/year

December 5 in history

179 sourced entries recorded on December 5, from 334 CE to 2024 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 633Fourth Council of Toledo: King Sisenand orders a meeting in the church of St. Leocadia; the bishops accept a decree that all Visigoths must take an oath to preserve the stability of the Gothic nation.source
  • 1033A major earthquake in the Jordan Valley devastates multiple cities across the Palestine region, killing many people and triggering a tsunami.source
  • 1189King William I ("the Lion") of Scotland gives Richard I 10,000 marks to buy his kingdom's independence. This overturns the Treaty of Falaise which William had to sign when he was captured in 1174.source
  • 1301Pope Boniface VIII issues the papal bull Ausculta Fili ("Listen, my son"), accusing King Philip IV of France ("Philip the Fair") of malfeasance of office.source
  • 1377The English Parliament adjourns and laws passed therein are given royal assent by Queen Joan of Kent, regent for King Richard II. Among the laws enactted are the Purveyance Act ("Prelants shall have their action of trespass against purveyors offending"), the Arrest of Clergy Act (setting "the penalty for arresting of priests during divine service.") and the Villanies Act ("Commissions shall be awarded to enquire of and punish the misbehaviour of villains and land-tenants to their lords").source
  • 1408Emir Edigu of the Golden Horde reaches Moscow.source
  • 1453Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, orders the Prussian Confederation to yield to the demands of the Teutonic Order.source
  • 1456A 7.4 magnitude earthquake (estimated subsequently by geologists), the first of two on the Italian peninsula, strikes near Pontelandolfo (at the time, part of the Papal States) at 11:00 at night and kills as many as 70,000 people.source
  • 1467Sayf al-Din Bilbay, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, is overthrown less than two months after becoming the monarch, as the Dhahiri branch of the Mamluks captures him. The Dhahiris proclaim Al-Malik al-Zahir Timurbugha al-Rumi (referred to as "Timurbugha") as the new Sultan.source
  • 1476King Vladislaus II of Hungary enters into an alliance with Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, against Matthias Corvinus, King of Bohemia.source
  • 1484Pope Innocent VIII issues the Papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, giving the Inquisition a mission to hunt heretics and witches in Germany, led by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger.source
  • 1492Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola in present day northwestern Haiti.source
  • 1496King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree ordering the expulsion of "heretics" from the country.source
  • 1536After two months, the Pilgrimage of Grace ends at Pontefract Castle after Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk promises to present a list of 24 Articles of the pilgrims' demands, "The Commons' Petition", to King Henry VIII. The duke pledges a reprieve for abbeys from dissolution until Parliament can meet, and to obtain a general pardon for the rebel pilgrims.source
  • 1558Less than three weeks of becoming Queen of England, Elizabeth summons the members of the English Parliament with orders to assemble at Westminster on January 23. Under Elizabeth's agenda, the Parliament is charged with restoring the laws passed at the beginning of the English Reformation, and repealing the reforms made during the reign of Queen Mary.source
  • 1560Seventeen-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, is widowed by the death of her first husband, King Francis II of France. Her mother-in-law, Catherine de' Medici, becomes regent of France.source
  • 1588The Order of Augustinian Recollects is formally recognised as a separate province from the Order of Saint Augustine, an event later known as the Día de la Recolección or Day of Recollection.source
  • 1589Sir Richard Bingham is cleared by the Lord Deputy and council of charges of misgovernment in Connacht and on 12 December is commissioned to prosecute the Burkes and other Connacht rebels.source
  • 1590Niccolò Sfondrato, Cardinal-priest of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, is elected as the new pope and takes the name Pope Gregory XIV. Sfondrato is selected as a compromise candidate after Gabriele Paleotti falls 3 votes short of being elected.source
  • 1596Damat Ibrahim Pasha is appointed the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mehmed III for the second time in less than a year, replacing Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, who succeeded him on October 27.source
  • 1611December 5 (30 Ramadan 1020 A.H.) – To celebrate the end of the daily fasting of the month of Ramadan, the Mughal Empire Army commander, Mubariz Khan, hosts the celebration banquet and learns that Pashtun rebel leader Khwaja Usman and 250 of his men have evacuated Bokainagar (modern-day Gouripur in Bangladesh) during the Mughal Army's holiday observance.source
  • 1648majority of the House of Commons votes in favour of accepting the Treaty of Newport.source
  • 1671Royal charter granted to The King's Hospital (Blue Coat School) in Dublin.source
  • 1692John Goldsborough arrives in Madras as the new administrator of the British East India Company.source
  • 1695The wedding of Crown Prince Frederick (IV) and Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow takes place at Copenhagen Castle.source
  • 1707first meeting of the Society of Antiquaries takes place in the Bear Tavern on The Strand, London.source
  • 1711Great Northern War: the Battle of Wismar results in a Danish victory over Swedish forces.source
  • 1732139 members of the Parlement of Paris, exiled by order of King Louis XV, secure their recall.source
  • 1733Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, is raised to the peerage.source
  • 1746Rallied by a teenage boy, Giovanni Battista Perasso (nicknamed Balilla"), the citizens of the Republic of Genoa rise up against the Austrian occupying troops and the collaborator Military Governor, the Genoese Marquis of Botta d'Adorno. By December 11, the Austrian soldiers are driven from the Italian city-state, but return a few months later.source
  • 1747Carl Gustaf Tessin President of the Riksdag.source
  • 1749French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau premieres his new opera, Zoroastre, at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris, but the first version is not a success. After five years of rewriting, Rameau will revive Zoroastre on January 19, 1756 and the opera will continue to be performed more than two centuries later.source
  • 1752The first presentation of a Shakespearean play in America is performed when a company of players stages The Merchant of Venice in Williamsburg, Virginia.source
  • 1757Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen – Frederick defeats Prince Charles's Austrian army, in what is generally considered the Prussian king's greatest tactical victory.source
  • 1763Charles Morgan replaces Thomas Morgan (of Rhiwpera) as MP for Brecon.source
  • 1766James Christie holds the first sale at Christie's auction house in London.source
  • 1775American Revolution: Henry Knox begins his journey to Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that has been captured from Fort Ticonderoga.source
  • 1776The Phi Beta Kappa society is founded at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.source
  • 1776Phi Beta Kappa honor society founded at the College of William and Mary.source
  • 1791Ross returns to Port Jackson from Norfolk Island. His marines, having been displaced by the newly arrived New South Wales Corps, are frequently drunk and rowdy. On 17 December, Ross and most of the marines returned to England on HMS Gorgon.source
  • 1796Schoolboys from Hólavallarskóli stage the play Hrólfur or Slaður og trúgirni by Sigurður Pétursson, which is generally considered the first Icelandic theatre production.source
  • 1798Peasants War in the Southern Netherlands: The revolt is crushed in Hasselt; during the uprising it is estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 people have been killed.source
  • 1807December 5–11 – Napoleonic Wars: Raid on Griessie – A British Royal Navy squadron attacks the Dutch port of Griessie on Java in the Dutch East Indies, eliminating the last Dutch naval force in the Pacific and concluding the Java campaign of 1806–1807.source
  • 1820Marsden leaves at the end of his third visit.source
  • 1830Hector Berlioz's most famous work, Symphonie fantastique, has its world premiere in Paris.source
  • 1835Start of Moriori genocide, the killing and enslavement of the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands by 500 Māori people from New Zealand.source
  • 1839Uniform Fourpenny Post introduced in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, a major postal reform, whereby fourpence is levied for pre-paid letters up to half an ounce in weight instead of postage being calculated by distance and number of sheets of paper.source
  • 1845The Templars of Honor and Temperance is founded in the United States.source
  • 1845unable to persuade his Cabinet to repeal the Corn Laws in the face of the Great Famine, Peel tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to Queen Victoria but is reinstated days later when Lord John Russell is unable to form a government.source
  • 1876The Brooklyn Theatre fire kills at least 278, possibly more than 300.source
  • 1876The Brooklyn Theater Fire kills at least 278, possibly more than 300.source
  • 1881a magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes near Castle Hill, widely felt in the South Island and causing damage in Christchurchsource
  • 1887The International Bureau of Intellectual Property is established.source
  • 1892John Thompson becomes Canada's fourth prime minister.source
  • 1893Plural voting is abolished in New South Wales.source
