December 2:
(1759) English botanist James Edward Smith is born. He is known for founding the Linnean Society, a society dedicated to the study of natural history and taxonomy, and publishes several journals on plant and animal biology.
(1885) American medical researcher George Minot is born. He shared the 1934 Nobel Prize for his work on pernicious anemia, a disease where not enough red blood cells are produced as a result of a vitamin B12 deficiency.
(1982) The first person to receive a permanent artificial heart, Barney Clark, occurs at the University of Utah.
