December 5
Today in America's Present Past
1776 | Phi Beta Kappa was formed.
1782 | POTUS: President Martin Van Buren was born.
1784 | Poet Phillis Wheatley died.
1792 | POTUS: President George Washington was re-elected.
1804 | POTUS: President Thomas Jefferson was re-elected.
1822 | Educator Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz was born.
1832 | POTUS: President Andrew Jackson was re-elected.
1839 | General George Armstrong Custer was born.
1848 | Painter Edwin Blashfield was born.
1854 | Aaron Allen patented the folding chair.
1862 | Civil War: The Battle of Coffeeville, Tennessee.
1872 | The merchant ship Mary Celeste discovered abandoned at sea.
1879 | Aviator and entrepreneur Clyde Cessna was born.
1886 | Writer, philosopher and activist Rose Wilder Lane was born.
1894 | Sioux Chief Gall died.
1895 | Mathematician Elbert Frank Cox was born.
1901 | Entrepreneur Walt Disney was born.
1902 | Politician Strom Thurmond was born.
1920 | Entrepreneur Benjamin Holt died.
1929 | Civil Rights: The first US nudist organization, the American League for Physical Culture was formed.
1932 | Physicist Albert Einstein was granted an American visa.
1932 | Entertainer Little Richard was born.
1933 | The 21st Amendment was ratified.
1934 | Journalist and author Joan Didion was born.
1935 | Mary McLeod Bethune formed the National Council of Negro Women.
1945 | “Flight 19,” the “Lost Squadron” of five torpedo bombers and 14 airmen go missing around Bermuda.
1946 | POTUS: Democrat President Truman created Committee on Civil Rights.
1955 | Civil Rights: A bus boycott begins in Montgomery, Alabama led by Rosa Parks.
1955 | Aviator and entrepreneur Glenn Luther Martin died.
1967 | Civil Rights: Pediatrician Benjamin Spock and poet Allen Ginsberg were arrested in New York while protesting.
1968 | Actress Lisa Marie was born.
1988 | Cleric Jim Bakker was indicted on federal fraud charges.
2001 | Film: “Ocean’s Eleven” debuted.
2016 | Cleric Robert Sumner died.
2021 | Politician Robert Dole died.