Today in HistoryToday <$>is Saturday, December 2, the 336th day of 2006. There are 29 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1804, Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.

In 1823, President Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.

IIn 1954, the Senate voted to condemn Wisconsin Republican Joseph R. McCarthy for conduct that “tends to bring the Senate into disrepute.”

In 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency began operating under director William Ruckelshaus.

In 1979, Iranian electors voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new constitution giving absolute power to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In 1980, four American churchwomen were raped, murdered and buried outside San Salvador, El Salvador. (Five national guardsmen were convicted in the killings.)

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.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“When we cannot find contentment in ourselves it is useless to seek it elsewhere.” — Francois, Duc de la Rochefoucauld, French author (1613-1680).