December 3 Birthday
On December 3, 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. The patient, Louis Washkansky, received the heart of a young woman who had been killed in a car accident. The surgery lasted five hours. Washkansky survived for eighteen days before dying of pneumonia. The second patient, Philip Blaiberg, lived for nineteen months. Barnard became an international celebrity. Heart transplants are now routine — over 3,000 are performed annually worldwide. The Bhopal disaster on December 3, 1984, was the worst industrial accident in history. Forty tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. The gas spread over a densely populated area. Official estimates are 3,787 dead; other estimates range to 16,000. 500,000 were exposed, and many suffered permanent lung damage. Union Carbide paid $470 million in a settlement — about $1,000 per victim. The plant site has never been properly cleaned up. People born on December 3 fall under the zodiac sign of Sagittarius. The birthstone is Tanzanite and the birth flower is Holly. Historical events on December 3 include 1967: First successful human heart transplant performed in Cape Town, 1984: Bhopal disaster — methyl isocyanate gas leak kills 4,000+ in India, 1818: Illinois becomes 21st US state. Famous people born on December 3 include Joseph Conrad (1857), Ozzy Osbourne (1948), Julianne Moore (1960).