December 5......

December 5 is the 339th day of the year (340th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 26 days remaining in the year on this date.

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.

● 1301 - Pope Boniface VIII's degree Ausculta fili (only nominee)

● 1349 - 500 Jews are massacred at Nüremberg in Black death riots

● 1360 - Creation of the French Franc.

● 1408 - Emir Edigu of Golden Horde reaches Moscow.

● 1448 - Bishop Jona of Moscow chosen as metropolitan of Kiev/Intoxication

● 1456 - Earthquake strikes Naples; about 35,000 die

● 1484 - Innocent VIII issued his famous "Witch Bull," ordering an inquisition to systematically discover, torture and execute witches throughout Europe. It led to the ease with which witchcraft was charged and punished, even in the American colonies two centuries later.

● 1492 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, now called Haiti.

● 1496 - King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree of expulsion of "heretics" (practical application is to Jews) from the country.

● 1560 - Charles IX succeeded as King of France on the death of Francis II.

● 1590 - Niccolò Sfondrati chosen Pope Gregory XIV

● 1602 - Giulio Caccini's "Euridice" premieres in Florence

● 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 - James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.

● 1770 - Six of the British troops involved in the Boston Massacre found innocent, largely due to defense attorney John Adams' intimation that Crispus Attucks, America's first black hero, may have caused "the dreadful carnage of that night" with his "mad behavior...at the head of...[a] rabble of Negroes..."

● 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.

● 1782 - The first native U.S. president, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, NY.

● 1784 - Phillis Wheatley dies, aged about 31 years, Boston. First black woman poet and, after Anne Bradstreet, only the second woman poet of note in the U.S.

● 1786 - Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts.

● 1791 - Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna at age 35.

● 1792 - George Washington re-elected US President, John Adams Vice-President

● 1792 - The trial of France's King Louis XVI began.

● 1797 - Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris to command forces for the invasion of England.

● 1798 - Government troops occupy Hasselt

● 1804 - Thomas Jefferson re-elected US President, George Clinton Vice-President

● 1812 - Napoleon Bonaparte left his army as they were retreating from Russia.

● 1813 - Lübeck surrenders to allied armies

● 1815 - Foundation of Maceió in Brazil.

● 1830 - Hector Berlioz' "Symphonique fantastique" premieres in Paris

● 1831 - Former President John Quincy Adams takes his seat as member of House of Representatives

● 1832 - Andrew Jackson re-elected President of US, Martin Van Buren Vice-President

● 1837 - Hector Berlioz' "Requiem" premieres

● 1837 - Uprising under William Lyon Mackenzie in Canada

● 1839 - General George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, OH.

● 1846 - C F Schoenbein obtains patent for cellulose nitrate explosive

● 1848 - Death of Joseph Mohr, 56, Austrian Roman Catholic vicar and author in 1818 of the enduring Christmas hymn, "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night").

● 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 triggers Gold Rush of '49.

● 1854 - Aaron Allen of Boston patents folding theater chair

● 1861 - Gatling gun patented

● 1862 - Battle of Coffeeville MS

● 1865 - Chincha Islands War: Peru allies with Chile against Spain.

● 1868 - 1st American bicycle college opens (New York)

● 1876 - Daniel Stillson (Massachusetts) patents 1st practical pipe wrench

● 1876 - Fire at Brooklyn Theater kills 295, trampled or burned to death

● 1879 - 1st automatic telephone switching system patented

● 1881 - 47th Congress (1881-83) convenes

● 1887 - Stanley's expedition reaches plateau at Lake Albert Congo

● 1892 - Sir John Thompson becomes the fourth Prime Minister of Canada.

● 1892 - Anti-semite Hermann Ahlwardt elected to Germany's Reichstag

● 1893 - 1st electric car (built in Toronto) could go 15 miles between charges

● 1896 - Birth of Henry Poulaille, Paris. Author, publisher, anarchist.

● 1901 - Movie producer Walt Disney was born in Chicago. He created his first Mickey Mouse cartoon at the age of 27. Walt Disney was an animator, an amusement park builder, and Nazi sympathizer.

