On This Day
What Happened on December 2 in History
8 events that happened on December 2, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.
The Young Republic and the Civil War Era
1804
Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of the French at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Pope Pius VII took part in the ceremony, but Napoleon placed the crown on his own head. He was the first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor in about a thousand years.
Source: history.com
1823
President James Monroe announces the policy later known as the Monroe Doctrine.
In his annual message to Congress, Monroe warned European powers against new colonization or interference in the Americas, while promising U.S. neutrality in European conflicts. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams did much of the work behind the policy.
Source: archives.gov; history.state.gov
1859
Abolitionist John Brown is hanged in Charles Town, Virginia, after his raid on Harpers Ferry.
Brown had been convicted of treason, murder and insurrection after his October attack on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. His raid and execution deepened the divide between North and South before the Civil War.
Source: history.com; nps.gov
The Early 1900s and the World Wars
1942
Enrico Fermi's team achieves the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in Chicago.
The experiment took place in a reactor built beneath the stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, opening the nuclear age. A coded message reported the success: "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world."
Source: history.com
The Cold War
1954
The U.S. Senate votes to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy for conduct unbecoming a senator.
The censure followed years of McCarthy's aggressive investigations of suspected communists in government and the military. He kept his seat, but his influence never recovered.
Source: history.com; archives.gov
1970
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency opens its doors.
The new federal agency was created in response to growing public concern about pollution. Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring and a major oil spill off California had helped build that concern.
Source: history.com; epa.gov
1971
Six Persian Gulf emirates join together to form the United Arab Emirates.
The union, which included Abu Dhabi and Dubai, was formed as Britain's treaty protection of the Trucial States came to an end. A seventh emirate, Ras al-Khaimah, joined in early 1972.
Source: history.com; history.state.gov
The Modern Era
1993
Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on the first mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
During the STS-61 flight, astronauts made five spacewalks to install equipment correcting the flaw in Hubble's main mirror and to replace its solar arrays.
Source: nasa.gov