Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 3
- 1854 – At least 22 people were killed and 35 others were injured when rebelling miners at the Eureka Stockade clashed violently with the police and the military in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
- 1904 – The Jovian moon Himalia was discovered by astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine at the Lick Observatory in San Jose, California, USA.
- 1967 – Cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
- 1984 – Bhopal gas disaster: The accidental release of methyl isocyanate over Bhopal, India resulted in at least 20,000 total deaths and affected over 120,000 others in one of the world's worst industrial disasters.
- 1999 – NASA lost contact with the Mars Polar Lander (pictured) moments before it reached the atmosphere of Mars and disappeared.
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