● 1904 - The Russian fleet was destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur, during the Russo-Japanese War.

● 1905 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal) becomes PM of England

● 1906 - British government-Balfour resigns

● 1908 - At the University of Pittsburgh, numerals were first used on football uniforms worn by college football players.

● 1913 - Britain outlawed the sending of arms to Ireland.

● 1914 - The Italian Parliament proclaims the neutrality of the country.

● 1918 - Oil refinery on Curaçao opens

● 1921 - Forty thousand slaughterhouse workers in Chicago, Kansas City, and Omaha go on strike.

● 1925 - German government of Luther falls

● 1926 - Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin premieres.

● 1928 - MW Miklas elected President of Austria

● 1929 - 1st US nudist organization (American League for Physical Culture, New York NY)

● 1932 - German physicist Albert Einstein fleeing Nazi Germany, granted a visa. In later years, dismayed by lack of civil liberties and U.S. cold war policies, calls his choice an enormous mistake

● 1933 - Prohibition ends at 5:32 PM EST: 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.

● 1934 - The Soviet Union executed 66 people charged with plotting against Joseph Stalin's government.

● 1935 - 1st commercial hydroponics operation established (Montebello CA)

● 1935 - National Council of Negro Women forms by Mary McLeod Bethune (New York NY)

● 1936 - Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakhstan SSR & Kirghiz SSR becomes constituent republics of the Soviet Union

● 1941 - Football Writers Association of America organized

● 1941 - Sister Elizabeth Kenny new treatment for infantile paralysis approved

● 1941 - Russian anti offensive in Moscow drives out Nazi army

● 1941 - US aircraft carrier Lexington/5 heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor

● 1941 - World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.

● 1941 - John Steinbeck's book Sea of Cortez is published.

● 1942 - Seyss-Inquart orders students in Nazi-Germany to go work

● 1942 - West Indies chocolate/coffee drop above Netherlands

● 1943 - German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter: 'It is only when one loves life and the earth so much that without them everything seems to be over that one may believe in the resurrection and a new world.'

● 1943 - World War II: U.S. Air force begins Operation Crossbow attacking Germany's secret weapons bases.

● 1944 - Wildcat strike at Dodge truck plant, Detroit, Michigan. One of many "illegal" wartime strikes.

● 1944 - World War II: Allied troops occupy Ravenna, Italy.

● 1944 - German troops rob all the silver coin in Utrecht

● 1945 - The so-called "Lost Squadron" (Flight 19) disappeared. The five U.S. Navy Avenger bombers carrying 14 Navy flyers began a training mission at the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. They were never heard from again.

● 1945 - Special Council of Annulment affirms death sentence of Max Blokzijl

● 1946 - President Truman creates Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808

● 1947 - Joe Louis beats Jersey Joe Walcott in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

● 1950 - Pyongyang taken as UN retreats; Chinese forces fighting for their Korean comrades enter the North Korean capital and push United Nations troops back south.

● 1950 - Sikkim becomes a protectorate of India

● 1951 - The first push button-controlled garage opened in Washington, DC.

● 1951 - "Dragnet" premieres

● 1951 - American missionary martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'How sadly and how slowly I am learning that loud preaching and long preaching are not substitutes for inspired preaching.'

● 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, with George Meany as president. Combined membership is about 15 million.

● 1955 - The Montgomery (Alabama) bus boycott begins, lasting over a year (54 weeks) until buses are integrated. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) is formed to coordinate the boycott, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is elected president. About 30,000-40,000 (out of 50,000) Montgomery Blacks participate.

● 1956 - British and French forces began a withdrawal from Egypt during the Suez War.

● 1956 - Thornton Wilder's "Matchmaker" premieres in New York NY

● 1957 - Sukarno expels all Dutch people from Indonesia.

● 1957 - NYC becomes 1st city to legislate against racial or religious discrimination in housing market (Fair Housing Practices Law)

● 1958 - Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD) (no operator required) 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.

