December 5th in History

Today in History

  • Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on Hispaniola (today’s Haiti and Dominican Republic) (1492)
  • Former US President John Quincy Adams joins the House of Representatives (1831) and future CSA President Jefferson Davis is elected to the US Senate (1847)
  • US President Ulysses S. Grant delivers a speech of apology to Congress for the many scandals that occurred during his presidency (1876)
  • Albert Einstein is granted a US visa (1932)
  • Prohibition in the US ends when Utah becomes the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution (1933)
  • Five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers disappear over the Bermuda Triangle (1945)
  • The Abbott and Costello Show premiers on television (1952)
  • The Montgomery Bus Boycott formally begins (1955)
  • The AFL and CIO merge (1955)
  • The first four-node ARPANET network is completed (1969)
  • Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan gives a speech that includes the phrase “irrational exuberance” (1996)

Birthdays

  • Martin Van Buren, 8th US President (1782)
  • George Armstrong Custer, US commander at the Battle of Little Bighorn (1839)
  • Bill Pickett, rodeo cowboy, inventor of “bulldogging” (1870)
  • Clyde Cessna, aircraft manufacturer (1879)
  • Fritz Lang, director (1890)
  • Walt Disney, animator and theme park developer (1901)
  • Werner Heisenberg, physicist (1901)
  • Strom Thurmond, US senator and Dixiecrat candidate for US President (1902)
  • Otto Preminger, director and producer (1906)
  • Sonny Boy Williamson, blues musician (1912 — uncertain)
  • Alvy Moore, actor, “Hank” on Green Acres (1921)
  • ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช (Bhuimbol Adulyadej, reign name Rama IX), Thai monarch (1927)
  • Little Richard, singer-songwriter (1932)
  • Joan Didion, author (1934)
  • Calvin Trillin, journalist (1935)
  • James Lee Burke, mystery writer (1936)
  • JJ Cale, singer-songwriter (1938)
  • José Carreras, tenor (1946)
  • Andy Kim (Baron Longfellow), singer-songwriter (1946 or 1952)
  • Jim Messina, singer-songwriter (1947)
  • Jim Plunkett, football player (1947)
  • Morgan Brittany, actress (1951)
  • Margaret Cho, comedienne (1968)
  • Lisa Marie, actress and model (1968)
  • Amy Acker, actress (1976)
  • Frankie Muniz, actor and race car driver (1985)

Deaths

  • Phillis Wheatley, poet and slave (178)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer (1791)
  • Alexandre Dumas, père, author (1870)
  • Pedro II, Brazilian emperor (1891)
  • Claude Monet, painter (1926)
  • Vachel Lindsay, poet (1931)
  • Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball player (1951)
  • Abanindranath Tagore, painter (1951)
  • Glenn L. Martin, aircraft manufacturer (1955)
  • Fred Clark, actor (1968)
  • Claudius Dornier, aircraft manufacturer (1969)
  • Richard Speck, convicted mass murderer (1991)
  • Roone Arledge, sportscaster and broadcast executive (2002)
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer (2007*)
  • William Lederer, author (2009)
  • John Leslie, porn star and director (2010)
  • Don Meredith, sportscaster (2010)
  • Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist and composer (2012)
* I briefly worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen during the premier of his composition Sirius at the Albert Einstein Spacearium, National Air and Space Museum. When my ushering team wasn’t fast enough to pack the house, he jumped in and started seating people. I told him that if he ever needed work, there was a job open for him. There was one official premier, attended by the German chancellor (Helmut Schmidt) and the US Vice President (Nelson Rockefeller), notable because the Secret Service agents assigned to the event couldn’t stand the music and left their protectees inside as they fled to relative peace and quiet.

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Bathtub Party Day (Wellcat Holidays and Herbs)
  • Day of the Ninja (creators of the Ninja Burger website)
  • Discovery Day (Haiti, Dominican Republic)
  • Faunalia (ancient Rome)
  • International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (United Nations)
  • King’s Birthday, National Day, Father’s Day (Thailand)
  • Krampusnacht (Austria)
  • National Communicate With Your Kids Day (founded by Kindersigns, which teaches baby sign language)
  • National Sacher Torte Day (US food holidays)
  • Saint Nicholas Eve (Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Poland, United Kingdom)
  • World Soil Day (International Union of Soil Science, held on the birthday of Thai monarch Rama IX for his support and official sanction)

December 5 is the 339th day of the year (340th in leap years). There are 26 days remaining until the end of the year.