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1933
Famous birthdays
1969
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more events on December 5
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2007
A gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle kills 8 people at Westroads Mall, Omaha, Neb., before taking his own life.
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2006
Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
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1983
Military Junta dissolves in Argentina.
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1978
The Soviet Union signs a 20-year friendship pact with Afghanistan.
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1969
Morgan J. Freeman, film director; his Hurricane Streets (1997) was the first narrative film to win three awards at the Sundance Film Festival; produced MTV reality shows (16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom).
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1966
Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory heads for Hanoi, North Vietnam, despite federal warnings against it.
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1963
Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, first to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping.
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1955
A bus boycott begins under the leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Montgomery, Alabama.
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1953
Italy and Yugoslavia agree to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.
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1950
Pyongyang in Korea falls to the invading Chinese army.
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1947
Jim Plunkett, pro football quarterback.
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1945
Four TBM Avenger bombers disappear approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida.
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1937
The Lindberghs arrive in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary exile.
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1936
The New Constitution in the Soviet Union promises universal suffrage, but the Communist Party remains the only legal political party.
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1935
Calvin Trillin, journalist and writer.