  • 1898A fire at a factory in the Russian city of Vilana (modern-day Vilnius in Lithuania) kills 15 women and girls, most of whom die after jumping from the windows.source
  • 1900The final Anglo-Ashanti War, "War of the Golden Stool", is declared over. Most of the British troops and Governor James Willcocks depart the city of Kumasi.source
  • 1914The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition begins its attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.source
  • 1915December 4–18 – The 'Peace Ship' Oscar II chartered by industrialist Henry Ford sails from Hoboken, New Jersey to Oslo on an independent and eventually unsuccessful mission to broker a peace conference.source
  • 1918Estonian War of Independence: The British light cruiser HMS Cassandra strikes a mine and sinks near Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea, killing 11 sailors.source
  • 1920Scotland votes against prohibition generally, despite 40 districts voting in favour.source
  • 1922The British Parliament enacts the Irish Free State Constitution Act, by which it legally sanctions the new Constitution of the Irish Free State.source
  • 1931The original Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (1883) is demolished, by order of Joseph Stalin.source
  • 1932The opening of Hayashi Department Store in Tainan Prefecture.source
  • 1933The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition in the United States, making production and sale of alcohol legal in the U.S.source
  • 1934Abyssinia Crisis: Ethiopian and Italian troops exchange gunfire. Reported casualties for the Ethiopians are 150, and for the Italians 50.source
  • 1934Women's suffrage (general and local elections)source
  • 1935Mary McLeod Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women.source
  • 1936The 1936 Soviet Constitution, promulgated by Stalin, is adopted in the Soviet Union. The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic is dissolved, and Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia become full Republics of the Soviet Union.source
  • 1939The Imperial Mausoleum is officially inaugurated at the Cathedral of Petrópolis.source
  • 1945Flight 19 of United States Navy Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers disappears on a training exercise from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.source
  • 1952Ness, Lewis, selected for influenza vaccine trials.source
  • 1955The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge, to become the AFL–CIO.source
  • 1955The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed in Montgomery, Alabama, by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other Black ministers to coordinate the Montgomery bus boycott by Black people.source
  • 1957All 326,000 Dutch nationals are expelled from Indonesia.source
  • 1960A four-day conference on cholera begins in Dacca, during which the Pakistan-SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory is inaugurated.source
  • 1961U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana.source
  • 1963The Seliger Forschungs-und-Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH demonstrates rockets for military use to military representatives of non-NATO-countries near Cuxhaven. Although these rockets land via parachute at the end of their flight and no allied laws are violated, the Soviet Union protests this action.source
  • 1964Australian Senate election, 1964: The Liberal/Country Coalition Government led by Prime Minister Robert Menzies hold their status quo, while the Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell lose one seat to the Democratic Labor Party, who hold the balance of power in the Senate alongside independent Reg Turnbull.source
  • 1965Charles de Gaulle is re-elected as French president with 10,828,421 votes.source
  • 1965The "Glasnost Meeting" in Moscow becomes the first spontaneous political demonstration, and the first demonstration for civil rights in the Soviet Union.source
  • 1966The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bond v. Floyd that the Georgia House of Representatives must seat Julian Bond, having violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.source
  • 1967In New York City, Benjamin Spock and Allen Ginsberg are arrested for protesting against the Vietnam War.source
  • 1970The Asian and Australian tour of Pope Paul VI ends.source
  • 1970Fluminense win the Brazil Football Championship.source
  • 1979Jack Lynch resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland; he is succeeded by Charles Haughey.source
  • 1983ICIMOD is established and inaugurated with its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal, and legitimised through an Act of Parliament in Nepal this same year.source
  • 1987Downpatrick & Ardglass Railway begins public operation, the first Irish gauge heritage railway in Ireland.source
  • 1988Grand Duke Jean and King Baudouin of Belgium open the A6 motorway, which connects Luxembourg to the Belgian A4 and on to Brussels.source
