Return to home1349 Dec 5,
500 Jews of Nuremberg were massacred during Black Death riots.
1443 Dec 5, Giuliano della
Rovere, later Pope Julius II (1443-1513), was born in Liguria.
1456 Dec 5, Earthquake struck
Naples and 35,000 died.
1484 Dec 5, Pope Innocent VIII
issued a bull deploring the spread of witchcraft and heresy in
Germany. He ordered that all cats belonging to witches scheduled to
be burned, be also burned. Kraemer and Sprenger, two Dominican
friars, had induced Pope Innocent VIII to issue a bull authorizing
them to extirpate witchcraft in Germany. [see 1486]
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.2)(HN, 12/5/98)(HNQ,
1492 Dec 5, Columbus discovered
Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
(HFA, '96, p.20)(AM, 7/97, p.58)
1496 Dec 5, Jews were expelled
from Portugal by order of King Manuel I.
1570 Dec 5, Johan Friis,
chancellor of Denmark (b.1532), died. his share of spoliated Church
property had made him one of the wealthiest men in Denmark. Under
King Frederick II (1559-1588), who understood but little of state
affairs, Friis was well-nigh omnipotent. He was largely responsible
for the Scandinavian Seven Years' War (1562-1570), which did so much
to exacerbate the relations between Denmark and Sweden.
1578 Dec 5, Sir Francis Drake
sailed into the port of Valparaiso. He had renamed his flagship, the
Pelican, to the Golden Hind, and ravaged the coasts of Chile and
Peru on his way around the world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(ON, 7/03, p.7)
1602 Dec 5, Giulio Caccini's
"Euridice," premiered in Florence.
1621 Dec 5, A letter from the
English office of the Virginia Company reported that European
honeybees (Apis mellifera) were shipped to America. They arrived in
Virginia in March 1622.
1663 Dec 5, Severo Bonini (80),
1666 Dec 5, Francesco Antonio
Nicola Scarlatti, composer, was born.
1687 Dec 5, Francesco Xaverio
Geminiani, composer, was born.
1707 Dec 5, The Society of
Antiquaries of London was founded at the Bear Tavern in the Strand
by John Talman, the son of an architect, Humfrey Wanley, a student
of ancient inscriptions and Anglo-Saxon, and John Bagford, an
eccentric shoemaker and dealer in books. They met for the purposes
of forming a Society for the study of British antiquities, whose
agreed aim was to further the study of British history prior to the
reign of James I.
1758 Dec 5, Johann Friedrich
Fasch (70), composer, died.
1766 Dec 5, London auctioneers
Christie's held their 1st sale. The British auction house Christie’s
was sold in 1998 to Francois Pinault, a French businessman and art
(HT, 3/97, p.74)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W12)(WSJ,
5/19/98, p.B10)(MC, 12/5/01)
1776 Dec 5, Phi Beta Kappa was
organized as the first American college scholastic Greek letter
fraternity, at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va. In 2005
the honor society had some 600,000 members with about 15,000 new
members joining annually.
(AP, 12/5/97)(HN, 12/5/98)(WSJ, 11/4/05, p.W12)
1782 Dec 5, Martin Van Buren,
8th US President (1837-1841) was born in Kinderhook, N.Y. He was the
first chief executive to be born after American independence.
1791 Dec 5, Austrian composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35. His
first opera was "Idomeneo." In 1920 Hermann Abert authored “W.A.
Mozart." In 1991 Georg Knepler authored "Wolfang Amade Mozart," a
Marxist view of Mozart in his times. In 1995 Maynard Solomon
published a psychoanalytic biography of Mozart. In 1999 Peter Gay
authored a Penguin short life of Mozart and Robert W. Gutman
authored the comprehensive biography "Mozart."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.54)(AP, 12/5/97)(WSJ,
12/2/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.W8)
1792 Dec 5, George Washington
was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.
1830 Dec 5, Christina Rossetti
(d.1894), poet (Winter Rain, Passing Away), was born in London. She
wrote devotional verse, curious fairy tales and category defying
poems. Her brothers, William Michael and Dante Gabriel, helped found
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose professed aim was to revive
the purity and vividness they admired in late medieval art. Her
story is told by Jan Marsh in “Christina Rosetti: A Writer’s Life."
"Better by far you should forget and smile, Than that you should
remember and be sad."
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-10)(AP, 12/11/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1831 Dec 5, Former President
John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of
1832 Dec 5, Andrew Jackson was
re-elected US president and became the 1st president to win an
election in which the turnout exceeded 50%. The US anti-Mason Party
with William Wirt drew 8% of the vote against Henry Clay and the
eventual winner, Andrew Jackson. Clay led the Whig Party which
coalesced against the power of Andrew Jackson. The Whigs came from
the conservative, nationalist wing of the Jeffersonian Republicans.
The election served as a referendum on Jackson’s position against
the 2nd Bank of the US.
(Hem, 8/96, p.86)(WSJ, 7/8/99, p.A16)(Panic,
p.3)(AH, 6/07, p.45)
1837 Dec 5, Hector Berlioz'
1839 Dec 5, George Armstrong
Custer (d.1876), Union cavalry leader who met his fate against
Native Americans at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, was born.
1848 Dec 5, President Polk
triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been
discovered in California. Paula Mitchell Marks later wrote “Precious
Dust," an account of the gold rush. In 2002 H.W. Brands authored
“The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.7)(SSFC,
1859 Dec 5, Dion Boucicault's
"Octaroon," premiered in NYC.
1861 Dec 5, In the U.S.
Congress, petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery
1862 Dec 5, Union general
Ulysses Grant’s cavalry received a setback in an engagement on the
Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi.
1864 Dec 5, Confederate General
Hood sent Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry and a division of
infantry towards Murfreesboro, Tenn.
1867 Dec 5, Henry Haight
(1825-1878), the 10th governor of California (1867-1871), gave his
1868 Dec 5, 1st American
bicycle college opened in NY.
1872 Dec 5, The Marie Celeste,
a Canadian-built American-owned merchant brigantine, was discovered
in the Atlantic Ocean, unmanned and apparently abandoned (the one
lifeboat was missing, along with its crew of seven). In 1885 the
ship was destroyed when her last owner intentionally wrecked her off
the coast of Haiti in an attempt to commit insurance fraud.
1876 Dec 5, Daniel Stillson
(Mass) patented the 1st practical pipe wrench.
1876 Dec 5, In NYC a fire in
the Brooklyn Theater killed 278 people.
1890 Dec 5, Fritz Lang
(d.1976), film director, was born. His work included “Metropolis,"
“M," and “The Big Heat."
(WSJ, 4/3/00, p.A46)(HN, 12/5/00)
1890 Dec 5, Berlioz' opera "Les
Troyens," premiered in Karlsruhe.
1893 Dec 5, 1st electric car
was built in Toronto. It could go 15 miles between charges.
1894 Dec 5, Georges Feydeau's
"L'Hotel du Libre Echange," premiered in Paris.
1901 Dec 5, Walter Elias Disney
(d.1966), movie producer and animator, was born in Chicago. Walt
Disney created a cartoon empire with the character Mickey Mouse.
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(HN,
1901 Dec 5, Werner Heisenberg
(d.1976), German physicist, was born. He discovered the uncertainty
principle and won the Nobel Prize in 1932.
1901 Dec 5, Grace Moore,
American soprano (One Night to Live), was born.
1904 Dec 5, Japanese destroyed
Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
1905 Dec 5, Otto Preminger,
director and producer (Laura, Exodus), was born in Austria.
1909 Dec 5, George Taylor made
the first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider that he
1910 Dec 5, China set this date
for the removal of queus (a braid of hair) from the heads of male
citizens. This was expected to glut the human hair market.
(SSFC, 12/19/10, DB p.50)
1912 Dec 5, Italy, Austria, and
Germany renewed the Triple Alliance for six years.
1916 Dec 5, Hans Richter (73),
1916 Dec 5, David Lloyd George
replaced Herbert Asquith as the British Prime Minister.
1921 Dec 5, The British Empire
reached an accord with Sinn Fein; Ireland was to become a free
1926 Dec 5, Sergei Eisenstein's
"Battleship Potemkin," debuted.
1926 Dec 5, Claude [Oscar]
Monet (b.1840), French painter (impressionist), died at Giverny,
where he’d painted since 1883. Monet was one of the original
proponents of Impressionism and--despite failing eyesight--painted
fervently until his death. He was born in Paris, but grew up
observing nature on the Normandy coast near Le Havre. While studying
under Charles Gleyre, Monet met fellow students Fridiric Bazille,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. They broke with their
teacher and his conventions of painting that included, among other
traditions, the painting of outdoor landscapes in a studio. Although
he began to experiment with "series" in the late 1870s, his
trademark method only appeared in earnest in the 1890s. This
involved a series of paintings of the same subject under different
lighting and weather conditions. Monet remained committed to
Impressionism long after many of his contemporaries had abandoned
the style. In 2006 over 1000 letters to Monet were auctioned.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T8)(HNQ, 5/25/01)(SFC, 12/9/06,
1928 Dec 5, Paraguay initiated
a series of clashes, which led to full-scale war with Bolivia in
spite of inter-American arbitration efforts. Both belligerents moved
more troops into the Chaco Boreal, a wilderness region north of the
Pilcomayo River and west of the Paraguay River that forms part of
the Gran Chaco. By 1932 war was definitely under way.
1931 Dec 5, Reverend James
Cleveland, considered the “King of Gospel," was born.
1932 Dec 5, Richard Wayne
Penniman [Little Richard], singer, was born.
1932 Dec 5, German physicist
Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to
travel to the United States. In 2003 Thomas Levenson authored
“Einstein in Berlin."
(AP, 12/5/97)(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.M2)
1933 Dec 5, Prohibition was
repealed--much to the delight of thirsty revelers--when Utah became
the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. The nationwide prohibition of the manufacture, sale or
transportation of alcoholic beverages was established in January
1919 with passage of the 18th Amendment. Prohibition's supporters
gradually became disenchanted with it as the illegal manufacture and
sale of liquor fostered a wave of criminal activity. By 1932, the
Democratic Party's platform called for the repeal of Prohibition. In
February 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing the 21st
Amendment to repeal the 18th and with Utah's vote in December,
Prohibition ended. Three-quarters of the states approved the repeal
of the 18th amendment and FDR proclaimed the end of Prohibition.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)(AP, 12/5/97)(HNPD, 12/5/98)
1933 Dec 5, SF became a dry
city with the death of Prohibition as the city went under state
license control with no licenses issued.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1933 Dec 5, In SF some 6,259
men received pay from the Civil Works Administration for projects
that included Lake Merced road and Balboa reservoir.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)
1934 Dec 5, Joan Didion,
essayist and novelist, was born. Her work includes “Slouching
Towards Bethlehem" and “Play it as it Lays."
1934 Dec 5, Italian and
Ethiopian troops clashed at the Ualual on disputed Somali-Ethiopian
1935 Dec 5, Calvin Trillin,
journalist and writer, was born.
1936 Dec 5, Albert Walter Jr.
(22) was executed by hanging at San Quentin, Ca. He had admitted to
strangling a girl in San Francisco nearly 6 months earlier.
(SSFC, 12/4/11, DB p.46)
1936 Dec 5, Armenian SSR,
Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR became
constituent republics of Soviet Union.
1936 Dec 5, The New
Constitution in the Soviet Union promised universal suffrage, but
the Communist Party remained the only legal political party.
1937 Dec 5, The Lindberghs
arrived in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary
1940 Dec 5, Jan Kubelik (60),
1941 Dec 5, President Roosevelt
sent a message to Japanese Emperor Hirohito expressing hope that
gathering war clouds would be dispelled. Hirohito smiled
enigmatically, knowing that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor the next
1941 Dec 5, US aircraft carrier
Lexington and 5 heavy cruisers steamed out of Pearl Harbor.
1941 Dec 5, Sister Elizabeth
Kenny's new treatment for infantile paralysis, polio, was approved.
1941 Dec 5, Russian offensive
in Moscow drove out the Nazi army.
1942 Dec 5, Arthur
Seyss-Inquart ordered students in Nazi Germany to work.
1945 Dec 5, Four TBM Avenger
bombers disappear approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida,
in what is considered the Bermuda Triangle.
1945 Dec 5, Petras Kalpokas
(b.1880), Lithuanian painter, died in Kaunas.
1946 Dec 5, Jose Carreras,
opera tenor (I Lombardi, Werther, Three Tenors), was born in
1946 Dec 5, President Truman
created the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
1950 Dec 5, Pyongyang in Korea
fell to the invading Chinese army.
1951 Dec 5, "Dragnet" premiered
1951 Dec 5, "Shoeless" Joe
Jackson, of baseball's "Black Sox" scandal, died.
1952 Dec 5-1952 Dec 8, A 4-day
London smog killed 4,703 people. Oxides of sulfur and other
irritants from coal smoke were blamed.
1953 Dec 5, Italy and
Yugoslavia agreed to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.
1955 Dec 5, The US Montgomery
Bus Boycott began in 1955. In Montgomery, Alabama, Martin Luther
King Jr. organized a bus boycott and began the civil rights movement
to end segregation. Black residents chose Mr. King to head The
Montgomery Improvement Association, formed to sustain the protest
against segregation policies on the municipal buses.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(TMC, 1994, p.1955)(SFEM, 2/2/97,
1956 Dec 5, Thornton Wilder's
"Matchmaker," premiered in NYC.
1957 Dec 5, The William Inge
play, “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," opened at New York's
Music Box Theatre and ran for a total of 468 performances, closing
on January 17, 1959. It was directed by Elia Kazan. The drama was
reworked by Inge from his earlier play, Farther Off from Heaven,
first staged in 1947 at Margo Jones' Theatre '47 in Dallas, Texas.
1962 Dec 5, Pres. Kennedy
discussed stockpiling nuclear weapons to deter Soviet attacks with
senior staff including Def. Sec. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A4)
1966 Dec 5,
Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory headed for Hanoi, North
Vietnam despite federal warnings against it.
1967 Dec 5, Benjamin Spock and
Allen Ginsberg were arrested for protesting Vietnam war.
1968 Dec 5, Eduardo Castera, a
Latin successfully hijacked a B-727 from Tampa to Cuba.
1972 Dec 5, The Nixon
administration, in response to recent hijackings, ordered airports
to screen every passenger with a metal detector, inspect the
contents of carry-ones and station a local police officer or
sheriff’s deputy at every one of the nation’s 531 major commercial
facilities. In 2013 Brendan I. Koerner authored “The Skies Belong to
Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking."
(SSFC, 6/30/13, p.F4)
1972 Dec 5, Gough Whitlam
became prime minister of Australia. He served to Nov 11, 1975.
1973 Dec 5, Paul McCartney
released his "Band on the Run" album.
1974 Dec 5, The TV show "Monty
Python's Flying Circus" was last shown on BBC. It had premiered on
Oct 5, 1969.
1978 Dec 5, The American space
probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first
information and picture of the planet to scientists in Mountain
1978 Dec 5, Afghan Pres. Nur
Mohammad Tarakai, head of People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
(PDPA), signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union.
1979 Dec 5, Feminist Sonia
Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church because of
her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the
1979 Dec 5, Teresa De Simone
(22) was found strangled in her car outside the pub where she worked
in Southampton, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of London. Sean
Hodgson initially confessed to the killing, but he later recanted
and pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued he was a pathological
liar and any confession he made was false. In 2009 Hodgson was
released from prison based on DNA evidence.
1982 Dec 5, Seattle Univ.
Baptist Church declared sanctuary for Central American refugees.
1987 Dec 5, FBI agents searched
a federal prison where Cuban inmates had peacefully ended an 11-day
hostage siege the day before. The agents reported finding bottle
bombs and homemade machetes, but no booby-traps or bodies.
1987 Dec 5, In Berkeley, Ca.,
the body of Deanna Butterfield (21) was found in Tilden Park. In
2006 DNA evidence linked William Huff to the murder, but there was
insufficient evidence to charge him. In 2015 Huff was charged for
this murder and another in 1992 in San Pablo.
(SFC, 4/8/15, p.D1)
1988 Dec 5, A federal grand
jury in North Carolina indicted PTL founder Jim Bakker and former
aide Richard Dortch on fraud and conspiracy charges. Bakker was
convicted of all counts; Dortch pleaded guilty to four counts and
cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence.
1988 Dec 5, The US Space
Shuttle Atlantis continued its classified mission.
1989 Dec 5, East Germany's
former leaders, including ousted Communist Party chief Erich
Honecker, were placed under house arrest.
1989 Dec 5, A French TGV train
reached a world record speed of 482.4 kph.
1990 Dec 5, President Bush, on
a visit to Argentina, said he was “not optimistic" that Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein would withdraw from Kuwait without a fight.
1991 Dec 5, Samuel K. Skinner
was named White House chief of staff by President Bush, succeeding
John H. Sununu.
1991 Dec 5, Richard Speck, who
murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966 died of a heart
attack in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.3A)(AP, 7/14/97)(AP,
1992 Dec 5, Ralph Klein, a
Progressive Conservative, was elected premier of Alberta. He began
to lead Canada in deregulation and privatization. Klein retired at
the end of 2006.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.37)(Econ, 12/2/06, p.44)
1992 Dec 5, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin narrowly kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers,
defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of
reformers under the control of Russia's Congress.
1993 Dec 5, Astronauts began
the repair of Hubble telescope in space.
1993 Dec 5, A Palestinian
boarded a bus and opened fire with an assault rifle in the first
major attack in Israel since the signing of a peace pact with the
PLO; the gunman killed a reservist before being gunned down.
1994 Dec 5, President Clinton,
on a whirlwind visit to the Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Budapest, Hungary, urged European leaders to "prevent future
Bosnias." In the so-called Budapest memorandum Britain, Russia and
the US affirmed their commitment to respect the independence,
sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine.
(AP, 12/5/99)(AFP, 3/3/14)
1994 Dec 5, Newt Gingrich was
elected the first Republican speaker of the US House in four
1994 Dec 5, The Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (START I) went into effect and the United States
and Russia began to consider ratification of START II.
1994 Dec 5, In India’s Bihar
state a mob that pulled senior government official G. Krishnaiah out
of his car and beat him unconscious before shooting him to death
because the official's car had inadvertently crossed paths with the
funeral procession of a noted underworld don and aspiring
politician, Chottan Shukla. In 2007 Anand Mohan and two other
politicians were sentenced to hang for their role in the attack.
Four others, including Mohan's wife, Lovely Anand — also a former
member of parliament — were sentenced to life in prison by the court
in Patna, the capital of Bihar state.
1995 Dec 5, In the first hint
of movement at the budget talks, White House officials and
Democratic congressional leaders said they were preparing a
seven-year budget-balancing plan.
1995 Dec 5, Stanley Keith
Runcorn (73), a professor in geophysics, was killed by Paul Bradford
Cain (26), a kickboxer, at the Hotel San Diego. Cain was convicted
in 1997 of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A20)
1995 Dec 5, Former South Korean
president Roh Tae-woo, four aides and a dozen top businessmen were
indicted in a bribes-for-favors scandal.
1996 Dec 5, President Clinton
announced the foreign policy team for his second term, including
Madeleine Albright as the first female secretary of state, Sen.
William Cohen of Maine, a Republican, as defense secretary and
Anthony Lake as CIA director.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/97)
1996 Dec 5, Alan Greenspan
warned that investors could be succumbing to “irrational
exuberance." Nasdaq closed at 1300.12.
(WSJ, 7/24/02, p.A1)
1996 Dec 5, An African Summit
opened in Burkina Faso. New candidates for the position of UN
Secretary-general were to be considered.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 5, In Colombia Isidro
Gil, a union leader at a Carepa Coca-Cola bottling plant, was killed
at work. It was later alleged that the plant manager hired
right-wing paramilitary to help wipe out union activity. In 2002 the
labor union filed suit against Coca-Cola in Miami.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A11)
1996 Dec 5, In Iran the
Parliament passed legislation that banned the use of foreign words
and names in the country. Only Farsi language names would be
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 5, In Serbia Milosevic
allowed the radio stations to resume broadcasting. The disputed
elections were to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 12/6/96, p.B2)
1997 Dec 5, Pres. Clinton said
US troops in Haiti will continue their presence. Some 300-500 troops
were posted on a rotating basis for civil affairs work with an
additional 150 US military police for security.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A10)
1997 Dec 5, The space shuttle
Columbia returned from a 16-day mission that had been marred by the
bungled release of a satellite.
1997 Dec 5, The World Trade
Organization rejected American claims that the Fuji film company had
conspired with the Japanese government to keep Eastman Kodak
products out of Japan.
