in New Delhi to
protest at Sikh terrorist killings in Punjab state.
1988 – Arab diplomats introduce resolution in United Nations to move
General Assembly to Geneva so PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat can address
the world body.
1989 – Australian Labor Party under Wayne Goss gains power in
Queensland election after 32 years in opposition.
1990 – Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s center-right coalition easily wins
re-election in first all-German elections since 1932.
1991 – Kidnappers release American Joseph Cicippio, held hostage in
Beirut for more than five years.
1992 – The FMLN guerrillas in El Salvador begin destroying the
weapons they used in a 12-year civil war.
1993 – Drug lord Pablo Escobar, one of the world’s most wanted men,
is killed in a gunfight with security forces in Colombia, 16 months
after he escaped from prison.
1994 – Ferry carrying more than 600 people collides with a freighter
and sinks in Manila Bay, Philippines. Sixty bodies are recovered, 85
people are missing.
1995 – A Singapore court sentences former trader Nick Leeson to 6 1/2
years in prison in the crash of Britain’s oldest merchant bank.
1996 – A bomb explodes on a train bound for the troubled northern
Indian state of Jammu-Kashmir, killing at least 12 people and
injuring 39.
1997 – A Turkish court sentences 33 to death for a mob attack that
killed 37 intellectuals who had gathered in a hotel to discuss
promoting secularism.
1998 – NATO forces arrest General Radislav Krstic, the most senior
Bosnian Serb military figure yet to be seized for UN trial on
genocide and war crimes charges.
1999 – Investigators confirm that a young man who died during a gene
therapy experiment in September was killed by the treatment. Jesse
Gelsinger, 18, was believed to be the first person to die as a direct
result of gene therapy.
2000 – A German court rules that prostitution cannot be considered
illegal if it is done willingly without criminal ties; a Berlin
district had charged a cafe owner with fostering immorality by
renting seven rooms near her cafe to prostitutes who contacted
clients in the bar.
2001 – Enron Corp., the largest United States energy-trading company,
files for bankruptcy protection, dealing a blow to financial markets
worldwide. It is the largest bankruptcy in US history.
2002 – Rowan Williams, known for promoting women bishops and
defending gays, officially becomes Archbishop of Canterbury,
spiritual leader of the world’s 70 million Anglicans.
2003 – Top Israeli officials reject the “Geneva accord”, designed by
former Israeli and Palestinian leaders, saying it fails to advance
the overall peace process.