On This Day — 2 December

2020

Cannabis is removed from the list of most dangerous drugs of the international drug control treaty by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Cannabis (drug)

2016

Thirty-six people die in a fire at a converted Oakland, California, warehouse serving as an artist collective.

Ghost Ship warehouse fire

2015

San Bernardino attack: Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik kill 14 people and wound 22 at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California.

2015 San Bernardino attack

2001

Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Enron

1999

The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive following the Good Friday Agreement.

Northern Ireland

1993

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed by police in Medellín.

Colombia

1993

Space Shuttle program: STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle program

1992

Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-53 for the United States Department of Defense.

Space Shuttle Discovery

1991

Canada and Poland become the first nations to recognize the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union.

Ukraine

1990

Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-35, carrying the ASTRO-1 spacelab observatory.

Space Shuttle Columbia

1989

The Peace Agreement of Hat Yai is signed and ratified by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and the governments of Malaysia and Thailand, ending the over two-decade-long communist insurgency in Malaysia.

Hat Yai Peace Agreement

1988

Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of a Muslim-majority state.

Benazir Bhutto

1988

Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-27, a classified mission for the United States Department of Defense.

Space Shuttle Atlantis

1982

At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.

University of Utah

1980

Salvadoran Civil War: Four American missionaries are raped and murdered by a death squad.

Salvadoran Civil War

1977

A Tupolev Tu-154 crashes near Benghazi, Libya, killing 59.

Tupolev Tu-154

1976

Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.

Fidel Castro

1975

Laotian Civil War: The Pathet Lao seizes the Laotian capital of Vientiane, forces the abdication of King Sisavang Vatthana, and proclaims the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Laotian Civil War

1972

Gough Whitlam is elected the 21st Prime Minister of Australia in the 1972 Australian federal election, defeating William McMahon and leading the Australian Labor Party back into office after 23 years in Opposition.

Gough Whitlam

1971

Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm al-Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.

Emirate of Abu Dhabi

1970

The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.

United States Environmental Protection Agency

1968

Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 crashes into Pedro Bay, Alaska, killing all 39 people on board.

Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55

1962

Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to comment adversely on the war's progress.

Vietnam War

1961

In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba will adopt Communism.

Cuba

1957

United Nations Security Council Resolution 126 relating to the Kashmir conflict is adopted.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 126

1956

The Granma reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente Province. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution.

Landing of the Granma

1954

Cold War: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute".

McCarthyism

1954

The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Taiwan, is signed in Washington, D.C.

Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and the Republic of China

1949

Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others is adopted.

Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others

1947

Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Arabs riot in Jerusalem in response to the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.

1947 Jerusalem riots

1943

World War II: A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo and transport ships, including the American SS John Harvey, which is carrying a stockpile of mustard gas.

Air raid on Bari

1942

World War II: During the Manhattan Project, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

World War II

1939

New York City's LaGuardia Airport opens.

LaGuardia Airport

1930

Great Depression: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a $150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.

Great Depression

1927

Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.

Ford Model T

1917

World War I: Russia and the Central Powers sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk, and peace talks leading to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk begin.

World War I

1908

Puyi becomes Emperor of China at the age of two.

Puyi

1899

Philippine–American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, known as the "Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.

Philippine–American War

1867

At Tremont Temple in Boston, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.

Tremont Temple

1865

Alabama ratifies the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed by North Carolina, then Georgia; U.S. slaves were legally free within two weeks.

Alabama

1859

Origins of the American Civil War: Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

Origins of the American Civil War

1852

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French as Napoleon III.

Napoleon III

1851

French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.

Napoleon III

1848

Franz Joseph I becomes Emperor of Austria.

Franz Joseph I

1845

Manifest Destiny: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.

Manifest destiny

1823

Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.

Monroe Doctrine

1805

War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Austerlitz: French troops under Napoleon decisively defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.

War of the Third Coalition

1804

At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French.

Notre-Dame de Paris

1766

Swedish parliament approves the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act and implements it as a ground law, thus being first in the world with freedom of speech.

Swedish Freedom of the Press Act

1763

Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what will become the United States.

Touro Synagogue

1697

St Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt to the design of Sir Christopher Wren following the Great Fire of London, is consecrated.

St Paul's Cathedral

1409

The University of Leipzig opens.

Leipzig University

1244

Pope Innocent IV arrives at Lyon for the First Council of Lyon.

Pope Innocent IV