Character actor Bill Erwin is 94.

Actress Julie Harris is 83.

Movie director Penelope Spheeris is 63.

Broadcast journalist Stone Phillips is 54.

Actress Rena Sofer is 40.

Singer Nelly Furtado is 30. Pop singer Britney Spears is 27.

On Dec. 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.

In 1823, President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1927, Ford Motor Co. formally unveiled its Model A automobile, the successor to its Model T.

In 1954, the Senate voted to condemn Wisconsin Republican Joseph McCarthy for conduct that "tends to bring the Senate into disrepute."

In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.

In 2007, Russian President Putin's party swept 70 percent of the seats for a new parliament in a vote whose fairness was called into question by European election monitors.