Today's Highlight in History:
On December second, 1859, militant¹ abolitionist废权主义者 John Brown was hanged for his raid突击搜捕，袭击 on Harper's Ferry the previous October.

On this date:
In 1804, Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.

In 1816, the first savings² bank in the United States, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.

In 1823, President Monroe outlined his doctrine³教义，学说 opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1939, New York's La Guardia Airport began operations as an airliner⁴ from Chicago landed at one minute past midnight.

In 1942, a self-sustaining支持的，持续的 nuclear chain reaction核链式反应 was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.

In 1954, the Senate voted to condemn⁵ Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (Republican, Wisconsin) for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute坏名声."

In 1961, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would lead Cuba to Communism.

In 1969, the Boeing 747 jumbo jet大型喷气式客机 got its first public preview as 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, flew from Seattle to New York City.

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

In 1993, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin.

Ten years ago: President Bush and Soviet⁶ President Mikhail S. Gorbachev held the first talks of their wind-tossed Malta summit aboard the Soviet cruise ship游艇 "Maxim⁷ Gorky." V.P. Singh was sworn in as prime minister of India.

Five years ago: The government agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors pickup⁸ trucks, striking a deal with GM under which the automaker would spend more than $51 million on safety and research. Reputed "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss was convicted in Los Angeles of three counts of pandering迎合，勾引.

One year ago: Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy⁹ was acquitted释放 of all counts in a corruption¹¹ case involving sports tickets and travel that he'd accepted from companies that did business with his department.