Week of December 5 in History

December 5 is the 339th day of the year. There are 26 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1485 – Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull that led to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history.
• 1766 – In London, James Christie held his first sale.
• 1776 – Phi Beta Kappa was founded at The College of William and Mary as the first American college fraternity.
• 1791 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer, died. He was born 1756. 
• 1926 – Claude Monet, French impressionist painter, died. He was born in 1840. 
• 1932 –Albert Einstein was granted an American visa.
• 1933 – Prohibition ended when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment. 
• 1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO .
• 1977 – Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq, and South Yemen. The move is in retaliation for the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt.
• 2005 – The Civil Partnership Act went into effect in the UK, and the first civil partnership was registered.

December 6 is the 340th day of the year. There are 25 days remaining until the end of the year.

December 6 is National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women  in Canada.

• 1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica was published. #firsts #Britannica #publishers
• 1790 – The U.S. Congress moved from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1849 – American abolitionist Harry Tubman escaped from slavery. #slavery #abolitionists 
• 1865 – The 13th Amendment, banning slavery, was ratified.
• 1877 – The first edition of the Washington Post was published.
• 1877 – Thomas Edison created the first recording of a human voice, reciting the poem, Mary Had a Little Lamb.
• 1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was completed
• 1897 – London became the world's first city to have licensed taxicabs.
• 1947 – The Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated.
• 1967 – The first human heart transplant in the United States was performed by Adrian Kantrowitz.
• 2006 – NASA revealed photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor that suggests the presence of liquid water on Mars.

December 7 is the 341st day of the year. There are 24 days remaining until the end of the year.

December 7 is International Civil Aviation Day.

December 7 National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in the US.

• 1732– The Royal Opera House opened at Covent Garden, London.
• 1787 – Delaware became the first state to ratify the US Constitution.
• 1941 – The Japanese Navy attacked the US at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
• 1941 – 2,400 people died in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• 1963 – Instant replay was used for the first time, in an Army-Navy game.
• 1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, was launched. 

December 8 is the 342nd day of the year. There are 23 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1660 – Margaret Hughes became the 1st actress to appear on an English public stage.
• 1765 – Eli Whitney, American inventor of the cotton gin, was born. He died in 1825. 
• 1894 – E.C. Segar, American creator of Popeye, was born. He died in 1938.
• 1919 - Julia Robinson, American mathematician and first woman president of the American Mathematical Society, was born. She died in 1985.
• 1993 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
• 2010– SpaceX became the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.

December 9 is the 343rd day of the year. There are 22 days remaining until the end of the year.

December 9 is the International Anti-Corruption Day.

• 1793 – New York City’s first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, was established by Noah Webster.
• 1851 – The first YMCA in North America was established in Montreal, Canada. 
• 1888 – Statistician Herman Hollerith installed his mechanical tabulator at the US War Department.
• 1906 – Grace Hopper, American computer pioneer, was born. She died in 1992.
• 1946 – The second Nuremberg Trials begin prosecuting Nazi doctors alleged to be involved in human experimentation.
• 1953 – General Electric announced that all Communist employees would be fired.
• 1961 – The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Israel ended with verdicts of guilty on 15 criminal charges.
• 1962 – The Petrified Forest National Park was established in AZ.
• 1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus was certified, making smallpox the first human disease driven to extinction.

December 10 is the 344th day of the year. There are 21 days remaining until the end of the year.

December 10 is International Human Rights Day.

• 1868 – The first traffic lights were installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they used semaphore arms and were illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps. 
• 1884 – Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
• 1901 – The first Nobel Prizes were awarded.
• 1906 – Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to win a Nobel Prize (Peace).
• 1936 – Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication.
• 1955 – The Mighty Mouse Playhouse premiered on television.

December 11 is the 345th day of the year. There are 20 days remaining until the end of the year.

December 11 is International Mountain Day. 

• 1863 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer, was born. She died in 1941.
• 1917 – British General Edmund Allenby entered Jerusalem, and declared martial law.
• 1936 – Edward VIII’s abdication as King of the United Kingdom became effective.
• 1941 – Germany and Italy declared war on the US following its declaration of war on Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• 1946 – The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was established.
• 1972 – Apollo 17  was the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon.