December 5
Today is World Soil Day, as declared by the United Nations. So, idk, have some dirt.
There are
26 days remaining in 2016.
There are
19 days until Christmas.
Events
1492 –
Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of
Hispaniola (now
Haiti and the
Dominican Republic).
1766 – In London,
James Christie holds his first sale.
1775 – At
Fort Ticonderoga,
Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1831 – Former U.S. President
John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the
House of Representatives.
1847 –
Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. Senate.
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.
1876 – The
Brooklyn Theatre fire kills at least 278 people in Brooklyn, New York.
1932 – German-born Swiss physicist
Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
1933 – The
Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified. [And there was much rejoicing. I mean, like,
a lot of rejoicing.
]
1952 –
Great Smog: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.
1955 –
E. D. Nixon and
Rosa Parks lead the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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.)
1960 -
Paul McCartney and
Pete Best were arrested for pinning a condom to a brick wall and then igniting it. The two were told to leave Germany and
The Beatles returned home, discouraged.
1964 -
Lorne Greene star of the NBC TV show '
Bonanza' was at No.1 on the US singles chart with '
Ringo', making him the second Canadian (after
Paul Anka) to have a US No.1 single.
2004 – The
Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first
civil partnership is registered there.
Births
1782 – Martin Van Buren (8th POTUS); 1839 – George Armstrong Custer; 1859 – John Jellicoe; 1871 – Bill Pickett (<--Interesting read. He invented 'bulldogging', which evolved into the rodeo event of the same name.); 1879 – Clyde Vernon Cessna (yeah,
that Cessna); 1890 – Fritz Lang; 1901 – Walt Disney; 1901 – Werner Heisenberg (German scientist, namesake of 'Walter White's' alias in
Breaking Bad
); 1902 – Strom Thurmond; 1906 – Otto Preminger;
1912 – Sonny Boy Williamson II♪ ♫; 1921 – Alvy Moore (Green Acres); 1932 – Little Richard
; 1934 – Joan Didion; 1935 – Calvin Trillin; 1936 – James Lee Burke; 1938 – JJ Cale
(wrote
Cocaine, Call Me The Breeze, After Midnight, and many other songs); 1938 – J.D. McDuffie
; 1944 – Jeroen Krabbé (The Fugitive (1993 movie)); 1946 – José Carreras♪ ♫(one of The Three Tenors); 1947 – Jim Messina
(Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Loggins & Messina); 1951 –
Morgan Brittany; 1960 – Jack Russell♪ ♫(Great White); 1963 – Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards (British Olympic skier, subject of the movie
Eddie The Eagle (<--great flick, btw)); 1963 – Carrie Hamilton (daughter of Carol Burnett); 1965 – John Rzeznik♪ ♫(The Goo Goo Dolls); 1968 – Margaret Cho; 1979 – Nick Stahl; 1980 – Jessica Paré; 1985 – Frankie Muniz (
Malcolm In The Middle)
Deaths
1791 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; 1870 – Alexandre Dumas; 1895 – Gall (Hunkpapa Lakota war chief); 1926 – Claude Monet
; 1951 – Shoeless Joe Jackson; 1955 – Glenn L. Martin (of Martin Marietta Corp); 1993 - Doug Hopkins♪ ♫(Gin Blossoms); 1998 – Albert Gore, Sr. (if only he'd worn a condom); 2002 – Roone Arledge; 2008 – Nina Foch; 2010 – Dandy Don Meredith; 2012 – Dave Brubeck
; 2013 – Nelson Mandela; 2015 – Chuck Williams (founded Williams-Sonoma, Inc.)