December 5
is the 339th day (340th in
leap years) of the year in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 26 days remaining.
*
1484 -
Pope Innocent VIII issues the
Summis desiderantes, a
papal bull that deputizes
Heinrich Kramer and
Jacob Sprenger as
inquisitors to root out alleged
witchcraft in
Germany and leads to one of the severest witchhunts in European history.
*
1492 -
Christopher Columbus becomes the first
European to set foot on the island of
Hispaniola.
*
1560 -
Francis II of France dies and is succeeded by
Charles IX of France.
*
1590 - Niccolò Sfondrati becomes
Pope Gregory XIV.
*
1766 - In
London,
James Christie holds his first sale.
*
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.
*
1830 - World premiere of Hector Berlioz's most famous work Symphonie Phantastique in Paris.
*
1831 - Former US President
John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the
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.
*
1892 -
Sir John Thompson becomes the fourth
Prime Minister of Canada.
*
1926 -
Sergei Eisenstein's
Battleship Potemkin is premiered.
*
1932 -
German-born
Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American
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 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the
18th Amendment which had outlawed
alcohol in the
United States).
*
1934 -
Abyssinia Crisis:
Italian troops attack Wal Wal in
Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city.
*
1936 - The
Soviet Union adopts a new
constitution and the
Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full
Union Republic of the
USSR.
*
1941 - In
Battle of Moscow Zhukov launched a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army, with the biggest offensive launched against Army Group Centre.
* 1941 -
John Steinbeck's book
Sea of Cortez is published (Steinbeck used knowledge gained writing this book to develop the marine biologist character Doc (see
Ed Ricketts) in
Cannery Row).
*
1945 -
Flight 19, a squadron of five
U.S. Navy TBF Avenger bombers on a training flight out of
Fort Lauderdale, is lost in the
Bermuda Triangle.
*
1952 -
The Abbott and Costello Show, starring comedians
Bud Abbott and
Lou Costello, debuts on American television.
*
1955 - The
American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the
AFL-CIO.
* 1955 -
Martin Luther King, Jr. leads the
Montgomery Bus Boycott, 12/5/1955-12/21/1956.
*
1958 -
Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the
UK by
Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the
Lord Provost in a call from
Bristol to
Edinburgh.
* 1958 - The
Preston bypass, the
UK's first stretch of
motorway opens to traffic for the first time, now part of the
M6 and
M55 motorways.
*
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 -
Party Political Broadcast, the final episode of
Monty Python's Flying Circus, is broadcast on
BBC 2.
*
1976 -
United Nations General Assembly adopts
Pakistan resolution on security of non-Nuclear States.
*
1977 -
Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with
Syria,
Libya,
Algeria,
Iraq and South
Yemen. The move is in retaliation to the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt.
*
1978 - The
Soviet Union signs a 'friendship treaty' with the
Democratic Republic 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.
*
2001 -
World Record set for longest recorded kiss in
New York.
*
2005 - The
2005 Southeast Asian Games end in
Manila.
* 2005 - The
Lake Tanganyika earthquake causes significant damage, mostly in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
* 2005 - The
Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the
United Kingdom, and the first
civil partnership is registered there.
*
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)
*
1803 -
Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, Russian poet (d.
1873)
*
1820 -
Afanasy Fet, Russian poet (d.
1892)
*
1822 -
Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, American college president (d.
1907)
*
1830 -
Christina Rossetti, British 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)
*
1859 -
John Jellicoe, British admiral (d.
1935)
*
1867 -
Józef Piłsudski, Polish revolutionary and statesman (d.
1935)
*
1868 -
Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (d.
1951)
*
1869 -
Ellis Parker Butler, American author (d.
1937)
*
1870 -
VÃtÄ›zslav Novák, Czech composer (d.
1949)
*
1871 -
Bill Pickett, American rodeo performer (d.
1932)
*
1872 -
Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess player (d.
1906)
*
1875 - Sir
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, British painter (d.
1957)
* 1890 -
Fritz Lang, Austrian-born film director (d.
1976)
*
1892 -
Ferdinand Schörner, German field marshal (d.
1973)
*
1895 -
Elbert Frank Cox, American mathematician
*
1896 -
Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1984)
*
1898 -
Grace Moore, American soprano (d.
1947}
*
1901 -
Walt Disney, American animated film producer (d.
1966)
* 1901 -
Milton H. Erickson, American psychiatrist (d.
1980)
* 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)
*
1905 -
Gus Mancuso, baseball player (d.
1984)
*
1906 -
Otto Preminger, Austrian-born director, producer, and actor (d.
1986)
*
1907 -
Giuseppe Occhialini, Italian physicist (d.