(SFC, 12/5/97, p.C3)(AP, 12/5/98)
1997 Dec 5, In India explosions
on 3 separate passenger trains left at least 10 dead and 64 injured
in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, In Mexico City
Mayor Cuautemoc Cardenas (63) was sworn into office. He named Jesus
Carrola as head of the judicial police.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A8)(SFC, 12/11/97, p.C3)
1997 Dec 5, Pres. Yeltsin
visited the lower house of parliament and prodded the passage of the
new budget with austere spending plans.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, In Spain a
politician’s bodyguard was shot to death hours before authorities
arrested 19 of 23 leaders of the pro-Basque independence party,
Herri Batasuna, in San Sebastian. Protestors also commandeered a bus
and burned it.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 5, In northern Sri
Lanka Heavy fighting left some 250 dead. Guerrillas turned over the
bodies of 111 government soldiers and some 150 Tamil rebel were
believed killed in Vavuniya.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 5, Turkish troops
began an offensive against Turkish Kurds in northern Iraq. The
20,000 man force was to be assisted by 8,000 men of the Kurdistan
Democratic party, an Iraqi group.
(SFC, 12/6/97, p.A9)
1998 Dec 5, James P. Hoffa
claimed the Teamsters presidency after challenger Tom Leedham
conceded defeat in the union's presidential election.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A9)(AP, 12/5/99)
1998 Dec 5, Former Senator
Albert Gore Senior (90), father of the vice president, died at his
home in Carthage, Tenn.
1998 Dec 5, In Nigeria local
government elections were held.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 5, In Paraguay the
ruling Colorado Pary expelled former army chief Lino Oviedo and
accused Pres. Raul Cubas of defying the constitution for failing
obey a Supreme Court ruling to send Oviedo back to prison.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A28)
1998 Dec 5, In South Korea the
first Japanese film since 1945 was screened. “Hana Bi" (Fireworks)
was the first film shown since a ban on Japanese work was lifted in
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 5, Pakistan's sinking
credit rating and unsuccessful talks with U.S. officials in
Washington caused a major setback to the stock market.
1999 Dec 5, AFL-CIO chief John
Sweeney welcomed the collapse of World Trade Organization talks in
Seattle and the failure to agree on a new round of negotiations,
telling CBS’ “Face the Nation," “No deal is better than a bad deal."
1999 Dec 5, Cuban President
Fidel Castro demanded that the United States return five-year-old
Elian Gonzalez, who was rescued at sea, to his father in Cuba within
1999 Dec 5, In France Michele
Alliot-Marie (53) was elected as the 1st female leader of the
conservative Rally for the Republic.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 5, In Vietnam 4 days
of rain caused flooding that left over 109 people dead.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.B3)
2000 Dec 5, The US Nasdaq
market rose 274 points, 10.5%, to 2889 on hints from Greenspan that
interest rates may be cut. The Dow rose 338 to 10,898.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 5, Florida's highest
court kept the presidential race on the legal fast track, agreeing
to a speedy hearing of Al Gore's appeal of a ruling that in effect
awarded George W. Bush the state's 25 electoral votes.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/01)
2000 Dec 5, The Israeli and
Palestinian violence was reported to have cost the Palestinians over
$500 million in lost wages and sales since late September.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 5, In the Ivory Coast
police battled opposition supporters for a 2nd day and at least 10
people were killed.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 5, In Japan Prime
Minister Yoshiro Mori appointed a new Cabinet that included 2 former
prime ministers, Miyazawa and Hashimoto.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 5, In Mexico Adolfo
Aguilar Zinser, the new chief of the national security council,
vowed to end illegal wiretapping.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 5, In Mexico City
Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador took office as mayor and vowed to
delegate power and resources down to the 1,352 neighborhood
governments. Obrador appointed women to 9 of his 15 cabinet seats.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 5, In South Africa 7
people were killed at 2 polling stations during the 2nd all-race
municipal elections. The elections slashed the number of
municipalities from 843 to 284 with 6 mega cities, each presided by
a single mayor. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) won at
least 59% of the contests.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 12/7/00, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, The FBI arrested
escaped fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner in St. Louis. Waagner was
suspected of mailing as many as 550 anthrax hoax letters to abortion
clinics. He was also wanted for bank robbery and other offenses. In
2002 Waagner was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC,
2001 Dec 5, The National Park
Service web site was shut down by court order to keep hackers from
accessing Indian tribal funds.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, Nasa launched space
shuttle Endeavour to deliver a new 3-man crew to the Alpha space
station. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko flew to replace Doug
Culbertson as skipper.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)
2001 Dec 5, The DJIA gained 129
to finish above 10,000 for the 1st time in 3 months.
(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D8)
2001 Dec 5, Marjorie Dabney
(70) of Bakersfield, Ca., disappeared from the Dallas-Fort Worth
Airport. In 2008 DNA evidence identified her remains, which were
found in a field 15 miles from the airport.
(SFC, 12/8/08, p.A4)
2001 Dec 5, A 2000-pound US
bomb killed 3 American Green Berets near Kandahar along with 18
Afghan fighters. 20 Americans were injured along with 18 Afghan
fighters including newly appointed Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A1,15)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, Sir Peter Blake
(53) of New Zealand, 2-time America’s Cup winner, was killed on the
research vessel Seamaster by gunmen at Macapa, Brazil, near the
mouth of the Amazon. 7 men were arrested 2 days later and an 8th was
still sought. The final 2 suspects were arrested Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)(SFC,
2001 Dec 5, Afghan delegates in
Koenigswinter, Germany, signed an agreement for an interim
post-Taliban government to begin Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/02)
2001 Dec 5, In Jerusalem
another suicide bomber sd’d outside a hotel and 2 people were
injured. Sharon gave Arafat a 12-hour reprieve to arrest those
responsible for the attacks.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 5, Russia agreed to
cut its oil exports by 150,000 barrels a day to satisfy OPEC
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A3)
2002 Dec 5, Trent Lott, Senate
Republican leader from Mississippi, made remarks that supported Sen.
Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist platform. The resulting
firestorm prompted Lott to resign his leadership position. Strom
Thurmond, the oldest and longest-serving senator in history,
celebrated his 100th birthday on Capitol Hill.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.A4)(AP, 12/5/03)
2002 Dec 5, In Kansas City, Mo.
a pharmacist who had diluted chemotherapy drugs given to thousands
of cancer patients was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
2002 Dec 5, A severe ice and
snow storm snarled the eastern US down into the Carolinas, where
over a million customers lost power. 29 deaths were blamed on the
storm and its aftermath.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A3)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 5, The genetic code of
the Black 6 mouse, the most common breed of laboratory mouse, was
published in Nature.
(SFC, 12/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, Roone Arledge (71),
ABC executive, died in New York.
2002 Dec 5, In Brazil 6 South
American presidents convened a summit of the continent's largest
trading bloc, aiming to work out a timetable for a free trade
agreement covering most of the continent.
2002 Dec 5, Ne Win (91), former
general and dictator, died in Yangon. His 26 years in power
bankrupted Myanmar (Burma) economically and spiritually.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A30)(WSJ, 12/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, In Canada the high
court ruled that higher life forms such as mice can't be patented.
(WSJ, 12/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 5, Kenya’s Pres. Moi
and Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi met at the White House with Pres. Bush
to discuss terrorism as well as drought, AIDS and other problems
2002 Dec 5, An explosion at a
McDonald's Restaurant in Makassar on Sulawesi island killed three
people and seriously wounded 11. A 2nd blast took place an hour
later in a car showroom owned by Indonesia's Social Welfare Minister
2002 Dec 5, In Mexico City an
angry mob beat to death two of three youths who allegedly tried to
rob a taxi driver.
2002 Dec 5, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded at the Macedonian Consulate and 3 people were killed.
Revenge for a Mar 2 killing of 7 militants in Skopje was suspected.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A16)
2003 Dec 5, A federal judge in
Utah threw out the case against two civic leaders accused of bribery
in their efforts to bring the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City.
2003 Dec 5, The two makers of
flu shots in the United States, Chiron and Aventis Pasteur,
announced they had run out of vaccine and would not be able to meet
a surge in demand.
2003 Dec 5, Yahoo Inc. said it
is working on technology to combat e-mail spam by changing the way
the Internet works to require authentication of a message's sender.
2003 Dec 5, In eastern
Afghanistan 6 children were crushed to death by a collapsing wall
during an assault by U.S. forces on a weapons compound.
2003 Dec 5, Shanghai's
government reported that its population has surged to more than 20
million people, soaring by 3 million over the past year amid a flood
of job seekers from other parts of China.
2003 Dec 5, Hard-line
vigilantes attacked a close aide to Iran's president as he was about
to give a speech, repeatedly punching and kicking him, his wife.
2003 Dec 5, Israeli military
allowed a market in the divided West Bank city of Hebron to open for
the first time in more than a year.
2003 Dec 5, The Israeli
military shot and killed two Palestinians, armed with grenades and
an explosive device, crawling toward a security barrier separating
the Gaza Strip from Israel.
2003 Dec 5, A shrapnel-filled
bomb believed strapped to a suicide attacker ripped apart a commuter
train near Chechnya, killing 44 people and wounding nearly 200.
Pres. Putin called it an attempt to disrupt weekend parliamentary
2003 Dec 5, A bus plunged into
a valley in the northern Mexico state of Zacatecas, killing 15
people and injuring 15 others.
2003 Dec 5, In Nigeria in the
opening session of the summit of Britain and its former colonies
British PM Tony Blair urged African leaders not to lift Zimbabwe's
suspension from the Commonwealth.
2003 Dec 5, Syria continued to
reject US pressure to hand over an estimated $250 million that
Saddam Hussein's regime had deposited there.
(WSJ, 12/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 5, In Tunisia an
informal, two-day summit brought leaders from five southern European
countries together with five of their counterparts from across the
2004 Dec 5, US Senator McCain
demanded that baseball players and owners take action to tighten
drug testing and threatened legislation to that end.
(WSJ, 12/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 5, In Bolivia Indian
and peasant organizations promising better access to health care and
education won every major city in local elections, trouncing
2004 Dec 5, Egypt freed an
Israeli Arab businessman convicted of spying in exchange for
Israel's release of six Egyptian students.
2004 Dec 5, In Abkhazia
(Georgia) the two candidates vying for the region's presidency
agreed to conduct new elections and run on a joint ticket.
2004 Dec 5, Hungarians voted in
a referendum on extending citizenship to millions of ethnic
Hungarians living in the region.
