December 2nd, 2008

Today in History

1962:
Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to not make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress.

1961:
Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.

1954:
Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."

1942:
Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

1859:
Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.