Today is Wednesday, Dec. 2, the 337th day of 2020. There are 29 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Dec. 2, 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.

On this date:

In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.

In 1816, the first savings bank in the United States, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.

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

In 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harpers Ferry the previous October.

In 1942, an artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.

In 1954, the U.S. Senate passed, 67-22, a resolution condemning Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., saying he had “acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”

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

In 1993, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin (meh-deh-YEEN’).

In 2000, Al Gore sought a recount in South Florida, while George W. Bush flatly asserted, “I’m soon to be the president” and met with GOP congressional leaders. Actor Gail Fisher died in Culver City, Calif. at age 65.

In 2016, 36 people died when fire erupted in an illegally converted warehouse in Oakland, California, during a dance party.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is 81. Actor Cathy Lee Crosby is 76. Actor Dan Butler is 66. Broadcast journalist Stone Phillips is 66. Actor Dennis Christopher is 65. Actor Steven Bauer is 64. Actor Lucy Liu is 52. International Tennis Hall of Famer Monica Seles is 47. Singer Nelly Furtado is 42. Pop singer Britney Spears is 39.