2004 Dec 5, Gunmen opened fire
at the bus as it dropped off Iraqis employed by coalition forces at
a weapons dump in Tikrit. 17 people died and 13 were wounded. A
suicide car bomber drove into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in
Beiji. 3 guardsmen, including a company commander, were killed and
18 wounded. Guerrillas ambushed a joint Iraqi-coalition patrol in
Latifiyah and attacked Iraqi National Guardsmen patrolling near
Samarra. 2 Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded.
2004 Dec 5, In Kashmir a
remote-controlled roadside bomb blew up an army patrol car in a
pre-dawn attack, killing an Indian army major and 10 other soldiers.
2004 Dec 5, In Kazakhstan 23
people died and three others were injured in an explosion at a coal
mine in the Karaganda region.
2004 Dec 5, Authorities outside
Mexico City found the body of Enrique Salinas (51), the former Pres.
Salinas’ brother, with a bag tied around his head. 2 federal police
officers were arrested in 2005 for trying to extort money Salinas
prior to his murder.
2004 Dec 5, In Nigeria hundreds
of protesters besieged two oil platforms run by Royal Dutch/Shell
Group Cos. and ChevronTexaco Corp. in the southern oil region,
shutting down production of 90,000 barrels of oil a day.
2004 Dec 5, It was reported
that the Norwegian firm Hydro and Qatar's state energy company
signed a deal to build one of world's largest aluminium plants in
the gas-rich Gulf state at a cost of three billion dollars.
2004 Dec 5, In Ramallah Jad
al-Hindi (19) was abducted by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a
violent militant group linked to the dominant Fatah movement. Police
found al-Hindi's body the next day, saying he had been shot in the
head 12 times.
2004 Dec 5, President Vladimir
Putin made the first official visit by a Russian leader to Turkey,
seeking to boost trade and counterterrorism cooperation between the
2004 Dec 5, Carlos Moya beat
Andy Roddick 6-2, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5) to clinch Spain's second Davis
2004 Dec 5, Thailand airdropped
nearly 100 million Japanese-style origami cranes over the
predominantly Muslim southern region in a psychological effort
toward peace. A series of bomb attacks followed the next day.
2005 Dec 5, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice denied the United States engaged in torture or
lesser forms of cruel treatment against terror suspects.
2005 ABC News named Elizabeth
Vargas and Bob Woodruff co-anchors of "World News Tonight,"
replacing the late Peter Jennings.
2005 Dec 5, Intel Chairman
Craig Barrett said the chip-maker will invest more than $1 billion
in the next five years to expand its operations in India and in
local technology companies.
2005 Dec 5, A new version of
King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, premiered in NYC.
(Econ, 12/10/05, p.68)
2005 Dec 5, Edward L. Masry,
the personal-injury lawyer portrayed by Albert Finney in the
Oscar-winning movie "Erin Brockovich," died in Thousand Oaks,
Calif., at age 73.
2005 Dec 5, Austria officially
finished paying out nearly $350 million in restitution to former
slave and forced laborers compelled to work during WW II under Nazi
(SFC, 12/6/05, p.A8)
2005 Dec 5, Gay couples in
Britain began registering for civil partnerships as a law took
effect giving them many of the same legal rights as married
2005 Dec 5, China ordered 150
Airbus single-aisle A320 airliners, more than twice as many plane
orders as the company's U.S.-based rival Boeing Co. snagged from
China last month.
2005 Dec 5, In Congo a
magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika region of East
Africa toppling dozens of homes in Kalemie and burying children in
the rubble. Several people were reported killed.
(AP, 12/05/05)(WSJ, 12/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 5, France's highest
administrative body ruled that Sikhs can wear their turbans in
drivers' license photos, overturning an earlier denial of a license
to a Sikh who refused to take off his turban for the photo.
2005 Dec 5, UN peacekeepers at
a checkpoint in Port-au-Prince opened fire on a car full of Haitian
police officers wounding two.
2005 Dec 5, In India a freight
train derailed, killing six people and injuring 50 others in a
remote district of eastern Orissa state.
2005 Dec 5, In Iraq
unidentified gunmen abducted a French engineer as he was on his way
to work in Baghdad. The trial of Saddam Hussein resumed in Baghdad.
French engineer Bernard Planche was kidnapped in Baghdad. He was
(AP, 12/05/05)(AP, 12/5/06)
2005 Dec 5, Opposition leaders
in Kazakhstan said that the overwhelming re-election of President
Nursultan Nazarbayev should be declared invalid, and foreign
observers said the balloting did not meet international standards.
2005 Dec 5, Myanmar's military
junta reopened a key national constitutional convention.
2005 Dec 5, Frits Philips
(100), Dutch businessman, grandson of the founder of Philips, died.
He turned a family business into Philips Electronics in 40 years of
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/dfnu4)
2005 Dec 5, In southeastern
Nigeria Separatist protesters demanding authorities release their
leader shut down businesses and banks, and an activist said security
forces opened fire on the crowd, killing three people.
2005 Dec 5, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up among shoppers waiting to enter a
mall in the Israeli town of Netanya, killing at least 5 people and
wounding more than 30 others.
2005 Dec 5, Officials said
courts in Uzbekistan have convicted another 58 alleged participants
of the May uprising in Andijan and sentenced them to up to 20 years
2005 Dec 5, In Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez's governing party won full control of the
167-National Assembly, claiming a sweeping victory in congressional
elections boycotted by major opposition parties.
2005 Dec 5, In Venezuela a Dec
3 explosion that damaged an oil pipeline supplying the country's
largest refinery was reported to have been caused by government foes
attempting to disrupt congressional elections. Interior Minister
Jesse Chacon said investigators found remnants of C-4 explosives at
three spots on the pipeline.
2006 Dec 5, Robert Gates won
speedy and unanimous approval from the Senate Armed Services
Committee to be secretary of defense.
2006 Dec 5, New York became the
first city in the nation to ban artery-clogging trans fats at
restaurants. The ban became effective July 1, 2007.
(AP, 12/6/06)(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2006 Dec 5, An annual US report
put Minnesota at the top of its health rankings for the fourth
straight year, while concluding that the nation's health improved
2006 Dec 5, In Alabama Geontae
Glass, a 5-year-old boy who was asleep in the back of a car when it
was stolen from a parking lot a day earlier, was found dead in a
2006 Dec 5, A large sunspot
rounded the sun's eastern limb and with little warning it exploded.
On the "Richter scale" of solar flares, which ranks X1 as a big
event, the blast registered X9, making it one of the strongest
flares of the past 30 years.
2006 Dec 5, A suicide bomber
plowed his car into a convoy of NATO troops in Afghanistan's
southern city of Kandahar, wounding nine civilians and two soldiers.
2006 Dec 5, In Brazil a court
said it had released the passports of two US pilots of a private jet
involved in a collision with a Boeing 737 over the Amazon that
killed 154 people.
2006 Dec 5, British PM Tony
Blair and Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed economic reform
and how to reconcile the people of the landlocked African state
still scarred by the 1994 genocide. They also talked about the
conflict in the western Darfur region of Sudan, where Rwanda has
troops on the ground as part of the African Union force.
2006 Dec 5, The EU presidency
backed a proposal to partially suspend EU membership talks with
Turkey because of Ankara's refusal to open up to trade with Cyprus.
2006 Dec 5, The military seized
control of Fiji after weeks of threats, locking down the capital
with armed troops and isolating at home the elected leader whose
last-minute pleas for help from foreign forces were rejected.
Commodore Frank Bainimarama named Dr. Jona Senilagakali, a military
medic with no political experience, as caretaker prime minister and
said a full interim government would be appointed next week to see
the country through to elections that would restore democracy
sometime in the future. PM Laisenia Qarase, who had caved in to all
demands, was deposed anyway. Pres. Ratu Josefa Iloilo, refused to
rubber-stamp Bainimarama’s “doctrine of necessity."
(AP, 12/5/06)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.49)
2006 Dec 5, Knut became the
first polar bear born to be born in Germany’s Berlin Zoo in 30
years. He was rejected by his mother and spent his first 44 days in
an incubator. Zookeeper Thomas Doerflein (d.2008 at 44) raised the
cub by hand.
2006 Dec 5, In Germany world
chess champion Vladimir Kramnik lost the sixth and decisive game
against computer program Deep Fritz, ceding a hard-fought Man vs.
Machine match 4-2.
2006 Dec 5, In Haiti at least 8
people were killed over the last few days in the Martissant slum
during a gang feud set off by the Dec 3 murder of a police officer.
The officer's killing reignited an ongoing battle between the rival
Grand Ravine and Ti Manchet gangs.
2006 Dec 5, An Indian court
sentenced Shibu Soren, former cabinet coal minister, to life behind
bars for conspiracy in the abduction and murder of an aide. The
court had found him guilty of the 1994 murder and abduction of his
former private secretary, Shashi Nath Jha, who was allegedly
blackmailing him over a corruption scandal.
2006 Dec 5, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to stick by the nuclear program and issued
a new threat to downgrade relations with the EU if European
negotiators opted for tough sanctions. A media rights group warned
that Internet censorship in Iran is on the rise after Iran blocked
access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube.com.
2006 Dec 5, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki said his government will send envoys to neighboring
countries to pave the way for a regional conference on ending the
rampant violence. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top American
military spokesman in Iraq, said the US military expects all of Iraq
to be under the control of Iraqi forces by mid-2007. Suspected
insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite
government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them. In
another attack in the capital, two car bombs exploded in a
commercial district, killing 15 other Iraqis.
2006 Dec 5, An Italian
prosecutor asked for the indictment of 26 Americans and Italian
secret service officials on a charge of kidnapping an Egyptian
cleric in Milan in 2003.
2006 Dec 5, Ivory Coast police
fired into a crowd protesting President Laurent Gbagbo's regime and
killed one person, as political opponents mounted rallies in several
towns in the southern part of the divided West African country.
2006 Dec 5, Jamaica reported 15
cases of malaria in the Kingston area, the first in 15 years.
(WSJ, 12/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 5, Kuwait's highest
court overturned the conviction of Nasser Najr al-Mutairi, a former
Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was returned to the emirate in 2005.
2006 Dec 5, Mexico’s Pres.
Calderon, under pressure to promote the social programs his leftist
rival championed, presented an austere budget that increases
spending for social programs to help the country's poorest. Mexican
police arrested Flavio Sosa, the symbolic leader of a six-month-long
protest movement that took over southern Oaxaca city, hours after he
gave a news conference saying he had come to the capital to start
talks with the government.
2006 Dec 5, Pakistan President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he is willing to give up its claim to all
of Kashmir if India agrees that the disputed Himalayan region should
become self-governing and largely autonomous. Troops shot dead three
Islamic militants in Indian Kashmir, while 19 civilians were injured
and a guerrilla was killed in a grenade blast.
