This Day in History – 3rd December

Hello there! Thank you for wanting to know more than you did yesterday. We have compiled a list of important and interesting events which happened on 3rd December from all across the world. Happy reading! 

• 1796 Baji Rao II became the last Peshwa: Baji Rao II became the 13th and last Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. He governed from 1795 to 1818 and was installed as a puppet ruler by the Maratha nobles. He suffered several battle defeats in the Third-Anglo Maratha War. The Peshwa surrendered to the British, and agreed to retire in return for an estate at Bithoor and an annual pension.
• 1926 Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days: English crime novelist Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Berkshire. She was discovered in a hotel in Harrogate in a fugue state. Two of Britain’s most famous crime writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy L. Sayers were also drawn into the search. The police came to the conclusion that Christie had left home and travelled to London, crashing her car en route. It became a huge tabloid story but the actual facts of Christie’s disappearance are still unknown.

• 1947 “A Streetcar Named Desire” opens on Broadway: The Ethel Barrymore Theatre showcased the first-ever performance of Tennessee Williams’ play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ When the curtain went down on opening night, there was a moment of stunned silence before the crowd erupted into a round of applause that lasted 30 minutes. The show ran for over 800 performances and led Williams to winning the Pulitzer for Drama.

• 1967 First human heart transplant: Surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant on 53-year-old Louis Washkansky in South Africa on 3rd December. Washkansky was dying from chronic heart disease. He received the transplant from 25-year-old Dennis Darvall who was injured in a car accident.
• 1984 Bhopal Gas Leak Accident: Hailed as the worst industrial accident in history, the Bhopal gas leak took around 2,000 lives immediately. It was a leak of methyl isocyanate from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Jai Prakash Nagar. An estimated 200,000 people were affected in some way by exposure to the gas. The Union Carbide officials were arrested, but none were convicted despite the evidence.
• 1989 Gorbachev and Bush declare the Cold War over: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush, declared the Cold War over at the Malta Summit on 3rd December. Despite the positive rhetoric, little was achieved in the summit. But eventually in 1990, they worked out a treaty dealing with long-range nuclear weapons and conventional arms.

• 1994 PlayStation released in Japan: The Japanese video game brand’s first console was released in Japan today in 1994 and worldwide the following year. It was the brainchild of Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who was later dubbed the ‘Father of the Playstation.’
• 2017 First pizza party in space: A group of astronauts at the International Space Station, NASA casually mentioned missing pizzas during a conversation. ISS manager Kirk Shireman decided to give them a surprise. The pizza ingredients as well as an ice cream truck were launched into space from Virginia, USA.

• 2018 Luka Modrić wins the Ballon d’Or: On 3rd December, for the first time since 2007, the Ballon d’Or was neither awarded to Messi nor Ronaldo, but Luka Modrić. Real Madrid’s Croatian midfielder was unanimously acknowledged as the world’s best player. He also won FIFA’s The Best Award and UEFA’s Men’s Player of the Year 2017/18. Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg was also awarded the inaugural Ballon d’Or Féminin.