Today is Thursday, December 3, the 337th day of 2015. There are 28 days left in the year.
0741 ― St Zachary begins his reign as Catholic Pope succeeding Gregory III
1347 ― Pope Clemens VI declares Roman tribunal Coke di Rienzo as heretics
1557 ― 1st Covenant of Scottish protestants form
1586 ― Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England, from Colombia
1621 ― Galileo perfects the telescope
1639 ― 1st annulment by court decree passes
1676 ― Battle at Lund: Sweden beats Denen
1678 ― Edmund Halley receives Master of Arts degree from Queen's College, Oxford
1685 ― Charles II bars Jews from settling in Stockholm Sweden
1694 ― English parliamentary election set for every 3 years
1699 ― Baron Jacob Hop appointed treasurer-General of the Hague
1775 ― 1st official US flag raising (aboard naval vessel Alfred)
1818 ― Illinois admitted as 21st US state
1828 ― Andrew Jackson elected 7th President of US, John C Calhoun Vice-President
1833 ― Oberlin College in Ohio, 1st truly coeducational college opens
1834 ― 1st US dental society organized (New York)
1835 ― 1st US mutual fire insurance company issues 1st policy (Rhode Island)
1844 ― Roman Catholic Society Apostole of Prayer forms
1847 ― Frederick Douglass publishes 1st issue of his newspaper “North Star”
1863 ― Longstreet abandons his siege at Knoxville TN
1864 ― Skirmish at Thomas’ Station, Georgia
1866 ― Paid fire department replaces volunteer companies
1868 ― Trial of Jefferson Davis starts; 1st blacks on US trial jury
1878 ― Settlers arrive at Petach Tikvah Israel
1881 ― Henry M Stanley finds Leopoldville/Kinshasa
1883 ― 48th Congress (1883-85) convenes
1893 ― Ndebeles destroy Rhodesia
1901 ― Milwaukee is dropped from the American League & replaced by St Louis Browns
1903 ― Panglima Polim surrenders to Captain Colijn at Atjeh
1907 George Cohan's musical "Talk of the Town" premieres in New York NY
1908 Edward Elgar's 1st Symphony in A, premieres
1910 Neon lights, 1st publically seen (Paris Auto Show)
1912 Gerrit Brinkman becomes 1st Dutch traffic officer
1912 Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece & Bulgaria sign weapons pact