(AP, 12/5/06)(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, The first foreign
aid flights of food and medicines arrived in the eastern
Philippines. Officials said devastating mudslides had left at least
1,266 people dead or missing.
2006 Dec 5, A Russian court
sentenced Ruslan Melnik (22), a leader of an extremist group known
as the Mad Crowd, to 3 1/2 years in prison for hate crime attacks on
2006 Dec 5, Somalia's
government ruled out peace talks with the country's Islamic
movement, citing truce violations, heightening fears of an all-out
2006 Dec 5, In South Africa the
findings of a new report said nearly 300 million dollars worth of
gold is stolen every year by underground pirates from mines. The
report found that 41% of gold thieves were mine employees and 56%
2006 Dec 5, A shell apparently
fired by Congolese troops fighting forces loyal to a dissident
general near the Ugandan border landed among a group of some 12,000
refugees in Uganda, killing at least seven.
2006 Dec 5, Pro-Moroccan
leaders in the Western Sahara presented a self-rule plan for a
government, parliament and legal system in the territory, while
acknowledging Rabat's sovereignty.
2006 Dec 5, Typhoon Durian
slammed into Vietnam's southern coast as a tropical storm. A Dec 7
government report said nearly 100 people were killed or are missing
after the typhoon hit the southern coast.
(AP, 12/6/06)(Reuters, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Yemen a gunman
opened fire outside the US Embassy, but Yemeni guards quickly shot
and arrested him.
2006 Dec 5, Zimbabwe's top
union body vowed to stage new protests against the government,
saying it had failed to address the plight of workers reeling under
four-digit inflation, high taxes and a shrinking labor market.
2007 Dec 5, President George W.
Bush, trying to keep pressure on Iran, called on Tehran to "come
clean" about the scope of its nuclear activities or else face
2007 Dec 5, California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted the 2007
California Hall of Fame inductees: Ansel Adams, Milton Berle, Steve
Jobs, Willie Mays, Robert Mondavi, Rita Moreno, Jackie Robinson,
Jonas Salk, M.D., John Steinbeck, Elizabeth Taylor, Earl Warren,
John Wayne, and Tiger Woods.
2007 Dec 5, In Omaha, Nebraska,
Robert A. Hawkins (19) sprayed the third floor of the Von Maur
department store in Westroads Mall with gunfire. When the shooting
was over, Hawkins killed himself. His victims included six store
employees and two customers. An autopsy report later indicated that
only some Valium in his system.
(AP, 12/6/07)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2007 Dec 5, It was reported
that the world’s largest helium reserve near Amarillo, Texas, was
expected to run out by 2015. The Bush Dome, begun as a reserve by
the government in 1925, supplied 35% of the world’s current usage.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 5, Andrew Imbrie
(b.1921), composer and teacher, died in Berkeley, Ca. His work
included the opera “Angle of Repose", which was commissioned and
premiered (1976) by the SF Opera.
(SFC, 12/8/07, p.B3)
2007 Dec 5, Afghan forces
clashed with Taliban who had blocked a main highway in the south,
killing 10 militants. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden
car into a minibus carrying Afghan soldiers south of Kabul, killing
at least 13 people and wounding 20 others.
2007 Dec 5, An international
aid organization said Angolan soldiers routinely and repeatedly rape
Congolese women who have crossed the border illegally in search of
work in the diamond fields.
2007 Dec 5, Australia’s PM
Kevin Rudd spoke at the state funeral for Bernie Banton (61), who
died from an asbestos-related disease he contracted while working
for building products company James Hardie. Banton's dogged campaign
ultimately led to the establishment of a 4 billion dollar (3.5
billion US) compensation fund for victims of Hardie's asbestos
2007 Dec 5, Bolivian President
Evo Morales announced he would ask for a referendum on whether he
should remain president, and challenged opposition governors to do
2007 Dec 5, In Bosnia 4 men
wearing police uniforms and armed with automatic weapons stormed
Sarajevo international airport's cargo zone and stole $1.9 million.
2007 Dec 5, British police
arrested John Darwin (57) on fraud charges, five years after he
vanished in an apparent canoeing accident in the North Sea, only to
reappear last weekend, claiming he had amnesia.
2007 Dec 5, Congo's army said
it retook a strategic town on from rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi
General Laurent Nkunda in the violence-torn eastern province of
2007 Dec 5, French police
arrested two armed people in connection with a weekend shooting that
left two Spanish officers dead in what authorities described as the
first Basque-related killings in France in more than three decades.
2007 Dec 5, In Germany 3 men
were convicted of aiding the al-Qaida in Germany, including one who
prosecutors say was part of the terrorist network's command
structure and had contact with top leaders.
2007 Dec 5, In Darry, Germany,
the bodies of 5 young boys, ages 3 to 9, were found in their home
after their 31-year-old mother told a doctor where they were.
Authorities in eastern Germany announced they had found the bodies
of three infant girls and had taken their mother into custody on
2007 Dec 5, Karlheinz
Stockhausen (b.1928), German avant-garde composer, died. His
innovative electronic works made him one of the most important
composers of the postwar era. His work included “Kontakte" (1959-60)
and “Stimmung" (1968), a sextet for unaccompanied voices on a 6-note
chord of B-flat.
(AP, 12/8/07)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.95)
2007 Dec 5, A survey said
Indian business confidence has slumped to a five-year low on the
back of flagging exports, aggressive monetary tightening and a
rising rupee that has slowed the economy.
2007 Dec 5, A blast hit the
northern city of Mosul. Police said explosives hidden in a parked
car killed a civilian and wounded seven others. A car bomb exploded
in a largely Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and killed at least 14
people. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to the
capital that security and stability were within reach, although more
work is needed. In Baqouba a suicide car bomber targeted a bus
station and killed five civilians with at least 20 others wounded.
In Kirkuk a parked car bomb killed three Kurdish soldiers in a
convoy guarding a police chief.
2007 Dec 5, Latvia's
center-right government resigned after coming under intense
criticism for firing a popular anti-corruption investigator and
failing to restrain inflation.
2007 Dec 5, Liberia cleared its
debt arrears with the World Bank, paving the way for new development
lending and debt cancellation that will help the West African
country rebuild after years of civil war.
2007 Dec 5, Mexican police
conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at
clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve
where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter. Authorities in the
Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said that they plan to exhume
the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified people buried in common
graves and take DNA samples in an attempt to identify them.
(AP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 5, Six judges on
Nicaragua's Supreme Court threw out a law meant to block
neighborhood councils that will report directly to President Daniel
Ortega. But other judges call the ruling itself illegal.
2007 Dec 5, Two Palestinian
militants were killed by Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza. Lt.
Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel's army has completed plans for a
large offensive in the Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government
approval for the action.
2007 Dec 5, Sri Lanka’s defense
ministry said at least 36 people including 7 soldiers were killed in
fresh fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels in the
embattled north. A land mine explosion blamed on Tamil separatists
tore through a passenger bus crowded with civilians in northern Sri
Lanka, killing at least 16 people and wounding 22 others.
(AFP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 5, Turkish soldiers
killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14
in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq.
2008 Dec 5, The US and China
pledged to work together to tackle global financial turmoil as they
wrapped up economic talks but left open whether the high-level
dialogue will continue under President-elect Barack Obama.
2008 Dec 5, The US labor Dept.
said employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34
years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic
proof the country is careening deeper into recession.
2008 Dec 5, O.J. Simpson was
sentenced in Las Vegas from 9 to 33 years in prison for kidnapping
and assaulting two sports memorabilia dealers with a deadly weapon.
2008 Dec 5, Cliff Lambert (74),
a Palm Springs retiree, was stabbed to death and buried in the
desert. To date his body has not been found. The murder was
orchestrated by Kaushal Niroula, a SF New College exchange student
from Nepal along with 2 other students including Craig McCarthy of
Daly City. Miguel Bustamante was the alleged murderer. In 2010 the
three faced trial on murder charges. McCarthy (30) pleaded guilty to
lesser charges and testified against the others. The plot to kill
Lambert, sell his home and take his assets also included Danny
Garcia and SF attorney David Replogle. On Dec 3, 2011, Replogle and
Bustamante were convicted of 10 criminal counts including
first-degree murder. On Sep 7, 2012, Niroula and Garcia were
convicted of first-degree murder and other charges.
(SSFC, 5/23/10, p.A17)(SSFC, 9/5/10, p.C3)(SFC,
1/4/11, p.C2)(SFC, 9/8/12, p.C4)
2008 Dec 5, Nina Foch (b.1924),
Dutch-born Hollywood film star, died in Los Angeles. Her films
included “An American in Paris" (1951).
(SFC, 12/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 5, In Afghanistan 3
Canadian soldiers were killed by a massive bomb, bringing to 100 the
number who have lost their lives since the country's military
mission there started in 2002.
2008 Dec 5, Australia's driest
state was forced to purchase water for the first time to ensure
adequate supplies in the midst of a drought. Karlene Maywald, state
water security minister, said South Australia has purchased 61
billion gallons (231 gigaliters) of water so that Adelaide, the
state capital, will have enough water for 2009 even if the drought
2008 Dec 5, In southern China
about 100 factory owners and employees held up red protest banners
outside a government building, demanding that officials help them
collect more than $13 million in debts from an electronics factory
that recently closed.
2008 Dec 5, In northeast
Colombia suspected leftist rebels attacked a small police convoy
with explosives and automatic weapons, killing eight police officers
and wounding one. Police blamed the attack on the National
Liberation Army (ELN), which operates in the oil-producing region
2008 Dec 5, A boat from the
Dominican Republic was found adrift. 2 survivors were found by
fisherman and 49 others were presumed dead. Migrants had set off on
Nov 13 in search of jobs in Puerto Rico.
2008 Dec 5, India and Russia
signed a civilian nuclear deal that would see Russia build four
nuclear reactors for power-starved India.
2008 Dec 5, Police in India
arrested two Indian men accused of illegally buying mobile phone
cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks. In eastern India
suspected Maoist rebels killed five police officers in an ambush.
(AP, 12/6/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Iranian state radio
said police confirmed that a militant group active in Iran has
killed all 16 police officers it abducted in June. Shortly after the
abduction, the Sunni Muslim Jundallah group said it had executed two
of the officers and threatened to kill the remaining 14 unless
imprisoned members of the group were released.
