December 2 Birthday
On December 2, 1942, beneath the stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi's team achieved the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. They had built a pile of 400 tons of graphite and 50 tons of uranium — no shielding, no cooling system. Fermi calculated the reaction rate using slide rules and intuition. When the pile went critical, Arthur Compton called James Conant at Harvard with a coded message: "The Italian navigator has landed in the New World." Conant asked: "How were the natives?" Compton replied: "Very friendly." The achievement made the atomic bomb possible and, eventually, nuclear power. People born on December 2 fall under the zodiac sign of Sagittarius. The birthstone is Tanzanite and the birth flower is Holly. Historical events on December 2 include 1804: Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor at Notre Dame, 1942: First controlled nuclear chain reaction achieved in Chicago (Chicago Pile-1), 1956: Fidel Castro and 81 followers land in Cuba aboard the Granma. Famous people born on December 2 include Maria Callas (1923), Lucy Liu (1968), Britney Spears (1981).