What happened today December 5th?

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Events

63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations.
663 - Fourth Council of Toledo.
771 - Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman.
1082 - Assassination of Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona.
1360 - Creation of the French Franc.
1408 - Emir Edigu of Golden Horde reaches Moscow.
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.
1496 - King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decrre of expulsion of "heretics" from the country.
1590 - Niccolò Sfondrati becomes Pope Gregory XIV.
1715 - Alexander Dalzeel, a Scottish privateer in French service, is executed in London, England.
1746 - Revolt in Genoa against the Spanish rule.
1757 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen - Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
1766 - In London, James Christie holds his first sale.
1776 - In the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, students from the College of William and Mary met for the first time founding Phi Beta Kappa, the first scholastic fraternity in the United States.
1815 - Foundation of Maceió in Brazil.
1830 - The premiere of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique 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.
1865 - Chincha Islands War: Peru allies with Chile against Spain.
1892 - Sir John Thompson becomes the fourth Prime Minister of Canada.
1893 - First appearance of an electric car.
1914 - The Italian Parliament proclaims the neutrality of the country.
1926 - Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin premieres.
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 - Great Britain declares war to Finland, Hungary and Romania.
1941 - John Steinbeck's book Sea of Cortez is published.
1944 - Allied troops occupy Ravenna.
1945 - Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
1952 - The Abbott and Costello Show 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.
1957 - Sukarno expels all Dutch people from Indonesia.
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 is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
1969 - Life Magazine reports the My Lai Massacre .
1970 - Premiere of Dario Fo's Morte accidentale di un anarchico.
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.
1983 - Dissolution of the Military Joint in Argentina.
1989 - TGV Atlantique sets a new railways speed record with 482.4 km/h.
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.
1993 - The mayor of Wien Helmut Zilk is wounded by a letter bomb.
1995 - Sri Lanka government announces the conquest of Tamil stronghold of Jaffna.
1997 - French far-right politician maintains that Nazis were a "Detail of history" during a press conference in Munich.
2003 - Suicide bombers kill at least 46 people in an attack on a train in southern Russia.
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.


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)
1803 - Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, Russian poet (d. 1873)
1820 - Afanasy Fet, Russian poet (d. 1892)
1822 - Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, American college president (d. 1907)
1829 - Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, French Canadian politician (d. 1908)
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)
1863 - Paul Painlevé, French mathematician (d. 1933)
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 - Vítězslav 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 (d. 1969)
1896 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
1879 - Nunnally Johnson, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1977)
1898 - Grace Moore, American soprano (d. 1947}
1898 - Josh Malihabadi, Urdu poet of India and Pakistan (d. 1982)
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)
1910 - Abraham Polonsky, American screenwriter (d. 1999}
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
1938 - J. J. Cale, American songwriter
1940 - Peter Pohl, Swedish writer
1943 - Eva Joly, Norwegian-born French magistrate
1944 - Jeroen Krabbé, Dutch actor
1945 - Serge Chapleau, Quebec caricaturist
1946 - José Carreras, Spanish tenor
1946 - Andy Kim, Canadian singer and songwriter
1947 - Jim Messina, American musician (Buffalo Springfield - Loggins and Messina)
1947 - Jim Plunkett, American football player
1947 - Bruce Golding, Jamaican Politian, Head of JLP
1949 - Ray Comfort, New Zealand evangelist
1950 - Camarón de la Isla, Spanish flamenco singer (d. 1992)
1950 - Osvaldo Golijov, Argentine-born composer
1951 - Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Belgian artist
1951 - Morgan Brittany, American actress
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 glam rock singer (Great White)
1962 - José Cura, Argentine tenor
1963 - Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards, British skier
1965 - Johnny Rzeznik American singer (Goo Goo Dolls)
1966 - Patricia Kaas, French singer
1967 - Gary Allan, American singer
1968 - Margaret Cho, American comedian and actress
1968 - Lisa Marie, American model and actress
1969 - Lewis Gordon Pugh, British swimmer, polar explorer and motivational speaker
1969 - Morgan J. Freeman, American film director
1970 - Kevin Haller, National Hockey League defenseman
1972 - Angela Shelton, American actress & writer
1972 - Mike Mahoney, baseball player
1972 - Cliff Floyd, Major League Baseball player
1973 - Shalom Harlow, Model
1973 - Luboš Motl, Czech physicist
1975 - Ronnie O'Sullivan, British snooker player
1976 - Amy Acker, American actress
1977 - Ryan Newman, American NASCAR driver
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 actor
1988 - Ross Bagley, 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, 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 Kubelík, 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)
1968 - Fred Clark, American actor (b. 1914)
1984 - Adam Malik, Third Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1917)
1986 - Sir Edward Youde, Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1924)
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)

Holidays and observances
International Volunteer Day
Roman festivals - Faunalia celebrated in honor of Faunus (according to Horace, Odes 3.18)
R.C. Saints - formerly: Saint Sabas
Austria - Krampus
Belgium, Czech Republic, 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

External links
BBC: On This Day
The New York Times: On This Day
On This Day in Canada