2008 Dec 5, In Iraq three women
were killed in Balad Ruz, north of Baghdad, when a bomb planted in a
2008 Dec 5, Israeli defense
officials reinstated a ban on international journalists entering the
Gaza Strip, despite protests from the heads of major news
organizations and an appeal to the country's Supreme Court.
2008 Dec 5, Japan approved a
law that will grant citizenship to all children born out of wedlock
to Japanese fathers who acknowledge them, regardless of the
nationality of their mothers.
2008 Dec 5, Kyrgyzstan's state
radio station was reported to have taken BBC programming off the
airwaves, days after withdrawing broadcasting rights from US-funded
Radio Liberty's Kyrgyz Service.
2008 Dec 5, Gerardo Garay,
Mexico's former acting federal police chief, was accused of
collaborating with a notorious cartel and stealing money from a
mansion during a raid to bust a drug trafficking ring. Victor
Serrano (24), a hit team chief, was wounded and 3 alleged gang
members died in a shootout in Mexicali. 14 others were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Pakistan a car
bomb devastated a busy street in the northwestern city of Peshawar,
killing 30 people and injuring about a hundred.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/6/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.50)
2008 Dec 5, In Romania
Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu (80), once jailed as a communist-era
"enemy of the state," died after years of fighting to reveal details
of the country's troubled past.
2008 Dec 5, Russian Orthodox
Patriarch Alexy II (79) died. He had presided over a vast
post-Soviet revival of faith but struggled against the influence of
2008 Dec 5, In Saudi Arabia
nearly 3 million Muslims from all over the world gathered in Mecca,
on the eve of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
2008 Dec 5, In Somalia 12
people were killed as mortar shells rained down on homes and a small
market in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 12/6/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 5, In southern
Thailand 4 people were killed by a bomb at a drugstore suspected to
have been planted by Muslim insurgents.
2008 Dec 5, The leaders of
Pakistan and Afghanistan met for Turkish-sponsored talks aimed at
reducing tensions over militant attacks along the countries' lawless
2009 Dec 5, The Defense Advance
Research projects Agency (DARPA) conducted an experiment challenging
teams around the country to locate the submit the correct geographic
coordinates of 10 weather balloons in return for a $40,000 cash
prize. Over 4,000 teams participated and the winning answer came
after 8 hours and 56 minutes. Social networking sites played a major
role in the game theory simulation. Riley Crane, a post doc research
fellow at MIT’s media lab, led the winning team using an elaborate
information gathering pyramid.
(SFC, 12/7/09, p.A9)
2009 Dec 5, It was reported
that US federal regulators have approved the use of the name
Calistoga as an appellation for vintners in Calistoga, Ca. James
Barrett, proprietor of the Chateau Montelena winery, had begun
petitioning the Treasury Dept. for the name in 2003.
(SFC, 12/5/09, p.D1)
2009 Dec 5, In Ohio a barn fire
killed two workers and 43 horses at a harness racing track in
2009 Dec 5, Afghan officials
said US Marines and Afghan troops have killed at least seven Taliban
fighters in Operation Cobra’s Anger in Helmand province. In eastern
Afghanistan a US service member was killed by a planted bomb.
(AP, 12/5/09)(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 5, Australia welcomed
a 90 billion dollar (82 billion US) deal to supply liquefied natural
gas (LNG) to a Japanese power company in what is believed to be the
country's biggest export sales contract.
2009 Dec 5, Austrian artist
Alfred Hrdlicka (81) died. His controversial works in metal, paint
and pencil alienated as much as attracted the public.
2009 Dec 5, In Equatorial
Guinea Gen. Sekouba Konate, the No. 2 of the military junta,
returned to the country overnight, helping fill a dangerous power
vacuum after the president was shot by his top aide and evacuated
for emergency treatment.
2009 Dec 5, In Haiti Francesco
Fantoli (54), an Italian journalist, was mortally wounded by gunmen
who may have tried to rob him outside a bank in Port-au-Prince. He
recently founded a soccer school in the southern city of Jacmel,
where he often lived.
2009 Dec 5, In Indonesia an
ecumenical group launched more than 10,000 twinkling paper lanterns
into the night sky above Carnaval Beach in Jakarta, setting a world
record. Freedom Faithnet Global said it organized the lantern
release as a symbol of hope and prayer as part of annual
celebrations. This year's celebrations have an environmental focus.
2009 Dec 5, In Italy thousands
of people gathered in Rome for “No Berlusconi Day," a gathering born
on the Internet to protest against Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
(Econ, 12/5/09, p.61)(http://tinyurl.com/yhy5mnt)
2009 Dec 5, Italian police
found convicted Mafioso Gianni Nicchi (28), alleged to be Cosa
Nostra's No. 2 leader, hiding in an apartment in Palermo. Nicchi, a
fugitive since 2006, was convicted last year of extortion and
sentenced to 18 years in prison. Authorities in Milan arrested
Gaetano Fidanzati (74) as he strolled down a street. Fidanzati is a
reputed longtime Cosa Nostra boss of a Palermo crime clan and has
been a fugitive for two years.
2009 Dec 5, Italian tax police
said that they had seized works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and
other giants of art in a crackdown on assets hidden by Calisto
Tanzi, the disgraced founder of the collapsed dairy company
2009 Dec 5, Morocco expelled
five foreign Christian missionaries for holding "undeclared
meetings" in the mainly Muslim north African kingdom. Two of the
foreigners came from South Africa, two from Switzerland and one from
Guatemala. They were part of a group that also included 12
Moroccans, who were freed the same day.
2009 Dec 5, In western Nepal
hundreds of protesters torched vehicles and vandalized shops after
three people died in clashes between police and illegal forest
2009 Dec 5, Philippine Pres.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under martial
law. Government troops were reported to have taken Andal Ampatuan
Sr., the former provincial governor, into custody for his clan’s
role in the Nov 23 massacre that left 57 dead.
(SFC, 12/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 5, In Russia a blaze
sparked by onstage fireworks tore through the Lame Horse nightclub
ceiling covered in decorative twigs and plastic sheeting, killing at
least 136 people and critically injuring about 90 in the industrial
city of Perm in the Ural Mountains. It was the country’s deadliest
fire since the fall of the Soviet Union. By late December the death
toll reached 152 with 74 people still hospitalized. In 2013 club
owner Anatoly Zak was convicted of creating conditions that violate
safety regulations. He was sentenced to nine years and 10 months in
(AP, 12/5/09)(AP, 12/10/09)(AP, 12/25/09)(AP,
2009 Dec 5, In Sudan's Darfur
region 2 Rwandan peacekeepers were shot dead and one wounded, in the
second deadly attack on their contingent in 24 hours. The next day a
former Darfur rebel group captured 3 gunmen who allegedly killed the
5 Rwandan peacekeepers.
(Reuters, 12/5/09)(AFP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 5, Taiwan's ruling
party lost ground in closely watched local elections described by
analysts as a test of China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou's
performance during 19 months in office.
2010 Dec 5, Pres. Obama honored
5 individuals for this year’s Kennedy Center Honors. They included
Oprah Winfrey, Beatle Paul McCartney, dancer-choreographer Bill T.
Jones, country singer Merle Haggard, and Broadway composer Jerry
(SFC, 12/6/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 5, Don Meredith (72),
one of the most recognizable figures of the early Dallas Cowboys and
an original member of ABC's "Monday Night Football" broadcast team,
2010 Dec 5, In Afghanistan a
Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up next to a string of shop
stalls inside the eastern Gardez army base, killing two NATO service
members and at least two civilians. In the south another NATO
service member was killed in an insurgent attack while an Afghan
employee of an American contractor was shot dead in the city of
Lashkar Gah. A British soldier was killed during an operation in the
Nad-e Ali District of Helmand province. Supporting fire from a US
aircraft was suspected. He was the 346th death among British forces
and civilian defense workers in Afghanistan since 2002. Four Afghan
election commission employees were arrested in a sign that the
political intrigue over September's fraud-tainted parliamentary
election is not over.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Argentina
Spanish and Portuguese-speaking nations wrapped up their annual
meeting by adopting a provision threatening exclusion for any member
country that doesn't abide by democratic process.
2010 Dec 5, Mike Hancock (64),
a member of the British House of Commons Defense Committee, and the
European Security and Defense Assembly of the Western EU, said that
his Russian assistant, Katia Zatuliveter (25), is facing deportation
as a suspected spy. On Nov 29, 2011, a special immigration tribunal
ruled that Zatuliveter can remain in Britain because she does not
pose a threat to national security.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 11/29/11)
2010 Dec 5, In southwest China
at least 22 people died and one person was severely burned when a
spreading grassland fire swept through a mountainous Tibetan region.
2010 Dec 5, Colombian officials
said a landslide following weeks of drenching rains has buried more
than 50 homes in the northwest. Rescue workers soon recovered 47
bodies. As many as 80 people remained missing and feared dead.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 5, Egypt held runoff
parliamentary elections. President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party won
a sweeping victory after the two main opposition groups decided to
boycott in protest of alleged fraud in the first round. Mubarak's
party won 420 of 508 seats in parliamentary polls.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)(AFP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 5, A shark tore the
arm off an elderly German tourist at an Egyptian Red Sea resort,
killing her almost immediately, only days after sharks badly mauled
four other European tourists in the waters.
2010 Dec 5, Iran claimed it
could now use domestically mined uranium to produce nuclear fuel,
giving the country complete control over a process the West suspects
is geared toward producing weapons.
2010 Dec 5, An Israeli fire
department official said the huge forest fire in Israel's north is
under control. The fire burned half of one of Israel's largest
wooded areas over four days. 42 Israelis were killed in the fire.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 1/5/11)
2010 Dec 5, In southern Italy a
speeding car plowed head-on into a group of cyclists, killing eight
of them. Police said the driver had been smoking marijuana.
2010 Dec 5, In Mexico armed
commandos attacked two drug rehabilitation centers in Ciudad Juarez,
killing four people and wounding five.
2010 Dec 5, Nigeria's military
acknowledged that raids in pursuit of an alleged gang leader in the
main oil-producing region may have killed civilians, but insisted
only militants were targeted. On Dec 15 the military said 14
people, including 8 soldiers and 6 civilians, were killed during the
operation targeting a notorious gang leader.
