December 5 - Events

Events

• 63 BC – Cicero gave the fourth and final Catiline Orations.
• 663 – Fourth Council of Toledotakes place.
• 771 – Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman.
• 1082 – Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona is assassinated.
• 1408 – Emir Edigu of Golden Hordereaches Moscow.
• 1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramerand James Sprenger as inquisitorsto root out alleged witchcraft inGermany and leads to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history.
• 1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
• 1496 – King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree of expulsion of "heretics" from the country.
• 1590 – Niccolò Sfondrati becomes Pope Gregory XIV.
• 1746 – Revolt in Genoa against Spanish rule.
• 1757 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen – Frederick II of Prussialeads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
• 1766 – In London, James Christie holds his first sale.
• 1775 – At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 1776 – At The College of William and Mary, Phi Beta Kappa is founded and becomes the first American College Fraternity.
• 1815 – Foundation of Maceió in Brazil.
• 1831 – Former US President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.
• 1847 – Jefferson Davis is elected to the US senate, his first political post.
• 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.
• 1876 – Brooklyn Theater Fire kills at least 278 people in Brooklyn, NY.
• 1914 – The Italian Parliament proclaims the neutrality of the country.
• 1920 – Dimitrios Rallis forms a government in Greece.
• 1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
• 1933 – Prohibition in the United States 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 made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal 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 – World War II: In the Battle of Moscow Georgy Zhukovlaunches a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army, with the biggest offensive launched against Army Group Centre.
• 1941 – World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungaryand Romania.
• 1943 – World War II: U.S. Army Air Force begins attackingGermany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow .
• 1944 – World War II: Allied troops occupy Ravenna.
• 1945 – Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
• 1952 – Great Smog of 1952: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.
• 1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL-CIO.
• 1955 – E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• 1957 – Sukarno expels all Dutch people from Indonesia.
• 1958 – Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK byQueen 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. It is now part of the M6 and M55motorways.
• 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.
• 1974 – In American football, the Birmingham Americans would win what would eventually be the only World Bowl in World Football League history.
• 1976 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts Pakistan's 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 for the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt.
• 1978 – The Soviet Union signs a "friendship treaty" with theDemocratic 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 Junta in Argentina.
• 1983 – ICIMOD is established and inaugurated with its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal, and legitimised through an Act of Parliament in Nepal in the same year.
• 1993 – The mayor of Wien (Vienna), Helmut Zilk, is wounded by aletter bomb.
• 1995 – The Sri Lankan government announces the conquest of Tamilstronghold of Jaffna.
• 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.
• 2006 – Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
• 2007 – Westroads Mall massacre: A gunman opens fire with asemi-automatic rifle at an Omaha, Nebraska mall, killing eight people before taking his own life.