This day in history - December 2

[seamusTX]

1804 - Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France, eventually proving that pride goeth before a fall.

1823 - Pres. James Monroe articulated the Monroe Doctrine, warning foreign powers not to expand or try to establish new colonies in the American sphere of influence.

1942 - The first controlled nuclear chain reaction was carried out at the University of Chicago under the direction of Enrico Fermi. This experiment, little-noted at the time, led to the development of nuclear reactors and the atom bomb.

Five hundred years from now, only a few facts will be remembered about the 20th century: We developed the atom bomb, discovered DNA, and got into space.

All the wars, depressions, recessions, booms, busts, political controversies, fads, and even the Beatles will be forgotten and incomprehensible to all but historians.

1954 - The Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, effectively ending his career. He died less than three years later.

(The use of the word condemn avoided censure, which has occurred rarely in Senate history.)

1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted an artificial heart for the first time, in a patient named Barney Clark.

- Jim