Today is Wednesday, Dec. 3, the 337th day of 2014. There are 28 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 3, 1984, thousands of people died after a cloud of methyl
isocyanate gas escaped from a pesticide plant operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, India.

On this date:
In 1810, British forces captured Mauritius from the French, who had renamed the island nation off
southeast Africa "Ile de France."
In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio – the first truly coeducational school of higher learning in the United
States – began holding classes.
In 1947, the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened on Broadway.
In 1964, police arrested some 800 students at the University of California at Berkeley, a day after the
students stormed the administration building and staged a massive sit-in.
In 1967, surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first human
heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who lived 18 days with the new heart. The 20th Century Limited,
the famed luxury train, completed its final run from New York to Chicago.
In 1979, 11 people were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum, where the British
rock group The Who was performing.
One year ago: Seeking to regroup from his health care law’s disastrous rollout, President Barack Obama
insisted the sweeping overhaul was working and warned Republican critics that he would fight any efforts
to strip away its protections. A federal judge ruled Detroit could use bankruptcy to cut employee
pensions and relieve itself of other crushing debts, handing a defeat to the city’s unions and retirees
and shifting the case into a delicate new phase. The Illinois Legislature approved a historic plan to
eliminate the state’s $100 billion pension shortfall.