1492 – Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti) on the 5th December 1492.
1766 – James Christie held his first sale in London on the 5th December 1766.
1815 – Maceió in Brazil was founded on the 5th December 1815.
1879 – Clyde Vernon Cessna the American aviator, businessman and founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation was born on the 5th December 1879 (died 1954).
1890 – David Bomberg the English painter was born on the 5th December 1890 (died 1957).
1901 – Walt Disney the American animator, director, screenwriter, producer and co-founder of The Walt Disney Company was born on the 5th December 1901 (died 1966).
1932 – Albert Einstein was granted an American visa on the 5th December 1932.
1932 – Little Richard the American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor was born on the 5th December 1932.
1933 – Prohibition in the United States ended on the 5th December 1933, when Utah became the 36th U.S. state to validate the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, to establish the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment, which overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States.
1938 – JJ Cale the American singer-songwriter and guitarist was born on the 5th December 1938 (died 2013).
1945 – Flight 19 was lost in the Bermuda Triangle on the 5th December 1945.
1945 – Serge Chapleau the Canadian cartoonist was born on the 5th December 1945.
1946 – José Carreras the Spanish tenor was born on the 5th December 1946.
1947 – Jim Messina the American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Buffalo Springfield was born on the 5th December 1947.
1947 – Rick Wills the English bass guitarist from Foreigner was born on the 5th December 1947.
1951 – Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven the Belgian painter and illustrator was born on the 5th December 1951.
1952 – Bobby Barth the American singer, songwriter, record producer and guitarist from Blackfoot was born on the 5th December 1952.
1958 – STD: Subscriber Trunk Dialling was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II in the UK on the 5th December 1958, when she spoke to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.
1960 – Matthew Taylor the English Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts was born on the 5th December 1960.
1963 – Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards the English ski jumper was born on the 5th December 1963.
1965 – John Rzeznik the American singer-songwriter and guitarist from the Goo Goo Dolls was born on the 5th December 1965.
1969 – The ARPANET Nodes closed on the 5th December 1969.
1978 – The Soviet Union signed a “friendship treaty” with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan on the 5th December 1978.
1993 – The mayor of Vienna, Helmut Zilk, was injured by a letter bomb on the 5th December 1993.
2012 – Elisabeth Murdoch the Australian philanthropist died on the 5th December 2012 aged 103 (born 8 February 1909).
2012 – Oscar Niemeyer the Brazilian architect and designer of the United Nations Headquarters and Cathedral of Brasília died on the 5th December 2012 aged 104 (born 15th December 1907).
2013 ~ Nelson Mandela the South African politician, 1st President of South Africa, and Nobel Prize laureate died on the 5th December 2013 at the age of 95 (born: 18th July 1918). Nelson Mandela died at his home surrounded by his family. Nelson Mandala’s death was announced by President Jacob Zuma.