● 1960 - Ghana drops diplomatic relations with Belgium

● 1961 - United Nations forces launched an attack in Katanga, the Congo, near Elizabethville.

● 1962 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to cooperate in the peaceful uses of outer space.

● 1963 - French soldiers stop protest march from Accra, Ghana against French nuclear weapons tests. Western Sahara, Africa.

● 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.

● 1965 - Aircraft loaded with a nuclear bomb rolls off a U.S. aircraft carrier somewhere in the mid-Pacific.

● 1967 - Beatles clothing store "Apple" on 94 Baker Street, London, opens

● 1967 - Dr. Benjamin Spock and poet Allen Ginsberg among those arrested at New York City army induction center. Over 500 arrested. Demonstrations also occurred in Madison, Manchester, N.H., Cincinnati, and New Haven.

● 1968 - Rolling Stones release "Beggar's Banquet" LP

● 1969 - Life Magazine reports the My Lai Massacre .

● 1969 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1971 - The Soviet Union, at United Nations Security Council, vetoed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in hostilities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

● 1972 - Australia abolishes military conscription.

● 1972 - Australia Labour party wins parliamentary election

● 1973 - Paul McCartney releases "Band on the Run" album

● 1974 - Airport terminal roof collapses killing 17 (Teheran Iran)

● 1974 - Oliver Tilden Triangle in the Bronx named

● 1974 - "Monty Python's Flying Circus" final episode airs on BBC

● 1975 - NASA launches space vehicle S-196, it failed

● 1976 - Jacques Chirac re-founded the Gaullist party as the RPR (Rassemblement pour la République).

● 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 which was prompted by Egypt’s peaceful relations with Israel.

● 1978 - The Soviet Union signs a 'friendship treaty' with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

● 1978 - The American space probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, and began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet.

● 1978 - European Union establishes EMS, European Monetary System

● 1978 - Free agent Pete Rose signs 4-year, $32 million contract with Phillies becoming highest paid baseball player.

● 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.

● 1979 - Ireland premier Jack Lynch resigns

● 1980 - Bank of Canada's Canadian Currency Museum opens

● 1981 - France performs nuclear test

● 1982 - Seattle University Baptist Church declares sanctuary for Central American refugees

● 1982 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1983 - 12 killed by a car bomb shattering 9-story building in west Beirut

● 1983 - Dissolution of the Military Joint in Argentina.

● 1983 - The video arcade game "NFL Football" was unveiled in Chicago. It was the first video arcade game to be licensed by the National Football League.

● 1984 - French colonies killed 10 Kanaken in New Caledonia

● 1984 - Iran's official news agency quoted the hijackers of a Kuwaiti jetliner parked at Tehran airport as saying they would blow up the plane unless Kuwait released 14 imprisoned extremists.

● 1984 - Ninety-three killed in mine disaster in Taiwan.

● 1985 - Dow Jones Industrial Average rises above the 1,500 level for 1st time

● 1985 - Great Britain performs nuclear test

● 1986 - The Soviet Union said it would continue to abide by the SALT II treaty limits on nuclear weapons. This was despite the decision by the U.S. to exceed them.

● 1988 - Shuttle Atlantis launches world's 1st nuclear-war-fighting satellite

● 1988 - Televangelist Jim Bakker was charged by a federal grand jury with mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the public through the sale of thousands of lifetime memberships to PTL theme park, Heritage U.S.A. (Bakker was convicted the following year and sentenced to prison.)

● 1989 - Thatcher beats off leadership rival; The Prime Minister defeats Sir Anthony Meyer in the first challenge to her leadership of the Conservative Party.

● 1989 - Israeli soldiers killed five heavily armed Arab guerrillas who crossed the border from Egypt. The guerrillas were allegedly going to launch a terrorist attack commemorating the anniversary of the Palestinian uprising.

● 1989 - East Germany's former leaders were placed under house arrest.

