| 1484 |
|
Pope Innocent VIII issues a bill deploring the spread of witchcraft and heresy in Germany. |
| 1776 |
|
Phi Beta Kappa is organized as the first American college Greek letter-fraternity, at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va. |
| 1791 |
|
Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna. |
| 1861 |
|
In the U.S. Congress, petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery are introduced. |
| 1862 |
|
Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s cavalry receives a setback in an engagement on the Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi. |
| 1864 |
|
Confederate General John Bell Hood sends Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry and a division of infantry toward Murfreesboro, Tenn. |
| 1904 |
|
The Japanese destroy a Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea. |
| 1909 |
|
George Taylor makes the first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider that he designed himself. |
| 1912 |
|
Italy, Austria and Germany renew the Triple Alliance for six years. |
| 1916 |
|
David Lloyd George replaces Herbert Asquith as the British prime minister. |
| 1921 |
|
The British empire reaches an accord with the Irish revolutionary group the Sinn Fein; Ireland is to become a free state. |
| 1933 |
|
The 21st Amendment ends Prohibition in the United States, which had begun 13 years earlier. |
| 1934 |
|
Italian and Ethiopian troops clash at the Ualual on disputed the Somali-Ethiopian border. |
| 1936 |
|
The New Constitution in the Soviet Union promises universal suffrage, but the Communist Party remains the only legal political party. |
| 1937 |
|
The Lindberghs arrive in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary exile. |
| 1945 |
|
Four TBM Avenger bombers disappear approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida. |
| 1950 |
|
Pyongyang in Korea falls to the invading Chinese army. |
| 1953 |
|
Italy and Yugoslavia agree to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border. |
| 1955 |
|
A bus boycott begins under the leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Montgomery, Alabama. |
| 1966 |
|
Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory heads for Hanoi, North Vietnam, despite federal warnings against it. |
| 1978 |
|
The Soviet Union signs a 20-year friendship pact with Afghanistan. |
| Born on December 5 |
| 1782 |
|
Martin Van Buren, 8th president in the United States–and the first born in the United States. |
| 1839 |
|
George Armstrong Custer, Union cavalry leader who met his fate at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. |
| 1890 |
|
Fritz Lang, film director (Metropolis, M). |
| 1901 |
|
Walt Disney, animator and creator of an entertainment empire. |
| 1931 |
|
James Cleveland, considered the "King of Gospel." |
| 1932 |
|
Richard Wayne Penniman [Little Richard], singer. |
| 1934 |
|
Joan Didion, essayist and novelist (Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Play it as it Lays). |
| 1935 |
|
Calvin Trillin, journalist and writer. |
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