Today In History - December 5

1301 Pope Boniface VIII's degree Ausculta Fili
1349 500 Jews of Nuremberg are massacred during Black Death Riots
1456 An earthquake strikes Naples: about 35,000 people die
1492 Columbus discovers Hispaniola (Haiti)
1496 The Jews are expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I
1590 Noccolo Sfondrato is chosen Pope Gregory XIV
1741 Russian princess Elisabeth Petrovna seizes power
1757 Battle at Leuthen: Prussian army beats Austrians
1766 London auctioneers, Christie's, hold their first sale
1776 The first U.S. fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, at William and Mary College, forms
1792 George Washington is re-elected U.S. President
1798 Government troops occupy Hasselt
1804 Thomas Jefferson is re-elected U.S. President
1813 Lubeck surrenders to the Allied armies
1831 Former President John Q. Adams takes his seat as a member of House of Reps
1832 Andrew Jackson is re-elected President of US
1837 An Uprising under William Lyon Mackenzie in Canada
1846 C. F. Schoenbein obtains a patent for cellulose nitrate explosive
1848 President Polk triggers the Gold Rush of '49 when he confirms a California gold discovery
1854 Aaron Allen of Boston patents the folding theater chair
1861 The Gatling gun is patented
1862 Battle of Coffeeville, MS
1876 Daniel Stillson patents the first practical pipe wrench
1876 Fire at Brooklyn Theater: 295 people are trampled or burned to death
1879 The first automatic telephone switching system patented
1881 The 47th Congress (1881-83) convenes
1887 Stanley's expedition reaches the plateau at Lake Albert Congo
1892 Anti-semite Hermann Ahlwardt is elected to Germany's Reichstag
1893 The first electric car could go 15 miles between charges
1905 Henry Campbell-Bannermam becomes PM of England
1908 The first football uniform numerals are used: University of Pittsburgh
1918 An oil refinery on Curacao opens
1925 The German government of Luther falls
1929 The first U.S. nudist organization forms: American League for Physical Culture, New York City
1932 German physicist Albert Einstein is granted a visa
1933 The 21st Amendment is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment (Prohibition)
1935 The National Council of Negro Women forms by Mary McLeod Bethune (New York City)
1941 The Football Writers Association of America organized
1941 The Russian anti-offensive in Moscow drives out the Nazi army
1941 Sister Elizabeth Kenny's treatment for infantile paralysis is approved
1941 US aircraft carrier Lexington and five heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor
1942 Seyss-Inquart orders students in Nazi Germany to go to work
1944 German troops rob all the silver coin in Utrecht
1945 The "Lost Squadron" crashes east of Florida: the Bermuda Triangle
1945 Special Council of Annulment affirms death sentence of Max Blokzijl
1946 President Truman creates the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order 9808
1947 Joe Louis beats Jersey Joe Walcott in 15 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title
1949 Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for the heavyweight boxing title
1950 Ezzard Charles KOs Nick Barone in 11 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title
1951 "Dragnet" premieres
1952 Worst smog in London ever: 4-8,000 people die
1955 AFL and CIO merge: George Meany is president
1955 Bus boycott begins in Montgomery Alabama by Rosa Parks
1957 New York City becomes the first city to legislate against racial or religious discrimination in the housing market (Fair Housing Practices)
1967 The Beatles clothing store "Apple" on 94 Baker Street, London, opens
1967 Benjamin Spock and Allen Ginsberg are arrested for protesting Vietnam war
1968 The Rolling Stones release "Beggar's Banquet" LP
1969 The U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1972 The Australian Labour party wins parliamentary election
1973 Paul McCartney releases "Band on the Run" album
1974 "Monty Python's Flying Circus" is last shown on BBC
1974 Airport terminal roof in Teheran, Iran collapses killing 17 people
1974 NFL's Seattle Seahawks form
1976 Buffalo Bill OJ Simpson rushes for 203 yards
1977 Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq, and S. Yemen
1978 Pioneer Venus 1 begins orbiting Venus
1979 Ireland premier Jack Lynch resigns
1981 France performs a nuclear test
1982 Herschel Walker of Georgia wins the Heisman Trophy
1983 12 people are killed by a car bomb shattering a 9-story building in west Beirut, Lebanon
1985 Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 1,500 level for the first time
1985 Great Britain performs a nuclear test
1985 Sam Shepard's "Lie of the Mind," premieres in New York City
1988 North Carolina fed grand jury indict PTL founder Jim Bakker on fraud and conspiracy
1988 The Shuttle Atlantis launches world's first nuclear-war-fighting satellite
1989 France TGV train reaches a world record speed of 482.4 KPH
1990 Former Noriega aide, Luis del Cid, pleads guilty
1990 Salman Rushdie, ordered to death by Iran for blasphemy, appears in public for first time in 2 years
1991 Charles Keating, Jr. (the Lincoln Savings and Loan fraud) is found guilty
1991 NY Daily News files for protection under chapter 11
1993 Astronauts begin repair of the Hubble telescope in space
1993 Rafael Caldera is elected the President of Venezuela
1996 Portland's Jermaine O'Neal becomes youngest NBA player: 18

Today In History - December 5

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