December 2nd, 2008

Today in History

2001:
Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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.

1823:
US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts (later be called the Monroe Doctrine).

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