(AFP, 12/5/10)(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 5, Russian news
reported that a Proton rocket and its payload of three GLONASS-M
navigation satellites has fallen into the Pacific Ocean after
failing to reach orbit. They were to be part of Russia's satellite
navigation system competing with the U.S. Global Positioning System
(GPS). The mishap eventually cost space chief Anatoly Perminov his
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 8/18/11)
2010 Dec 5, Suspected Somali
pirates hijacked the M.V. Jahan Moni, a Bangladeshi ship carrying
nickel ore in the Arabian Sea and appeared to be headed to the
lawless East African nation. The 25 Bangladeshis on the cargo ship
included the wife of one crewman. The Moni was released on March 14,
2011, followed a ransom said to be $4.2 million.
(AP, 12/6/10)(AP, 3/14/11)
2010 Dec 5, Former South
African leader Thabo Mbeki sought to mediate an end to a dispute
over Ivory Coast's presidential election that has threatened to
trigger unrest in the divided West African nation.
2010 Dec 5, In Uruguay Maria
Esther Gatti de Islas (92), a human rights activist, died. She
helped found Uruguay's organization of relatives of people who
disappeared during South America's "dirty wars."
2010 Dec 5, In Venezuela voters
in several regions elected governors in two states and mayors in 11
municipalities, including the country's second-largest city. An
opposition candidate won the mayorship of Venezuela's second-largest
city of Maracaibo. Candidates from Chavez's ruling party captured 7
of the 11 mayorships and one state.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)
2011 Dec 5, The US said it is
vacating the Shamsi air base in Pakistan used by American drones
that target Taliban and al-Qaida militants, complying with a key
demand made by Islamabad in retaliation for the NATO airstrikes that
killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
2011 Dec 5, A team led by
astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, reported the
discovery of two gigantic black holes, each one 10 billion times the
mass of our sun, in clusters of elliptical galaxies more than 300
million light years away.
2011 Dec 5, NASA scientists
reported that a planet dubbed Kepler22b, first detected in 2009,
exists in a habitable zone of a solar system 600 light-years away.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 5, Angela Zhang (17)
of Cupertino, Ca, won a $100,000 scholarship, at the Siemens
Foundation's annual high school science competition, for research
that created a tiny particle she likened to a "Swiss army knife of
cancer treatments" because of its precision in targeting cancer
2011 Dec 5, Rachelle Grimmer
(38), Texas woman who for months was unable to qualify for food
stamps, pulled a gun in a state welfare office and staged a 7-hour
standoff with police that ended with her shooting her two children
before killing herself. The children, a 10-year-old boy and a
12-year-old girl, remained in critical condition. Both children died
of their wounds.
(AP, 12/6/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 5, In southern
Afghanistan a minibus full of civilians struck a roadside bomb,
setting off an explosion that killed five passengers in Uruzgan
province. Militants abducted 11 Afghan policemen during an ambush in
Wardooj district of Badakhshan province. Two policemen were killed
and four others wounded during the kidnapping. The 11 policemen were
freed on Dec 16 and some two dozen suspected insurgents were
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 5, Belgium’s King
Albert II named Elio Di Rupo as the prime minister ending a record
541 days the country has gone without a government. Di Rupo will be
the first French-speaking prime minister in nearly 40 years.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 5, Brazilian police
arrested a man suspected in the shooting deaths of eight men over
the past two months. Ronis de Oliveira Bastos (22) was arrested on
the outskirts of Sao Paulo while riding a bicycle and armed with a
.38 caliber revolver.
2011 Dec 5, In Cameroon 15
people were killed and 40 were seriously injured in a bus crash in
2011 Dec 5, In France
Greenpeace activists broke into the Electricite de France’s
Nogent-sur-Seine plant. EDF said 9 people were arrested.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 5, France and Germany
reached a compromise agreement to seek mandatory limits on budget
deficits among debt-laden European governments.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A9)
2011 Dec 5, In Bonn, Germany, a
global conference on Afghanistan's future opened. It was
overshadowed by the absence of key regional player Pakistan. The US
and other nations vowed to keep supporting Afghanistan after most
foreign forces leave the country in 2014.
2011 Dec 5, WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange was granted permission to apply to England's highest
court in his year-long battle to block his extradition to Sweden
over rape and sexual assault allegations.
2011 Dec 5, Egyptian voters
headed to the polls for two days of runoffs in the country's first
parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster. Islamist
parties have already captured an overwhelming majority of the votes
in the first round.
2011 Dec 5, Paris, France,
launched an electric car sharing program with 250 vehicles. 3000
vehicles were planned for the program over the next two years.
(SFC, 12/5/11, p.A3)
2011 Dec 5, The world court
ruled that Greece was wrong to block Macedonia's bid to join NATO in
2008 because of a long-running dispute over the fledgling country's
use of the name Macedonia.
2011 Dec 5, In Iraq 5 bomb
attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad killed some 30
people and wounded nearly 100 others during Ashura, an important
religious ritual for the Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/5/11)(Econ, 1/21/12, p.52)
2011 Dec 5, Ireland’s
Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin announced $2.9 billion in
spending cuts to help reduce the country’s debt. Budget cuts will
close 31 police stations around the country.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 5, Kenya military jets
bombed two al-Shabab camps in Somalia, killing an unknown number of
militants. 5 al-Shabab fighters on a boat attacked a Kenyan naval
vessel. The navy sunk the attacking boat. A roadside bomb exploded
in Kenya’s largest refugee camp near the border with Somalia,
killing one police officer and wounding three.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, Mauritanian police
said they have arrested two Western Saharan men suspected of
kidnapping an Italian and two Spanish aid workers in Algeria on
2011 Dec 5, In the Philippines
several armed men abducted Warren Rodwell (53) of Australia from his
home in the seaside town of Ipil on Mindanao island, then fled on
speed boats. The kidnappers mailed four pictures of Rodwell before
Christmas to his Filipino wife then called her to demand an initial
ransom of $23,000 (1 million pesos). The ransom was soon raised to
$2 million. Rodwell was released on March 23, 2013. On May 15, 2015,
Jun Malban, a former Philippine policeman and cousin of one of the
nation's top Islamic militants, was deported from Malaysia back to
the Philippines for his role in the abduction.
(AFP, 12/5/11)(AP, 1/1/12)(AP, 1/5/12)(SSFC,
2/24/13, p.A3)(AFP, 5/18/15)
2011 Dec 5, In Russia PM
Vladimir Putin's party saw its majority in parliament weaken
sharply, according to preliminary election results. International
observers pointed to procedural violations and serious indications
of ballot stuffing after a campaign slanted in favor of United
Russia. Only seven parties were allowed to field candidates for
parliament this year, while the most vocal opposition groups were
barred from the race.
2011 Dec 5, Scottish artist
Martin Boyce (44), whose works include a modernist reworking of a
library table and artificial trees, won Britain's Turner Prize at a
ceremony in Gateshead, north-east England.
2011 Dec 5, In Slovenia
preliminary results show Positive Slovenia, a center-left party,
defeated the favored conservatives. The results also indicated that
women won 28 of 90 seats, the most since the country gained
independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
2011 Dec 5, Johannesburg police
fired rubber bullets to break up a group of demonstrators gathered
in front of the ruling ANC party headquarters to protest South
Africa's alleged involvement in fraud in the November 28 election in
the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2011 Dec 5, In South Africa
Global Witness said it has left the Kimberley Process, accusing the
international diamond regulatory group of refusing to address links
between diamonds, violence and tyranny. The rights watchdog cited
what it called failures in Ivory Coast, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
2011 Dec 5, In Syria 36 bodies
were dumped in the streets of Homs. Syria agreed to allow Arab
League observers but demanded that the Arab League scrap recent
decisions taken against Damascus, including economic sanctions and
suspending the country from the Arab League when a protocol allowing
observers is signed.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/6/11)(SFC, 12/6/11,
p.A5)(SFC, 12/7/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 5, The UN Security
Council toughened sanctions against Eritrea which neighboring
governments accuse of plotting terrorist attacks and supporting
Somali Islamist rebels.
2011 Dec 5, Vietnam officials
said more than 100,000 people have been killed or injured by land
mines or other abandoned explosives since the Vietnam War ended
nearly 40 years ago, and clearing all of the country will take
decades more. The United States used about 16 million tons of bombs
and ammunition while allied with the former South Vietnam
2011 Dec 5, In Yemen two women
were killed and six people were wounded when Pres. Saleh's forces
fired on a crowd of anti-regime protesters in Taez.
2012 Dec 5, Dave Brubeck
(b.1920), American pianist, jazz composer and band leader, died one
day short of his 92nd birthday.
(SFC, 12/6/12, p.A1)
2012 Dec 5, Argentina filed
complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over trade
barriers it blames for keeping its beef and lemons out of the United
States and blocking biodiesel sales to Europe.
2012 Dec 5, It was reported
that Brazilian law enforcement agencies have begun “Operation
Purification" against alleged corruption iwthin the police force in
Rio de Janeiro state.
(SFC, 12/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, Brazilian architect
Oscar Niemeyer (104) died in Rio de Janeiro. He had designed
Brazil's futuristic capital and much of the United Nations complex.
(AP, 12/6/12)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.154)
2012 Dec 5, In Canada a court
ruled that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can stay in power pending an
appeal of a conflict of interest ruling that ordered him out of his
job as leader of Canada's biggest city. Ford won his appeal.
(Reuters, 12/5/12)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.42)
2012 Dec 5, Egyptian President
Mohammed Morsi's supporters and opponents clashed outside the
presidential palace in Cairo, pelting each other with rocks and
fighting with sticks. At least 5 people were killed.
(AP, 12/5/12)(Econ, 12/8/12, p.51)
2012 Dec 5, Guatemala police
arrested software company founder John McAfee for entering the
country illegally, ending his bizarre weekslong journey as a
blogging fugitive claiming to be persecuted by authorities in
2012 Dec 5, In Indonesia
Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto said any police officer over
100kg (220 pounds) must follow a weight-loss program started because
of the growing number of overweight officers and the perception that
they are unable to provide public protection.
2012 Dec 5, In Iran a magnitude
5.5 earthwuake hit South Khorasan province late today. At least 6
people were killed.
2012 Dec 5, Kenya’s Lewa
Wildlife Conservancy said that two male black rhinos and two female
black rhinos were killed over the weekend. The four deaths brought
Lewa's rhino population to 71. Kenya had about 600 rhinos in total.
2012 Dec 5, In Lebanon gunmen
loyal to opposite sides in neighboring Syria's civil war battled in
the streets of Tripoli where two days of fighting killed at least
five people and wounded 45.
2012 Dec 5, The 148m (485-foot)
Baltic Ace sank after colliding with the 134m (440-foot) container
ship Corvus J in darkness near busy shipping lanes some 65
kilometers (40 miles) off the coast of the southern Netherlands. 5
bodies were recovered and 6 others remained missing.
