By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Thursday, Dec. 2, the 336th day of 2021. There are 29 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On Dec. 2, 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harpers Ferry the previous October.

On this date:

In 1697, Londonís St. Paulís Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was consecrated for use even though the building was still under construction. In 1823, President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1942, an artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.

In 1954, the U.S. Senate passed, 67-22, a resolution condemning Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., saying he had ìacted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.î

In 1957, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first full-scale commercial nuclear facility in the U.S., began operations. (The reactor ceased operating in 1982.)

In 1970, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors under its first director, William D. Ruckelshaus.

In 1980, four American churchwomen were raped and murdered in El Salvador.

In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.