December 5

Events63 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 James 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 decree 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.1775 - At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.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.1847 - Jefferson Davis gets elected to the US senate, his first political occupation.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 - World War II: 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 - World War II: Great Britain declares war to Finland, Hungary and Romania.1943 - World War II: U.S. Air force begins Operation Crossbow attacking Germany's secret weapons bases.1944 - World War II: Allied troops occupy Ravenna.1945 - Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle. 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 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.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.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.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.2006 - Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji
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