Previous Day - Next Day
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is really a large matter — it's the difference between a lightning bug and the lightning.”
~ Mark Twain
Wikiquote (Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 26, 1792 – December 23, 1873) better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel".)
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens Chromolithograph from the 1898 oil portrait by Ignace Spiridon.)
December 3rd, 915
Crusades
915 - Pope John X crowned Berengar I of Italy as Roman Emperor (Pope John X (died June 928) was Pope from March 914 to May 928. A candidate of the Counts of Tusculum, he attempted to unify Italy under the leadership of Berengar of Friuli, and was instrumental in the defeat of the Saracens at the Battle of Garigliano).
Wikipedia Image: The Siege of Antioch, from a 15th-century miniature; After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; Baldwin I of Jerusalem; Medieval image of Peter the Hermit, leading knights, soldiers and women toward Jerusalem during the First Crusade; The Battle of Ager Sanguinis, 1337 miniature; Pope Innocent III excommunicating the Albigensians, Massacre against the Albigensians by the crusaders; The capture of Jerusalem marked the First Crusade's success.
Crusades: Battle of Montgisard; 1177, by Charles Philippe Larivière.
December 3rd, 1799
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1799 - War of the Second Coalition; Battle of Wiesloch, Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal Sztáray de Nagy-Mihaly defeats the French at Wiesloch.
1800 - War of the Second Coalition; Battle of Hohenlinden, French General Moreau defeats the Austrian Archduke John near Munich decisively, coupled with First Consul Napoleon Bonapartes victory at Marengo effectively forcing the Austrians to sign an armistice and ending the war.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar;
Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806;
Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet;
Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani);
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo;
Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807;
Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars;
Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen;
Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford;
Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
Coronation of Napoleon I - Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine
December 3rd, 1818
Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.
Wikipedia Photo: Chicago skyline; Metallic sculpture “Cloud Gate” credit Ryan Bailey, National Geographic; Illinois River silver carp jump after being disturbed by boats, credit Houma Today, Treehugger; Chicago, Illinois - New Soldier Field; Illinois Farm, credit Illinois Farm Bureau.
December 3rd, 1901
President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
Wikipedia Painting: Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1908: Twenty-sixth president. Led fight against collusive restraint of trade by big business.
December 3rd, 1910
Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.
Wikipedia.org Image: Paris, France; London, England Eye at night; New York, New York, Times Square; Rio de Janeiro at night; Hong Kong Night Skyline at night.
December 3rd, 1912
First Balkan War
1912 - The Naval Battle of Elli takes place.
1912 - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long First Balkan War.
Wikipedia Image: Greece satellite image, credit NASA.
Bulgarians attack the Ottoman positions in the Battle of Lule Burgas; Serbian forces entering the town of Mitrovica; Ottoman troops at the Battle of Kumanovo; The Greek king and the Bulgarian tsar in Thesaloniki; Bulgarian heavy artillery
December 3rd, 1927
Putting Pants on Philip: the first Laurel and Hardy film, is released.
Wikipedia Photo: SOUP TO NUTS: Hal Roach-MGM, 1928. Directed by E. Livingston Kennedy (Edgar Kennedy). With Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Anita Garvin, Otto Fries, Tiny Sanford, Edna Marion; CHICKENS COME HOME: MGM/Hal Roach, 1931. Directed by James W. Horne. Camera: Jack Stevens. With Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch, Baldwin Cooke, Gordon Douglas, Norma Drew, James Finlayson, Thelma Todd. credit: Doctormacro.
December 3rd, 1971
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971:
1971 - Pakistan launches pre-emptive strike against India and a full scale war begins claiming hundreds of lives.
Wikipedia Image: Map Satellite India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet AR, Bangladesh.
December 3rd, 1973
Pioneer program: Pioneer 10; NASA launches Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
Wikipedia Photo: Pioneer 11 at Saturn - NASA.
December 3rd, 1984
Bhopal Disaster: a methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000 – 600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
Wikipedia Photo: Bhopal Disaster: Elderly survivors hold posters as they wait for the verdict near the courthouse in Bhopal, India, Monday. The court on Monday convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary of "death by negligence" for their roles in the Bhopal gas tragedy that left an estimated 15,000 people dead more than a quarter century ago in the world's worst industrial disaster, credit Prakash Hatvalne, Associated Press.
December 3rd, 1989
Cold War:
1989 - In a meeting off the coast of Malta United States President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between Nato and The Soviet Union may be coming to an end.
Wikipedia Photo: Lockheed C-130 Hercules; RAF Menwith Hill, a large site in the United Kingdom, part of ECHELON and the UKUSA Agreement; New Zealand nuclear test, British nuclear tests near the Malden and Christmas Islands in the mid-Pacific in 1957 and 1958; Nevada nuclear tests, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Bureau of Federal Facilities.
December 3rd, 1992
A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague.
Wikipedia Photo: The world's first text message via personal computer through the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague.
December 3rd, 1992
Aegean Sea oil spill: Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.
Wikipedia Photo: The Prestige oil tanker sank off the Galician coast carrying 77,000 tonness of fuel oil in 2002. Associated Press.
December 3rd, 2009
Modern conflicts in the Middle East and terrorist attacks:
2009 - Hotel Shamo bombing (2009); A suicide bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, claims the lives of 25 people, including three ministers of the Transitional Federal Government.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)
December 3rd, 2012
Typhoon:
2012 - Typhoon Bopha; At least 475 people are killed in the Philippines.
Wikipedia Photo: Typhoon Ketsana, September 26th 2009. NASA Earth Observatory.