● 1989 - France TGV train reaches world record speed of 482.4 kph

● 1990 - Former Noriega aide Luis del Cid pleads guilty

● 1990 - Salman Rushdie, author (ordered to death by Iran for blasphemy), appears in public for 1st time in 2 years

● 1991 - Maxwell business empire faces bankruptcy; Administrators are called in to try to salvage the Maxwell business empire, which is at least £1bn in debt.

● 1991 - Charles Keating Jr (Lincoln Savings & Loan fraud), found guilty

● 1991 - New York Daily News files for protection under chapter 11

● 1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia's Congress.

● 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.

● 1993 - Astronauts begin repair of Hubble telescope in space

● 1993 - Rafael Caldera elected President of Venezuela

● 1994 - Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.

● 1995 - Sri Lanka government announces the conquest of Tamil stronghold of Jaffna.

● 1996 - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan questioned whether the stock market was overvalued, saying in a speech in Washington, ''How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly inflated asset values?''

● 1996 - Players union approves new collective bargaining agreement

● 1996 - Portland's Jermaine O'Neal, 18, becomes youngest NBA player

● 1997 - Conference on elimination of landmines opens, without U.S. participation. Ottawa, Canada.

● 1997 - STS 87 (Columbia 24) lands

● 1997 - French far-right politician maintains that Nazis were a "Detail of history" during a press conference in Munich.

● 1998 - James P. Hoffa became the head of the Teamsters union, 23 years after his father was the head. His father disappeared and was presumed dead.

● 2001 - In Germany, Afghan leaders signed a pact to create a temporary administration for post-Taliban Afghanistan. Two women were included in the cabinet structure. Hamid Karzai and his Cabinet were planned to take over power in Afghanistan on December 22.

● 2002 - At a 100th birthday celebration for Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., Senate Republican leader Trent Lott praised Thurmond's pro-segregation 1948 presidential campaign. The ensuing uproar led to Lott's resignation from the Senate leadership.

● 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 (1837-41) (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 and butcher (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 television producer and creator of Mickey Mouse (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)

● 1912 - Kate Simon, American travel writer (d. 1990)

● 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 - Yury Vlasov, Soviet weightlifter

● 1935 - Calvin Trillin, American writer

● 1936 - James Lee Burke, 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 (''Dallas'')

● 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 - Ty England, Country singer

● 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 (''Angel'')

● 1978 - Olli Jokinen, Finnish ice hockey player

● 1979 - Matteo Ferrari, Italy footballer

● 1979 - Niklas Hagman, Finnish hockey player

● 1979 - Nick Stahl, American actor

● 1979 - Gareth McAuley, Northern Irish footballer

● 1980 - Shizuka Ito, Japanese seiyū

● 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 (''Malcolm in the Middle'')

● 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

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Gerald
● St. Anastasius
● St. Sabas, abbot
● St. Basilissa
● St. Bassus
● St. Cawrdaf
● St. Crispina
● St. Dalmatius
● St. Firminus
● St. Galagnus
● St. Gerbold
● St. John Almond
● St. John the Wonder-Worker
● St. Julius
● St. Nicetius
● St. Nicholas Tavigli
● St. Pelinus

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for November 23 (Civil Date: December 5)
● Nativity Fast.
● Repose of St. Alexander Nevsky.
● Afterfeast of the Entry into the Temple.
● St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium.
● St. Gregory, Bishop of Agrigentum
● St. Metrophanes (in schema Macarius), Bishop of Voronezh.
● St. Amphilocius of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Volhynia.
● Martyr Sisinius, Bishop of Cyzicus.
● Martyr Theodore of Antioch.
● St. Ischyrion, Bishop of in Egypt and hermit of Scete.

● Anglican:
● Commemoration of Clement of Alexandria, priest

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Helenus of Tarsus, Bishop

● Roman festivals:
● Faunalia celebrated in honor of Faunus (according to Horace, Odes 3.18)

● 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)

● Beirut Lebanon : Arbor Day

● Haiti : Discovery Day (1492)

● USSR : Constitution Day (1936)

● International Volunteer Day

● Thailand - The King's Birthday, National Day, Father's Day

● Day of the Ninja


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

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