December 2
Today in America's Present Past
1726 | Historian Samuel Penhallow died.
1754 | Revolutionary War hero Richard Montgomery was born.
1760 | Politician John Breckinridge was born.
1812 | POTUS: President Madison re-elected.
1823 | POTUS: President Monroe issued a message to Congress detailing what became known as the “Monroe Doctrine.”
1840 | POTUS: William Henry Harrison elected President.
1845 | POTUS: President Polk told Congress that the U.S. would aggressively expand west, a policy wide described as “manifest destiny.”
1859 | Civil Rights: Abolitionist John Brown was hung in Charles Town, Virginia.
1863 | Entrepreneur Charles Ringling was born.
1863 | First Lady Jane Appleton Pierce died.
1866 | Composer Harry Burleigh was born.
1867 | Author Charles Dickens begins a public lecture tour in the U.S.
1886 | POTUS: President Theodore Roosevelt wed Edith Carow.
1891 | Author and historian Charles H. Wesley was born.
1892 | Entrepreneur Jay Gould died.
1899 | Philippine–American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass.
1914 | Writer Adolph Green was born.
1915 | Publisher Randolph Hearst was born.
1919 | Entrepreneur Henry Clay Frick died.
1921 | Scientist Isabella Karle was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1924 | General Alexander Haig was born.
1930 | Nobel economist Gary Becker was born.
1931 | Political Edwin Meese was born.
1932 | Radio: “Adventures of Charlie Chan” debuted.
1935 | Historian David Hackett Fischer was born.
1936 | Entrepreneur John Ringling died.
1941 | The first roller skating rink opened (Peekskill, New York).
1942 | At the University of Chicago, the world’s first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred.
1950 | Isaac Asimov published “I Robot.”
1954 | Congress: The Senate censured Joseph McCarthy.
1957 | The first large scale nuclear power plant for peacetime use opens, Shippingport, Pennsylvania.
1981 | Architect Wallace Harrison died.
1981 | Entertainer Britney Spears was born.
1986 | Actor Desi Arnaz died.
1988 | Film: “Naked Gun” debuted.
1990 | Composer Aaron Copland died.
1996 | Pharmacologist Karl H. Beyer Jr. died.
2024 | Author and cleric Hal Lindsey died.