(AP, 12/6/12)(SFC, 12/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, In Northern Ireland
more than 1,500 Protestants rallied in the northern suburb of
Carrickfergus demanding that the British flag be restored atop
Belfast's municipal headquarters. The protest soon descended into
attacks on riot police.
2012 Dec 5, In northwestern
Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers rammed their truck filled with
explosives into the gate of an army camp, killing three soldiers and
wounding more than 20 in Wana, South Waziristan.
2012 Dec 5, In Russia’s North
Caucuses region journalist Kazbek Gekkiyev was gunned down in
Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya province.
(SFC, 12/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 5, A South African
judge sentenced Xolile Mngeni, the triggerman in the 2010 honeymoon
slaying of Swedish bride Anni Dewani, to life in prison, calling the
shooter "a merciless and evil person" who deserved the maximum
punishment for his crime.
2012 Dec 5, A South African
judge sentenced hip-hop star Molemo Maarohanye, best known by his
stage name Jub Jub, and Themba Tshabalala, to 25 years each in
prison for the killings of four schoolchildren in a drag-race crash
on March 8, 2010.
2012 Dec 5, The Passenger Rail
Agency of South Africa announced that it has accepted a $5.8 billion
deal with French company Alstom SA to refurbish the nation's
2012 Dec 5, A South African
military aircraft on an unknown mission to an area near former
President Nelson Mandela's village crashed in a mountain range,
killing all 11 people onboard.
2012 Dec 5, Transparency
International ranked Uganda at 130 out of 176 countries. An
audacious scam in which up to $13 million in donor money was
embezzled in the office of Uganda's prime minister has brought
several European donors to freeze aid to Uganda.
2013 Dec 5, The US Defense
Department said Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane and Bensayah Belkecem, two
Algerian detainees at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, have
been repatriated despite protest from the prisoners who feared
2013 Dec 5, In the US fast food
workers held some 100 rallies across the country calling for an
increase in the minimum wage from the current $7.25/hr.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.C7)
2013 Dec 5, A study by the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said water pollution at
the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina has been linked to
increased risk of birth defects and childhood cancers.
2013 Dec 5, Illinois Gov. Pat
Quinn signed landmark legislation to reform the state’s underfunded
pension system. The reforms cut benefits for most employees and
retirees. Unions immediately threatened a lawsuit. On may 8, 2015,
the state Supreme Court struck down the legislation saying it would
leave pension promises diminished or impaired.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A10)(SFC, 5/9/15, p.A5)
2013 Dec 5, Australia and
Indonesia announced that they would set up a hotline as part of
efforts to repair relations following media reports last month that
Canberra had spied on top Indonesian officials.
2013 Dec 5, Heavy gunfire
erupted in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.
French troops killed several rebels who were bearing down on them in
a pickup truck. Ex-Seleka fighters stormed Amite Hospital and
abducted at least nine patients by gunpoint in front of horrified
medical staff. The bodies of 11 young men were later found just
outside the hospital. Over 280 people were killed in the violence in
(AP, 12/5/13)(AP, 12/6/13)(AP, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 5, Ethiopia said it
has repatriated over 100,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia, following a
violent crackdown against illegal immigrants in the oil-rich
2013 Dec 5, In Iraq gunmen shot
dead magazine editor Kawa Ahmed Germyani (32). He was investigating
corruption in the autonomous Kurdistan region. Police stormed a mall
in Kirkuk killing 3 militants. Attacks elsewhere in the country left
(AFP, 12/6/13)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 5, Kenyan lawmakers
adopted amendments to a controversial media bill despite an
opposition walk out and international concern about press freedom.
2013 Dec 5, In Libya unknown
assailants shot an American teacher to death as he was jogging in
2013 Dec 5, Moldova’s
Constitutional Court ruled that Romanian is now the official
language. The language, basically the same as Romanian, had been
renamed Moldovan under Soviet rule.
(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 5, Myanmar’s Rangoon
Univ. reopened to undergraduates. It had been closed since 1988
following failed student uprisings.
(SFC, 12/5/13, p.A6)
2013 Dec 5, In southwest
Pakistan a bomb exploded outside a mosque in Chaman, the main border
town in southwestern Baluchistan, killing at least one person.
2013 Dec 5, Russia said it has
begun a criminal inquiry into suspected child trafficking in the US
following a Reuters investigation which found that adopted children,
some born in Russia, were being traded via the Internet.
2013 Dec 5, Hurricane-force
gusts hit Scotland, causing a fatal truck accident, halting all
trains and leaving tens of thousands of homes without electricity.
2013 Dec 5, In Somalia at least
8 people were killed when a suicide car bomber rammed a convoy in
the northern port of Bossasso, a Puntland region harboring
Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents where tensions are high ahead of
elections in January.
2013 Dec 5, In South Africa
former President and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela (b.1918)
died. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
2013 Dec 5, The South African
Cabinet ordered that an inter-ministerial task team report on the
funding of controversial security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's
private home be released to the public.
2013 Dec 5, In Sudan a tribal
dispute on the border of the Darfur region killed 38 people
including 16 Maaliya and 22 Hamar tribesmen.
2013 Dec 5, Sweden's public
broadcaster said it has obtained secret documents leaked by former
National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden suggesting a
Swedish spy agency has been a key supplier of intelligence on
Russian leaders to the NSA.
2013 Dec 5, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said Jihadists in northern Syria have
kidnapped more than 50 Kurds in the past three days.
2013 Dec 5, In Yemen a suicide
bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the Defense Ministry in
Sanaa, killing 18 soldiers and wounding at least 40. Officials said
11 gunmen also were killed in a firefight between troops and a
carload of attackers who arrived after the blast. Gunmen shot and
killed a Western doctor and a Filipina nurse in front of their
colleagues in a hospital inside the compound of the defense
ministry. Most of the attackers were Saudi nationals. Yemen’s branch
of al-Qaida took responsibility and on Dec 21 apologized for the
attack on the hospital that killed 52 people.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)(Reuters, 12/6/13)(SFC,
12/7/13, p.A4)(AP, 12/22/13)
2014 Dec 5, President Barack Obama
nominated ex-Pentagon official Ashton Carter as the new defense
secretary of the country. He will replace Chuck Hagel.
2014 Dec 5, NASA’s Orion
spacecraft made its first test flight following liftoff at Florida’s
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 4.5 hour test flight
ended in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)(SFC, 12/6/14, p.C1)
2014 Dec 5, A Phoenix cop shot to death an
unarmed black man during a fight and the authorities said the cop
thought the person had a pistol.
2014 Dec 5, Bill Cosby's star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame was reported vandalized with graffiti. Los
Angeles police were investigating the vandalism of comedian.
2014 Dec 5, A San Francisco
court convicted police officers Edmond Robles of five felony charges
and Sgt. Ian Furminger guilty of four in a case related to officers
stealing from drug dealers. On Feb 23, 2015, Furminger was sentenced
to 41 months in prison. On March 18, 2015, Robles was sentenced to
39 months in prison.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A1)(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A1)(SFC,
2014 Dec 5, It was reported
that San Francisco had accrued a budget surplus of almost $22
million for the last fiscal year.
(SFC, 12/5/14, p.D1)
2014 Dec 5, The US Department
of Justice said that it’s investigating several complains concerning
the University of New Mexico's conduct of reported sexual assaults
& sexual persecution of students.
2014 Dec 5, Fabiola (86),
Belgium's dowager queen, died. The Spanish-born Fabiola survived her
husband, King Baudouin, by 11 years.
2014 Dec 5, The British Museum
plunged into a geopolitical tempest by lending one of the disputed
Greek Elgin Marbles to Russia’s Hermitage Museum.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 5, Chinese
authorities arrested ex-domestic security Chief Zhou Yongkang and
barred him from the ruling Communist Party.
2014 Dec 5, A French-US fund announced it
will pay thousands of Holocaust survivors and family members in the
United States and elsewhere will be entitled to compensation from a
2014 Dec 5, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel shook hands with Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani and said her country will continue to support
Afghanistan after NATO combat troops pull out from the country.
2014 Dec 5, In India’s section
of Kashmir a series of rebel attacks killed 21 people, including 8
Indian soldiers and 3 police officers. The rebels had crossed over
from Pakistani territory.
(AP, 12/8/14)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.41)
2014 Dec 5, In India Uber taxi
driver Shiv Kumar Yadav raped a young female passenger (25) in New
Delhi. On Nov 3, 2015, Yadav was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 10/20/15)(AP, 11/3/15)
2014 Dec 5, Prosecutors at the
International Criminal Court withdrew their crimes against humanity
charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenyatta said he
was "vindicated" after the ICC's decision.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 5, The government of
Maldives declared a state of emergency and has appealed for aid from
India, Sri Lanka, the United States and China. Mohamed Shareef, a
government minister, said: "We have declared a state of crisis and
also informed the shopkeepers to issue bottle water free of
2014 Dec 5, In Pakistan a
300-mile trench being built along the disputed border with
Afghanistan was reported to have completed 110 miles in Baluchistan
(SFC, 12/5/14, p.A7)
2014 Dec 5, In Russia a court
in Volgograd convicted four men for their roles in the twin suicide
bombings that killed 34 people a year earlier.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 5, In Sierra Leone two
more doctors died of Ebola bringing to 9 the number of local doctors
killed by the disease.
(SSFC, 12/7/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 5, Spain’s Marine
Rescue Service rescued 29 African migrants from the 33-foot-long
boat after finding it drifting in the Mediterranean Sea. Some 23
migrants were swept away to sea. On Jan 15 Police said two
Cameroonian migrants have been arrested for allegedly killing up to
10 others by pushing them from the boat into stormy waters in a
fight over a prayer session.
(AP, 12/8/14(AP, 1/15/15)
2014 Dec 5, In Syria clashes
continued for a 2nd day as IS militants pushed to capture the Syrian
air base at Deor el-Zour. 30 government troops and 27 jihadists were
said to have died so far.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A3)
2014 Dec 5, Tashi Tsering
(b.1929), Tibetan scholar, died in Lhasa. He was the founder of the
corresponding education organization with headquarters in Lhasa, as
well as the author of the trilingual dictionary (English, Chinese,
Tibetan) “New Trilingual Dictionary" and an autobiography titled
“The Struggle for Modern Tibet" (first published in 1999 by M.E.
2014 Dec 5, Ukraine President
Petro Poroshenko said "If we give up Donetsk (airport), the enemy
will be at Borispil or Gostomel or even in Lviv."