#TodayInHistory – December 2

December 2 – Some important events on this day.

1409 👉🏼 The University of Leipzig opens
1620 👉🏼 English language newspaper “Namloos” begins publishing in Amsterdam
1682 👉🏼 Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury flees to Amsterdam following the failure of his plots to prevent a Catholic succession should King Charles II die
1697 👉🏼 St Paul’s Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren is consecrated for use (previous building destroyed in the Great Fire of London)
1755 👉🏼 The second Eddystone Lighthouse on Eddystone Rocks off English southern coast is destroyed by fire

1804 👉🏼 Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of France in Paris.
By the time of his coronation in 1804 Napoleon was on the way to becoming the dominant figure in Europe. In the previous year he had ushered in the Napoleonic Wars, which would bring France to dominate the continent, and in the previous decade had reorganized the French Republic and declared it an Empire.
Napoleon was crowned as Emperor of the French at a lavish ceremony in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Various dignitaries attended, including Pope Pius VII. Described as a “masterminded piece of modern propaganda”, Napoleon wanted to strengthen his new monarchy, nobility and future dynasty.
The new Emperor would last another ten years before being forced to abdicate when the Sixth Coalition of European nations defeated his army. He would briefly rise in 1815 for the famous Hundred Days after escaping captivity on the island of Elba, before being decisively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled to the South Atlantic island of St Helena. Napoleon’s Empire had fallen.

1823 👉🏼 President James Monroe declares his “Monroe Doctrine”, a US foreign policy regarding Latin America
1845 👉🏼 Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West
1848 👉🏼 Franz Joseph I becomes Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia
1883 👉🏼 Johannes Brahms’ “3rd Symphony in F” premieres with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
1927 👉🏼 1st Model A Ford sold, for $385
1927 👉🏼 Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black announces to the Geological Society of China that the ancient human fossils from Zhoukoudian, China are a new species which he has named ‘Sinanthropus pekinensis’ (now known as ‘Homo erectus’)
1929 👉🏼 First skull of Peking man found, 50 km out of Peking at Tsjoe Koe Tien
1933 👉🏼 Fred Astaire’s 1st film, “Dancing Lady”, released
1976 👉🏼 Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado
1982 👉🏼 1st permanent artificial heart successfully implanted (U of Utah) in retired dentist Barney Clark; lived 112 days with Jarvic-7 heart