1. On December 2, 1852, San Francisco's first synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, was dedicated. It still stands today as the oldest Jewish congregation on the west coast of the United States.

2. In 1923, the first U.S. transcontinental airmail service began from San Francisco, with the first flight leaving on December 2. The route ended in New York City and included stops in several other cities along the way.

3. On December 2, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in the case of Hernandez v. Texas. The court ruled that Mexican Americans and other minority groups were entitled to the same protections under the Fourteenth Amendment as white Americans.

4. In 1967, the first human heart transplant in the United States was performed at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California. The recipient, Louis Washkansky, survived for 18 days before succumbing to pneumonia.

5. On December 2, 2011, the University of California, Berkeley announced that scientists there had created the world's first artificial cell capable of replication. This breakthrough in synthetic biology could have major implications for medicine and alternative energy sources.