December 3

1586 – Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England from Colombia

1736 – Swedish Astronomer Anders Celsius takes measurements that confirm Newton’s theory that the earth is an ellipsoid rather than the previously accepted sphere

1775 – Purchased by the Continental Congress on November 4th for the Continental Navy, USS Alfred, after fitting out, becomes the first vessel to fly Continental Colors, the first national flag of the United States, hoisted by Lieutenant John Paul Jones.

1800 – In the presidential election, the Electoral College casts votes for president and vice president that result in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr 35 times until on the 36th ballot, Jefferson is elected due to several Federalist Party Electors changing their vote

1818 – Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.

1901 – In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of corporate trusts – at the time how large businesses were organized.

1904 – The Jupiter moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine in photographs taken with the Crossley 36 inch reflector of the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, at the University of California, San Jose.

1912 – Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia -the Balkan League – sign an armistice with the Ottoman Empire, temporarily halting the First Balkan War. The armistice is not renewed and expires on February 3, 1913, with  hostilities resuming.

1929 – President Herbert Hoover delivers his first State of the Union message to Congress. It is presented in the form of a written message rather than a speech.

1938 – Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Utilization of Jewish Property forcing Jews to sell real property, businesses, and stocks at below market value as part of Aryanization.

1960 – The musical Camelot debuts at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway starring, Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet.

1967 – At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first human to human heart transplant from 25 year old Denise Darvall, killed in a traffic accident, to 53 year old Louis Washkansky, who survives until the 21st of the month.

1973 – NASA’s Space probe Pioneer 10 sends back the first close up images of Jupiter.

1979 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran.

1984 – A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people and injures another 150,000–600,000.

1989 – In a meeting off the coast of Malta, President Bush and Soviet leader  Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between NATO and the Warsaw Pact may be coming to an end.

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.

1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.

2005 – Dick Rutan pilots the XCOR Aerospace rocket powered Long-EZ aircraft, making the first manned rocket aircraft delivery of U.S. Mail from the Mojave post office to California City, California.

2007 – Winter storms cause the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, and close a 20 mile stretch of Interstate 5 highway for several days. At least 8 deaths are blamed on the floods.

2019 – Kamala Harris ends her campaign to be the 2020 Democratic candidate for president even before the first primary election is held.

2022 – A targeted attack on 2 electric substations in North Carolina causes a blackout for 40,000 residents in the area