On This Day, Dec. 3: U.S. military opens all combat roles to women

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

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

In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio, the first truly coeducational college in the United States, opened with an enrollment of 29 men and 15 women.

In 1929, the Ford Motor Co. raised the pay of its employees from $6 to $7 a day despite the collapse of the U.S. stock market.

In 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant at Cape Town, South Africa.

In 1984, poison gas leaked at a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, in the world's worst chemical disaster. Death toll estimates varied widely. Government officials said about 3,000 people died shortly after the leak and many thousands more in the months and years ahead.

UPI File Photo

In 1989, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared the Cold War over during a summit in Malta. Some historians believe the Cold War didn't end until 1991, though, when the Soviet Union collapsed.

In 1992, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to authorize sending a U.S.-led multinational force to Somalia.

In 1997, delegates from 131 countries met in Canada to sign the Convention on the Prohibition, Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines.

In 2006, Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. foreign policy, was re-elected for a third term as president of Venezuela.

File Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI

In 2009, Comcast, the largest cable operator in the United States, bought 51 percent of NBC Universal from General Electric for $13.75 billion.

In 2013, a federal judge ruled that Detroit was eligible for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

In 2015, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced all combat roles in the U.S. armed forces would be opened to women.

In 2017, astronauts on the International Space Station held the first pizza party in space.

In 2019, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris withdrew from the 2020 race, citing a lack of campaign funds. She was ultimately elected as vice president in the race.