This Day In History, December 3rd.
Five Historical Events That Happened on December 3rd
Illinois became the 21st state of the United States of America in 1818.
The Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio became the United States' first co-educational college in 1833.
In 1967, surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa, performed the first successful human-to-human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who survived the procedure for 18 days.
In 1984, the world's greatest industrial tragedy occurred in Bhopal, India, when a gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide facility killed thousands and wounded tens of thousands more.
Galileo, a NASA space probe, arrived at Jupiter in 1994, becoming the first spacecraft to circle the planet.
1818: Illinois became the 21st state in the United States of America.
Illinois became the 21st state to join the United States of America on December 3, 1818. It was the first state to be formed fully from the Northwest Territory, which the United States acquired at the close of the Revolutionary War in the Treaty of Paris. Illinois has been a territory since 1809 before becoming a state. Today, Illinois is known as the "Land of Lincoln" because Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was born in the state.
1833: The Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio became the first co-educational college in the United States.
On December 3, 1833, Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio became the United States' first co-educational college. John Jay Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart, Presbyterian preachers devoted to religious and racial equality, established Oberlin in 1833. They thought that education should be available to all people, regardless of gender or color, thus they welcomed both men and women.
Women were granted the same educational possibilities as males at Oberlin, including the option to acquire a degree. This was a revolutionary step at the time, as most universities were only for males. In 1835, Oberlin became the first college in the United States to admit African American students. Because of its commitment to co-education and racial equality, the school was an important driver for social transformation in the nineteenth century.
1967: Surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa, performed the first successful human-to-human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who lived for 18 days after the operation.
On December 3, 1967, a team of surgeons led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard conducted the first successful human-to-human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Louis Washkansky, a 53-year-old man with end-stage cardiac disease, was the lucky receiver. A 25-year-old woman with irreparable brain injury was the donor.
The procedure was a spectacular accomplishment of medical technology that drew worldwide notice. However, Washkansky's body eventually rejected the new heart, and he died 18 days later. Despite its limited success, the first heart transplant was a significant step forward in the development of cardiac surgery and paved the way for future advances in organ transplantation.
1984: The world's worst industrial disaster occurred in Bhopal, India, when a gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant killed thousands of people and injured many more.
A catastrophic gas leak occurred on December 3, 1984, at the Union Carbide pesticide facility in Bhopal, India, culminating in the world's worst industrial catastrophe. A cloud of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas escaped from a storage tank and swept across the heavily populated city of Bhopal.
Thousands of people were murdered in the immediate aftermath of the gas leak, and tens of thousands more suffered from lung difficulties, blindness, and other health conditions. Although the exact number of deaths is unknown, estimates range from 3,000 to 16,000 people. The accident was blamed on a number of causes, including insufficient safety precautions, equipment faults, and human error. Union Carbide, the American-owned firm that ran the factory, was heavily chastised for its handling of the crisis.
1994: NASA's space probe Galileo arrived at Jupiter, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the planet.
NASA's Galileo spacecraft landed at Jupiter on December 3, 1994, becoming the first spacecraft to circle the giant gas planet. Galileo was launched in 1989 and journeyed for six years to Jupiter, where it studied the planet and its moons for the following eight years.
Several significant discoveries were made by Galileo during its mission, including the first direct evidence of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa and evidence of volcanic activity on another moon, Io. The spacecraft also measured Jupiter's atmosphere, magnetic field, and radiation environment in great detail, allowing scientists to better comprehend the planet and its origin.
The Galileo project was a great accomplishment for NASA and the field of planetary exploration, revealing fresh insights into one of our solar system's biggest and most intriguing planets.