On This Day - What happened 2 December

Napoleon's coronation, officiated by Pope Pius VII, took place at Notre Dame de Paris, on 2 December 1804.

While in Paris, Bolívar witnessed the coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame, an event that left a profound impression on him. Even if he disagreed with the crowning, he was highly sensitive to the popular veneration inspired by the hero.

The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. In what is widely regarded as the greatest victory achieved by Napoleon, the Grande Armée of France defeated a larger Russian and Austrian army led by Emperor Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire (modern-day Slavkov u Brna in the Czech Republic). Austerlitz brought the War of the Third Coalition to a rapid end, with the Treaty of Pressburg signed by the Austrians later in the month. The battle is often cited as a tactical masterpiece, in the same league as other historic engagements like Cannae or Gaugamela.

At this critical juncture, both Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II decided to engage Napoleon in battle, despite reservations from some of their subordinates. Napoleon sent his army north in pursuit of the Allies, but then ordered his forces to retreat so that he could feign a grave weakness. At the Battle of Austerlitz, in Moravia on 2 December, he deployed the French army below the Pratzen Heights and deliberately weakened his right flank, enticing the Allies to launch a major assault there in the hopes of rolling up the whole French line.

Emperor Ferdinand I fled to Olomouc in Moravia. On December 2, 1848, Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his nephew Franz Joseph.

On December 2, 1886, Roosevelt married his childhood and family friend, Edith Kermit Carow.

On 2 December 1898, Churchill embarked for India to settle his military business and complete his resignation from the 4th Hussars. He spent a lot of his time there playing polo, the only ball sport in which he was ever interested.

On 2 December, Nanking City was captured by the revolutionaries after the Battle of Nanking, 1911.

In 1916, Ralph Pulitzer, who had succeeded his father Joseph as the publisher of the World, began a drive to raise $30,000 (equivalent to $705,000 in 2019) for an exterior lighting system to illuminate the statue at night. He claimed over 80,000 contributors but failed to reach the goal. The difference was quietly made up by a gift from a wealthy donor—a fact that was not revealed until 1936. An underwater power cable brought electricity from the mainland and floodlights were placed along the walls of Fort Wood. Gutzon Borglum, who later sculpted Mount Rushmore, redesigned the torch, replacing much of the original copper with stained glass. On December 2, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson pressed the telegraph key that turned on the lights, successfully illuminating the statue.

In the United States, where Fermi and Szilárd had both emigrated, the discovery of the nuclear chain reaction led to the creation of the first man-made reactor, the research reactor known as Chicago Pile-1, which achieved criticality on December 2, 1942.

During his exile in Mexico, he participated in the preparations for the expedition of the boat Grandma to Cuba. When the Granma landing failed and the 82 expeditionaries were detected by government troops soon after, Raúl was one of only 12 fighters who managed to reach a safe haven in the Sierra Maestra mountains, forming the core of the nascent rebel army (see the Cuban Revolution). As Fidel's brother and trusted right-hand man, and given his proven leadership abilities during and after the Moncada attack, he was given progressively bigger commands.

The Granma ran aground in a mangrove swamp at Playa Las Coloradas, close to Los Cayuelos, on 2 December 1956.

Cruyff and Danny Coster getting married on 2 December 1968

After the United Arab Emirates was formed, Zayed became the Supreme Commander of The Armed Forces.

In 1971, after occasionally difficult negotiations with the other six rulers of the Trucial States, the United Arab Emirates was formed. Zayed was appointed to the presidency of the UAE in 1971 and was reappointed on four more occasions: 1976, 1981, 1986, and 1991.

The biggest achievement of Indira Gandhi after the 1971 election came in December 1971 with India's decisive victory over Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War that occurred in the last two weeks of the Bangladesh Liberation War which led to the formation of independent Bangladesh. She was hailed as Goddess Durga by opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee at that time.

Kuwait and Gulf and BP agree on terms of nationalization.