  • 1993Rafael Caldera Rodríguez is elected President of Venezuela for the second time, succeeding interim president Ramón José Velásquez.source
  • 1993Omar Bongo is re-elected as President of Gabon in the country's first multiparty elections.source
  • 1993Omar Bongo wins the country's presidential election.source
  • 1993The Jurong section of the Pan Island Expressway opened to traffic.source
  • 1994The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances was signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary.source
  • 1995Azerbaijan Airlines Flight A-56 crashes shortly after takeoff from Nakhchivan Airport, killing 52 out of the 82 passengers and crew on board.source
  • 1999Shenyang Haishi won Chongqing Longxin by 2-1 in the Chinese Jia-A League, which later led to a match-fixing controversy.source
  • 1999Bolivian municipal elections, the first election contested by Evo Morales' Movimiento al Socialismo.source
  • 2001The Ukrainian Census of 2001, the first census of the population of independent Ukraine, was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine.source
  • 2002A bomb exploded within an inner-city McDonald's restaurant in Makassar. The bombing was conducted by the Islamic group "Laskar Jundullah", which caused death to 3 people, including the bomber himself, and injured 15 others.source
  • 2003Trial of Stanislav Galić: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentences Stanislav Galić to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity.source
  • 2003December 5–13 – 2003 SEA Games was held. This was the first time Vietnam staged the SEA Games.source
  • 2006The military seizes power in Fiji, in a coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.source
  • 2006Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, overthrows the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.source
  • 2009Fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia kills 156 people. The nightclub owner was sentenced to nearly ten years in prison.source
  • 2010Former South African President Thabo Mbeki begins mediation efforts in Ivory Coast following the disputed presidential election.source
  • 2010November 29–December 10 – The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Cancún, Mexico. Formally referred to as the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16), it serves too as the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6).source
  • 2012December 4-6 – Egyptian protestors protest outside the presidential palace against the 2012 constitutional declaration which gave President Morsi influence over the judiciary and turns violent when Morsi supporters clashed with anti-Morsi protestors. It led to the intervention of security forces. The incident caused the deaths of at least 10, including anti-Morsi protestors and supporters of Morsi as well as hundreds of injuries.source
  • 2012November 25–December 9 – Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people missing. The typhoon causes considerable damage in the island of Mindanao.source
  • 2017Russia is banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang by the International Olympic Committee, following an investigation into state-sponsored doping.source
  • 2018December 1–8 – France experiences its worst civil unrest since the protests of 1968 due to the yellow vests movement. Protests in Paris morph into riots, with hundreds of people injured and thousands arrested; over 100 cars are burned, the Arc de Triomphe is vandalized and numerous other tourist sites are closed, both in the capital and elsewhere in the country.source
  • 2019December 2–13 – The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in Madrid, Spain, after Chilean President Sebastián Piñera announced in October that his country could not host the conference due to political unrest in the country.source
  • 2019The deadly measles epidemic in Samoa has led to the United Nations' World Health Organization to deploy 128 medical teams to assist in vaccination efforts. The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated $2.7 million to support the response.source
  • 2019The 2019 Burundi landslide is reported to have caused at least 26 deaths.source
  • 201941 people die, and 40 others are injured during a series of landslides in Cibitoke, Bujumbura, Bubanza, and Cankuzosource
  • 2020COVID-19 pandemic: Russia begins mass vaccination against COVID-19 with the Sputnik V candidate.source
  • 2022The National Ignition Facility achieves fusion ignition, a major milestone in the development of nuclear fusion power.source
  • 2024A nationwide vaccination campaign is launched against Ebola.source

Births

  • 1377Jianwen Emperor of China (died 1402)source
  • 1389Zbigniew Oleśnicki, Polish cardinal and statesman (died 1455)source
  • 1443Pope Julius II (died 1513)source
  • 1470Willibald Pirckheimer, German humanist (died 1530)source
  • 1495Nicolas Cleynaerts, Flemish grammarian (died 1542)source
