December 5

Historic Events

2017

The International Olympic Committee bans Russia from competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics for doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics. ›

2014

Exploration Flight Test-1, the first flight test of Orion, is launched. ›

2013

Militants attack a Defense Ministry compound in Sanaa, Yemen, killing at least 56 people and injuring 200 others. ›

2007

Westroads Mall shooting: Nineteen-year-old Robert A. Hawkins kills nine people, including himself, with a WASR-10 at a Von Maur department store in Omaha, Nebraska. ›

2006

Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji. ›

2005

The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there. ›

2005

The 6.8 Mw Lake Tanganyika earthquake shakes the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing six people. ›

2001

Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-108, carrying the Expedition 4 crew to the International Space Station. ›

1995

Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lanka's government announces the conquest of the Tamil stronghold of Jaffna. ›

1995

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight A-56 crashes near Nakhchivan International Airport in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, killing 52 people. ›

1994

The Budapest Memorandum is signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary. ›

1991

Leonid Kravchuk is elected the first president of Ukraine. ›

1983

Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina. ›

1977

Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen in retaliation to preventing President Anwar el-Sadat from pursuing negotiations with Israel at the Tripoli confer. ›

1971

Battle of Gazipur: Pakistani forces are defeated as India cedes Gazipur to Bangladesh. ›

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. ›

1964

Lloyd J. Old discovers the first linkage between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease—mouse leukemia—opening the way for the recognition of the importance of the MHC in the immune response. ›

1958

Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh. ›

1958

The Preston By-pass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. (It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.) ›

1955

The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO. ›

1955

The Civil Rights Movement: the Montgomery bus boycott begins, led by E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks. ›

1952

Beginning of the Great Smog in London. A cold fog combines with air pollution and brings the city to a standstill for four days. Later, a Ministry of Health report estimates 4,000 fatalities as a result of it. ›

1945

Flight 19, a group of TBF Avengers, disappears in the Bermuda Triangle. ›

1943

World War II: Allied air forces begin attacking Germany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow. ›

1941

World War II: In the Battle of Moscow, Georgy Zhukov launches a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army. ›

1941

World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania. ›

1936

The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR. ›

1935

Mary McLeod Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women in New York City. ›

1934

Abyssinia Crisis: Italian troops attack Wal Wal in Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city. ›

1933

The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition in the United States. ›

1921

The Football Association bans women's football in England from league grounds, a ban that stays in place for 50 years. ›

1919

Ukrainian War of Independence: The Polonsky conspiracy is suppressed and its participants are executed by the Kontrrazvedka. ›

1914

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition begins in an attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. ›

1895

New Haven Symphony Orchestra of Connecticut performs its first concert. ›

1865

Chincha Islands War: Peru allies with Chile against Spain. ›

1848

California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California. ›

1847

Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. Senate. ›

1831

Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives. ›

1776

Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the U.S., holds its first meeting at the College of William & Mary. ›

1775

At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts. ›

1770

29th Regiment of Foot privates Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy are found guilty for the manslaughter of Crispus Attucks and Samuel Gray respectively in the Boston Massacre. ›

1766

In London, auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale. ›

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. ›

1649

The town of Raahe (Swedish: Brahestad) is founded by Count Per Brahe the Younger. ›

1578

Sir Francis Drake, after sailing through Strait of Magellan, raids Valparaíso. ›

1560

Ten-year-old Charles IX becomes king of France, with Queen Mother Catherine de' Medici as regent. ›

1496

King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree ordering the expulsion of Jews from the country. ›

1484

Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany. ›

1456

The first of two earthquakes measuring Mw 7.2 strikes Italy, causing extreme destruction and killing upwards of 70,000 people. ›

1408

Seeking to resubjugate Muscovy, Emir Edigu of the Golden Horde reaches Moscow, burning areas around the city but failing to take the city itself. ›

1082

Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona is assassinated, most likely by his brother, Berenguer Ramon II. ›

1033

The Jordan Rift Valley earthquake destroys multiple cities across the Levant, triggers a tsunami and kills many. ›

633

Fourth Council of Toledo opens, presided over by Isidore of Seville. ›

63 BC

Cicero gives the fourth and final of the Catiline Orations. ›