Today in History

Today is Sunday, Dec. 3, the 337th day of 2017. There are 28 days left in the year.

Today's Highlights in History:

On Dec. 3, 1967, a surgical team in Cape Town, South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who lived 18 days with the donor organ, which came from Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old bank clerk who had died in a traffic accident. The 20th Century Limited, the famed luxury train, completed its final run from New York to Chicago after 65 years of service.

On this date:

In 1818, Illinois was admitted as the 21st state.

In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States by the Electoral College.

In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio -- the first truly coeducational school of higher learning in the United States -- began holding classes.

In 1925, George Gershwin's Concerto in F had its world premiere at New York's Carnegie Hall, with Gershwin at the piano.

In 1926, English mystery writer Agatha Christie, 36, disappeared after driving away from her home in Sunningdale, Berkshire. (Christie turned up 11 days later at a hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire.)

In 1947, the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened on Broadway.

In 1953, the musical "Kismet," featuring the song "Stranger in Paradise," opened on Broadway.

In 1960, the Lerner and Loewe musical "Camelot" opened on Broadway.

In 1965, the Beatles' sixth studio album, "Rubber Soul," was released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone (it was released in the U.S. by Capitol Records three days later).

In 1979, 11 people were killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum, where the British rock group The Who was performing.

In 1984, thousands of people died after a cloud of methyl isocyanate gas escaped from a pesticide plant operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, India.

In 1992, the first telephone text message was sent by British engineer Neil Papworth, who transmitted the greeting "Merry Christmas" from his work computer in Newbury, Berkshire, to Vodafone executive Richard Jarvis' mobile phone. The Greek tanker Aegean Sea spilled more than 21 million gallons of crude oil when it ran aground off northwestern Spain.

Ten years ago: A U.S. intelligence report concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons development program in the fall of 2003 under international pressure but was continuing to enrich uranium. British teacher Gillian Gibbons, jailed in Sudan for insulting Islam after allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad," flew home after being pardoned by the country's president. Former commissioner Bowie Kuhn was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth and ex-Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss also were elected.

Five years ago: The White House rejected a $2.2 trillion proposal by House Republicans to avert the "fiscal cliff," a plan that included $800 billion in higher tax revenue over 10 years but no increase in tax rates for the wealthy. St. James's Palace announced that Britain's Prince William and his wife, Kate, were expecting their first child (Prince George was born the following July).

One year ago: President-elect Donald Trump, still mulling key Cabinet positions, attended a lavish costume party hosted by some of his most influential donors at their palatial Long Island, New York, mansion; Trump, who did not sport a costume, reveled with guests at the Mercer family estate for the annual Christmas party. Some 20,000 people filled a tiny stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, to say goodbye to members of a soccer club who died in a plane crash in Colombia.

Today's Birthdays: Movie director Jean-Luc Godard is 87. Singer Jaye P. Morgan is 86. Actor Nicolas Coster is 84. Actress Mary Alice is 76. Rock singer Ozzy Osbourne is 69. Actress Heather Menzies Urich is 68. Rock singer Mickey Thomas is 68. Country musician Paul Gregg (Restless Heart) is 63. Actor Steven Culp is 62. Actress Daryl Hannah is 57. Actress Julianne Moore is 57. Olympic gold medal figure skater Katarina Witt is 52. Actor Brendan Fraser is 49. Singer Montell Jordan is 49. Actor Royale Watkins is 48. Actor Bruno Campos is 44. Actress Holly Marie Combs is 44. Actress Liza Lapira is 42. Actress Lauren Roman is 42. Pop-rock singer Daniel Bedingfield is 38. Actress Anna Chlumsky is 37. Actor Brian Bonsall is 36. Actress Dascha Polanco is 35. Pop/rock singer-songwriter Andy Grammer is 34. Americana musician Michael Calabrese (Lake Street Dive) is 33. Actress Amanda Seyfried is 32. Actor Michael Angarano is 30. Actor Jake T. Austin is 23.

Thought for Today: "It is right noble to fight with wickedness and wrong; the mistake is in supposing that spiritual evil can be overcome by physical means." -- Lydia Maria Child, American author (1802-1880).