Every day has been a significant one in the foibles of History. Let’s take a tour of “This Day in History – 2nd of December”.
1802 Britain sells Suriname to the Netherlands
In 1667 Suriname was seized by a Dutch fleet, and that year it was ceded to the Netherlands in exchange for New Amsterdam (now New York City). Except for the years 1799–1802 and 1804–15, when it was under British rule, Suriname remained under Dutch rule until its independence in 1975.
1804 Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of France in Paris
In Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Napoleon I. Above all, he was the first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor in a thousand years. Pope Pius VII handed Napoleon the crown that the 35-year-old conqueror of Europe placed on his own head.
1816 First savings bank in the US opens
On this day in History, the first savings bank in the United States of America, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society came into existence. It was a savings bank with its headquarter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
1867 Charles Dickens gives his first public reading
In a New York City Theatre, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the USA. The performances initially included the Christmas books: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, and Cricket on the Hearth. Later Dickens incorporated scenes from Dombey and Son, Nicholas Nickleby, Pickwick Papers, Martin Chuzzlewit, and his favorite, David Copperfield. Above all, he used to tighten the narrative. He wrote stage directions to himself in the margins and tried to infuse as much humor as possible, subsequently, leaving out passages of social criticism as inappropriate for evenings of entertainment.
1929 First skull of Peking man found, 50 km out of Peking at Tsjoe Koe Tian
Peking Man is a group of fossil specimens of Homo erectus, from roughly 750,000 years ago. During the period of 1929-37, its discovery traces to the excavations at Zhoukoudian (Chou K’ou-tien) near Beijing (at the time spelled Peking), China.
Franz Weidenreich (1873 – 1948) considered Peking Man as a human ancestor and specifically an ancestor of the Chinese people, as seen in his original multiregional model of human evolution in 1946.
1941 Japanese Marshal Admiral Yamamoto sends his fleet to Pearl Harbor
Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku spent months planning an attack that aimed to destroy the Pacific Fleet and destroy morale in the U.S. Navy so that it would not be able to fight back as Japanese forces began to advance on targets across the South Pacific. Subsequently, the U.S.A reverted with the most catastrophic nuclear bomb attacks.
1942 World’s 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurs
During one of the experiments of Enrico Fermi,1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurs in Chicago Pile-1 (world’s 1st nuclear reactor) at the University of Chicago.
1971 Soviet Space Probe Mars 3 is the first to soft-land on Mars
After the Mars 2 lander crashed on the Martian surface, the Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to attain a soft landing on Mars, on December 2, 1971. However, it failed 110 seconds after landing, having transmitted only a gray image with no details.
1989 VP Singh becomes 8th Prime Minister of India
Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008) was an Indian politician who was the 8th Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990. V.P. Above all, the government had done an implementation of giving 27 percent reservation to “socially and educationally backward classes” for jobs in central services and the public-undertaking.
2013 China launches first Moon Rover mission
Yutu was a robotic lunar rover that formed part of the Chinese Chang’e 3 mission to the Moon. The mission marks the first soft landing on the Moon since 1976 and the first rover to operate there since the Soviet Lunokhod 2 ceased operations on 11 May 1973.
2018 Trade War Truce signed between US and China
Trade War Truce signed between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at G-20 Meeting in Argentina. The US tightened restrictions on Chinese telecom champion Huawei and four other Chinese tech firms by putting them on a trade “blacklist”. Certainly, this was a bone of contention between the two powers.
For further information, stay tuned to the “This Day in History” category.
