December 2nd, 2008

Today in History

1990:
A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932.

1975:
The communist Pathet Lao seizes power in Laos, and establishes the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

1972:
Gough Whitlam becomes the first Australian Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years.

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

1804:
At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned as the first Emperor of France in a thousand years.