1993)
*
1911 -
Władysław Szpilman, Polish pianist (d.
2000)
*
1914 -
Hans Hellmut Kirst, German author (d.
1989)
*
1927 -
Bhumibol Adulyadej,
King of Thailand*
1932 -
Sheldon Lee Glashow, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
* 1932 -
Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman), American singer and pianist
*
1934 -
Joan Didion, American writer
*
1935 -
Calvin Trillin, American writer
*
1940 -
Peter Pohl, Swedish writer
*
1943 -
Eva Joly, Norwegian-born French magistrate
*
1944 -
Jeroen Krabbé, Dutch actor
*
1946 -
José Carreras, Spanish tenor
*
1947 -
Jim Messina, American musician (
Buffalo Springfield)
* 1947 -
Jim Plunkett, American football player
*
1949 -
Ray Comfort, New Zealand evangelist
*
1950 -
Camarón de la Isla, Spanish flamenco singer (d.
1992)
* 1950 -
Osvaldo Golijov, Argentine-born composer
*
1953 -
Larry Zbyszko, American professional wrestler
*
1956 -
Brian Backer, American actor
* 1956 -
Krystian Zimerman, Polish pianist
*
1957 -
Art Monk, American football player
*
1958 -
Dean Erickson, American actor
*
1960 -
Jack Russell, American singer (
Great White (band))
*
1962 -
José Cura, Argentine tenor
*
1963 -
Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards, British skier
*
1965 -
Johnny Rzeznik American singer (
Goo Goo Dolls)
*
1967 -
Gary Allan, American singer
*
1968 -
Margaret Cho, American comedian and actress
* 1968 -
Lisa Marie, American model and actress
*
1972 -
Angela Shelton, American actress & writer
* 1972 -
Mike Mahoney, baseball player
*
1973 -
Luboš Motl, Czech physicist
*
1975 -
Ronnie O'Sullivan, British snooker player
*
1976 -
Amy Acker, American actress
*
1979 -
Matteo Ferrari, Italy footballer
* 1979 -
Niklas Hagman,
Finnish hockey player
*
1982 -
Eddy Curry, American basketball player
* 1982 -
Trai Essex, American football player
*
1984 -
Chris Solinsky, American distance runner
*
1985 -
Josh Smith, American basketball player
* 1985 -
Frankie Muniz, American child actor
*
1988 -
Ross Bagley, American child actor
*
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,
New French 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)
*
1891 - Emperor
Pedro II of Brazil (b.
1825)
*
1925 -
Władysław Reymont, Polish writer and
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1867)
*
1926 -
Claude Monet, French impressionist painter (b.
1840)
*
1931 -
Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b.
1879)
*
1940 -
Jan KubelÃk, Austro-Hungarian-born Czechoslovak violinist (b.
1880)
*
1950 -
Shri Aurobindo, Indian guru (b.
1872)
*
1951 -
Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player (b.
1889)
* 1951 -
Abanindranath Tagore, Indian writer (b.
1871)
*
1963 -
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Prime Minister
Pakistan (b.
1892)
* 1963 -
Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer (b.
1905)
* 1963 -
Sri Deep Narayan Mahaprabhuji, Indian Hindu mystic
*
1965 -
Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist and
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1874)
*
1966 -
Sylvère Maes, Belgian cyclist (b.
1909)
*
1989 - Sir
John Pritchard, British conductor (b.
1921)
*
1991 -
Richard Speck, American mass murderer (b.
1941)
*
1993 -
Doug Hopkins, American guitarist and songwriter (
Gin Blossoms) (b.
1961)
*
2001 -
Franco Rasetti, Italian physicist (b.
1901)
*
2002 -
Roone Arledge, American sports broadcasting pioneer (b.
1931)
* 2002 -
Ne Win, Burmese leader (b.
1911)
*
2005 -
Frits Philips, Dutch industrialist and businessman from multinational Philips Electronics (b.
1905)
* 2005 - Kevin "
Big Kev" Mc Quay, Australian businessman (b.
1949)
*
Roman festivals -
Faunalia celebrated in honor of
Faunus (according to
Horace,
Odes 3.18)
*
R.C. Saints - formerly:
Saint Sabas*Also see
December 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)*
Austria -
Krampus*
Belgium, the
Netherlands and the
UK -
Saint Nicholas Eve (whom
Dutch speakers call
Sinterklaas, which became in other languages
Santa Claus)
*
Thailand - The
King's Birthday,
National Day,
Father's Day*
Day of the Ninja*
BBC: On This DayDecember 4 -
December 6 -
November 5 -
January 5 â€"
listing of all days
