December 5
December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 26 days remaining.
Events
- 1484 - Pope Innocent VIII writes a Papal Bull that sets the inquisition into full swing and leads to the deaths hundreds of thousands of people accused of being witches
- 1492 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
- 1560 - Francis II of France dies and is succeeded by Charles IX of France.
- 1766 - In London, James Christie holds his first sale (he later founded Christie's, the world's oldest auction house).
- 1776 - At the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Phi Beta Kappa is founded as the first scholastic fraternity in the United States.
- 1831 - Former US President John Quincy Adams takes a seat in the United States House of Representatives.
- 1848 - California gold rush: In a message before the U.S. Congress, US President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
- 1873 - In Boston, Massachusetts, Warren Avenue Baptist Church sexton Thomas Piper strangles and beats to death his first victim, Bridget Landregan (the press later dubbed the then unknown serial killer "The Boston Belfry Murderer").
- 1926 - Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin," debuts
- 1932 - German physicist Albert Einstein granted a visa
- 1933 - Prohibition ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 3/4th of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had outlawed alcohol in the United States).
- 1934 - Italian troops attack Wal Wal in Ethiopia (it took four days to capture the city).
- 1936 - The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution.
- 1941 - The nonfiction book Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck is published (Steinbeck used knowledge gained writing this book to develop the marine biologist character Doc in Cannery Row).
- 1945 - Flight 19, a United States Navy training flight was lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
- 1952 - The Abbott and Costello Show starring comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, debuts.
- 1955 - The trade unions American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations decide to merge and form the AFL-CIO.
- 1958 - Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK by the Queen when she dials a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost. [1]
- 1964 - Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon of Saugerties, New York is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
- 1974 - The last new episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus is broadcast on the BBC.
- 1978 - The Soviet Union signs a 'friendship treaty' with the communist government of Afghanistan.
- 1979 - Sonia Johnson is formally excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for her outspoken criticism of the church concerning the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
- 1992 - Kent Conrad of North Dakota resigns his seat in the United States Senate and is sworn into the other seat from North Dakota, becoming the only US Senator ever to have held two seats on the same day.
- 2004 - Dissidents with the BJP in West Bengal, India launches Dr. Syamaprasad Jana Jagaran Manch.
Births
- 1377 - Jianwen Emperor of China (d. 1402)
- 1443 - Pope Julius II (d. 1513)
- 1495 - Nicolas Cleynaerts, Flemish grammarian (d. 1542)
- 1537 - Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shogun (d. 1597)
- 1539 - Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (d. 1604)
- 1547 - Ubbo Emmius, Dutch historian and geographer (d. 1625)
- 1595 - Henry Lawes, English composer (d. 1662)
- 1661 - Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (d. 1724)
- 1687 - Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1762)
- 1782 - Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States (d. 1862)
- 1820 - Afanasy Fet, Russian poet (d. 1892)
- 1822 - Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, American educator, first president of Radcliffe College (d. 1907)
- 1830 - Christina Rossetti, English poet (d. 1894)
- 1839 - George Armstrong Custer, American general (d. 1876)
- 1841 - Marcus Daly, American mining tycoon (d. 1900)
- 1855 - Clinton Hart Merriam, American ornithologist (d. 1942)
- 1868 - Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (d. 1951)
- 1870 - Vítězslav Novák, American composer (d. 1949)
- 1871 - Bill Pickett, American rodeo performer (d. 1932)
- 1872 - Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess player (d. 1906)
- 1875 - Arthur Currie, Canadian soldier (d. 1933)
- 1879 - Clyde Cessna, American airplane manufacturer (d. 1954)
- 1886 - Rose Wilder Lane, American writer and reporter (d. 1968)
- 1890 - David Bomberg, English painter (d. 1957)
- 1890 - Fritz Lang, Austrian film director (d. 1976)
- 1898 - Grace Moore, American soprano (plane crash) (d. 1947}
- 1901 - Milton H. Erickson, American psychiatrist (d. 1980)
- 1901 - Walt Disney, American animated film producer (d. 1966)
- 1901 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
- 1902 - Strom Thurmond, American politician (d. 2003)
- 1903 - Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor
- 1903 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
- 1906 - Otto Preminger, Austrian-born director and producer (d. 1986)
- 1911 - Władysław Szpilman, Polish pianist
- 1914 - Hans Hellmut Kirst, German author (d. 1989)
- 1927 - Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand
- 1932 - Little Richard, American singer
- 1932 - Sheldon Lee Glashow, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1934 - Joan Didion, American writer
- 1935 - Calvin Trillin, American writer
- 1940 - Peter Pohl, Swedish writer
- 1943 - Eva Joly, Norwegian-born magistrate
- 1944 - Jeroen Krabbé, Dutch actor
- 1946 - José Carreras, Spanish tenor
- 1947 - Jim Messina, American musician (Buffalo Springfield)
- 1947 - Jim Plunkett, American football player
- 1950 - Camarón de la Isla, Spanish flamenco singer (d. 1992)
- 1956 - Krystian Zimerman, Polish pianist
- 1956 - Brian Backer, American actor
- 1962 - José Cura, Argentine tenor
- 1968 - Margaret Cho, American comedian and actress
- 1973 - Lubos Motl, Czech physicist
- 1975 - Ronnie O'Sullivan, English snooker player
- 1979 - Matteo Ferrari, Italian footballer
- 1982 - Eddy Curry, American basketball player
- 1985 - Josh Smith, American basketball player
- 1985 - Frankie Muniz, American actor
Deaths
- 749 - Saint John of Damascus, theologian
- 1082 - Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona
- 1355 - John III, Duke of Brabant (b. 1300)
- 1560 - King Francis II of France (b. 1544)
- 1624 - Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist (b. 1560)
- 1654 - Jean François Sarrazin, French writer
- 1663 - Severo Bonini, Italian composer (b. 1582)
- 1749 - Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye, French-Canadian explorer and trader (b. 1685)
- 1758 - Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (b. 1688)
- 1770 - James Stirling, Scottish mathematician (b. 1692)
- 1784 - Phillis Wheatley, British poet (b. 1753)
- 1791 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1756)
- 1819 - Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, German poet (b. 1750)
- 1870 - Alexandre Dumas père, French writer (b. 1802)
- 1887 - Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (b. 1804)
- 1925 - Władysław Reymont, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
- 1926 - Claude Monet, French painter (b. 1840)
- 1931 - Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)
- 1940 - Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist (b. 1880)
- 1950 - Shri Aurobindo, Indian guru (b. 1872)
- 1951 - Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball player (b. 1889)
- 1963 - Sri Deep Narayan Mahaprabhuji, Hindu mystic
- 1963 - Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer (b. 1905)
- 1989 - John Pritchard, English conductor (b. 1921)
- 1991 - Richard Speck, American murderer (b. 1941)
- 1993 - Doug Hopkins, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1961)
- 2001 - Franco Rasetti, Italian physicist (b. 1901)
- 2002 - Roone Arledge, American sports broadcasting pioneer (b. 1931)
- 2002 - Ne Win, Burmese dictator (b. 1911)
Holidays and observances
- The day of the Ninja
- International Volunteer Day
- The Netherlands and the UK- Saint Nicholas Eve (who Dutch speakers call Sinterklaas, which became in other languages Santa Claus)
- Austria - Krampus
- Roman Empire - Faunalia celebrated in honor of Faunus
- Thailand - National Day and Father's Day
External links
December 4 - December 6 - November 5 - January 5 -- listing of all days