He served as First Vice President of the Cuban Council of State of the National Assembly of People's Power and Council of Ministers when these were established in 1976.

Cuba's government underwent a restructuring along Soviet lines, claiming that this would further democratize and decentralize power away from Castro. Officially announcing Cuba's identity as a socialist state, the First National Congress of the Cuban Communist Party was held, and a new constitution adopted that abolished the position of President and Prime Minister. Castro remained the dominant figure in governance, taking the presidency of the newly created Council of State and Council of Ministers, making him both head of state and head of government.

In the German federal election of 1990, the first to be held following reunification, Merkel successfully stood for election to the Bundestag in the parliamentary constituency of Stralsund – Nordvorpommern – Rügen in north Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She has won re-election from this constituency at the seven federal elections held since then.Almost immediately following her entry into parliament, Merkel was appointed by Chancellor Helmut Kohl to serve as Minister for Women and Youth in the federal cabinet.

Sixteen months after his escape from La Catedral, Pablo Escobar died in a shootout on 2 December 1993, amid another of Escobar's attempts to elude the Search Bloc. A Colombian electronic surveillance team, led by Brigadier Hugo Martínez, used radio trilateration technology to track his radiotelephone transmissions and found him hiding in Los Olivos, a middle-class barrio in Medellín. With authorities closing in, a firefight with Escobar and his bodyguard, Álvaro de Jesús Agudelo (alias "El Limón"), ensued. The two fugitives attempted to escape by running across the roofs of adjoining houses to reach a back street, but both were shot and killed by Colombian National Police. Escobar suffered gunshots to the leg and torso, and a fatal gunshot through the ear.

Many of his later roles were in comedies tinged with pathos. His roles in comedy and dramatic films garnered Williams an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting (1997)), as well as two previous Academy Award nominations (for playing an English teacher in Dead Poets Society (1989)), and for playing a troubled homeless man in The Fisher King (1991). In 1991, he played an adult Peter Pan in the film Hook, although he had said that he would have to lose twenty-five pounds for the role.

An Iranian military Ilyushin Il-76 crashed in mountainous terrain near Kerman in Iran on February 19, 2003. The official report says bad weather brought the aircraft down; high winds and fog were present at the time of the crash.

On 2 December 2007, Kaká became the eighth Milan player to win the Ballon d'Or, as he finished with a decisive 444 votes, well ahead of runner-up Cristiano Ronaldo.

He subsequently became United's first Ballon d'Or winner since George Best in 1968.

On December 2, 2009, Bank of America announced it would repay the entire $45 billion it received in TARP and exit the program, using $26.2 billion of excess liquidity along with $18.6 billion to be gained in "common equivalent securities" (Tier 1 capital). The bank announced it had completed the repayment on December 9.

The SSA-S (the Shan State Army - South) maintains bases along the Myanmar–Thailand border, and signed a ceasefire agreement with the government on 2 December 2011.

On December 2, 2015, 14 people were killed and 22 others were seriously injured in an Islamic terrorist attack consisting of a mass shooting and an attempted bombing at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. The perpetrators, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple living in the city of Redlands, targeted a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event and Christmas party of about 80 employees in a rented banquet room. Farook was a U.S.-born citizen of Pakistani descent, who worked as a health department employee. Malik was a Pakistani-born green cardholder.

On 2 December, Chu was told that his candidacy was invalid, making him the tenth candidate barred from running in the election for his political belief and the first banned from running in the village-level election.

The 2019 Ballon d'Or was the 64th annual ceremony of the Ballon d'Or, presented by France Football, and recognising the best footballer in the world for 2019. Lionel Messi won the award for a record sixth time in his career.

On 2 December, Ronaldo scored twice in a 3–2 home win against Arsenal in the Premier League, becoming the first player to score more than 800 top-level career goals.

The historian Herodotus claimed that it took 20 years for the great pyramid to be built. About 1,00000 slaves were involved in its construction.

John Breckinridge was an American lawyer and politician who was born in Virginia.