  • 1511Maldev Rathore, ruler of Marwar (died 1562)source
  • 1537Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shōgun (died 1597)source
  • 1539Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (died 1604)source
  • 1556Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford, English countess (died 1588)source
  • 1661Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, English statesman (died 1724)source
  • 1665Iver Huitfeldt, naval officer (d.1710).source
  • 1674Iver Rosenkrantz, statesman and landowner (died 1745)source
  • 1687Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (died 1762)source
  • 1782Martin Van Buren, 8th president of the United States (died 1862)source
  • 1830Christina Rossetti, English poet (died 1894)source
  • 1839George Armstrong Custer, American cavalry officer (died 1876)source
  • 1849Rafael Reyes, politician, (Died 1921)source
  • 1867Józef Piłsudski, Polish statesman, field marshal (died 1935)source
  • 1868Arnold Sommerfeld, German theoretical physicist (died 1951)source
  • 1901Walt Disney, American animator, film producer (died 1966)source
  • 1901Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1976)source
  • 1902Strom Thurmond, American politician (died 2003)source
  • 1927Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Rama IX of Thailand (died 2016)source
  • 1932Little Richard, American singer and actor (died 2020)source
  • 1969Sajid Javid, British Pakistani politician, Chancellor of the Exchequersource
  • 1975Ronnie O'Sullivan, British snooker playersource
  • 1978Neil Druckmann, Israeli-American video game writer and programmer, founder of Naughty Dogsource
  • 1999Curtis Waters, Nepali Canadian musiciansource

Deaths

  • 334Li Ban, Chinese emperor of Cheng-Han (born 288)source
  • 902Ealhswith, queen and wife of Alfred the Greatsource
  • 1023Hartwig, archbishop of Salzburgsource
  • 1055Conrad I, duke of Bavariasource
  • 1082Ramon Berenguer II, count of Barcelonasource
  • 1083Sunjong of Goryeo, Korean ruler (born 1047)source
  • 1244Joan, countess of Flanders and Hainautsource
  • 1355John III, Duke of Brabant (born 1300)source
  • 1518Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, Italian military commander (born c. 1440)source
  • 1560King Francis II of France (born 1544)source
  • 1560Charles IX succeeds his brother Francis as King of France, after Francis dies of a severe ear infection at the age of 16. Francis's mother (Mary's mother-in-law), Catherine de' Medici, becomes regent of France.source
  • 1624Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist (born 1560)source
  • 1706Untung Surapati, Balinese slave-turned-warlord (born 1660)source
  • 1717Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow, English politician (born 1654)source
  • 1722Marie Anne de La Trémoille, princesse des Ursins, politically active Spanish court official (born 1642)source
  • 1734Peter Tillemans, Flemish painter (born c. 1684)source
  • 1749Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, French-Canadian explorer and trader (born 1685)source
  • 1749Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, French Canadian military officer, fur trader and explorer (born 1685).source
  • 1755William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire (born 1698)source
  • 1758Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (born 1688)source
  • 1784Phillis Wheatley, first published African-American author (born 1753)source
  • 1784Phillis Wheatley, first published African-American female poet (born 1753)source
  • 1791Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, German composer (born in Salzburg, then part of the kingdom of Germany 1756)source
  • 1791Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies early this morning aged 35 at his home in Vienna, having been bedridden since November 20 with a serious illness, perhaps acute rheumatic fever. On a mild and misty December 7, following a funeral service in St. Stephen's Cathedral, he is buried in a common unmarked grave (as customary at this time) in St. Marx Cemetery in the presence of Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten (his patron) and two other musicians.source
  • 1870Alexandre Dumas, père, French author (born 1802)source
  • 1883Bisbee Massacre: Five people are killed in the robbery of a general store by bandits in Bisbee, Arizona.source
  • 1887Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, British diplomat (born 1817)source
  • 1891Pedro II, 2nd and last Emperor of Brazil (born 1825)source
  • 1893Matsudaira Katamori, samurai (born 1836)source
  • 1926Claude Monet, French painter (born 1840)source
  • 1950Sri Aurobindo, Indian guru (born 1872)source
  • 2007Karlheinz Stockhausen, 79, German composer.source
  • 2013Nelson Mandela, 95, South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, President (1994–1999), lung infection.source
  • 2017Michael I, 96, Romanian royal, King (1927–1930, 1940–1947), complications from leukemia.source