On This Day — 5 December

2017

The International Olympic Committee bans Russia from competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics for doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

International Olympic Committee

2014

Exploration Flight Test-1, the first flight test of Orion, is launched.

Exploration Flight Test-1

2013

Militants attack a Defense Ministry compound in Sanaa, Yemen, killing at least 56 people and injuring 200 others.

2013 Yemeni Ministry of Defense attack

2007

Westroads Mall shooting: Nineteen-year-old Robert A. Hawkins kills nine people, including himself, with a WASR-10 at a Von Maur department store in Omaha, Nebraska.

Westroads Mall shooting

2006

Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.

Frank Bainimarama

2005

The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.

Civil Partnership Act 2004

2005

The 6.8 Mw  Lake Tanganyika earthquake shakes the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing six people.

2005 Lake Tanganyika earthquake

2001

Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-108, carrying the Expedition 4 crew to the International Space Station.

Space Shuttle Endeavour

1995

Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lanka's government announces the conquest of the Tamil stronghold of Jaffna.

Sri Lankan civil war

1995

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight A-56 crashes near Nakhchivan International Airport in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, killing 52 people.

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight A-56

1994

The Budapest Memorandum is signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary.

Budapest Memorandum

1991

Leonid Kravchuk is elected the first president of Ukraine.

Leonid Kravchuk

1983

Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina.

National Reorganization Process

1977

Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen in retaliation to preventing President Anwar el-Sadat from pursuing negotiations with Israel at the Tripoli confer.

Egypt

1971

Battle of Gazipur: Pakistani forces are defeated as India cedes Gazipur to Bangladesh.

Battle of Gazipur

1964

Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.

Vietnam War

1964

Lloyd J. Old discovers the first linkage between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease—mouse leukemia—opening the way for the recognition of the importance of the MHC in the immune response.

Lloyd J. Old

1958

Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.

Subscriber trunk dialling

1958

The Preston By-pass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. (It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.)

Preston Bypass

1955

The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO.

American Federation of Labor

1955

The Civil Rights Movement: the Montgomery bus boycott begins, led by E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks.

Civil rights movement

1952

Beginning of the Great Smog in London. A cold fog combines with air pollution and brings the city to a standstill for four days. Later, a Ministry of Health report estimates 4,000 fatalities as a result of it.

Great Smog of London

1945

Flight 19, a group of TBF Avengers, disappears in the Bermuda Triangle.

Flight 19

1943

World War II: Allied air forces begin attacking Germany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow.

Operation Crossbow

1941

World War II: In the Battle of Moscow, Georgy Zhukov launches a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army.

World War II

1941

World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.

Finland

1936

The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.

Soviet Union

1935

Mary McLeod Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women in New York City.

Mary McLeod Bethune

1934

Abyssinia Crisis: Italian troops attack Wal Wal in Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city.

Abyssinia Crisis

1933

The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition in the United States.

Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution

1921

The Football Association bans women's football in England from league grounds, a ban that stays in place for 50 years.

The Football Association

1919

Ukrainian War of Independence: The Polonsky conspiracy is suppressed and its participants are executed by the Kontrrazvedka.

Ukrainian War of Independence

1914

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition begins in an attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.

Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

1895

New Haven Symphony Orchestra of Connecticut performs its first concert.

New Haven Symphony Orchestra

1865

Chincha Islands War: Peru allies with Chile against Spain.

Chincha Islands War

1848

California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.

California gold rush

1847

Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. Senate.

Jefferson Davis

1831

Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.

John Quincy Adams

1776

Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the U.S., holds its first meeting at the College of William & Mary.

Phi Beta Kappa

1775

At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Fort Ticonderoga

1770

29th Regiment of Foot privates Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy are found guilty for the manslaughter of Crispus Attucks and Samuel Gray respectively in the Boston Massacre.

29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot

1766

In London, auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale.

James Christie (auctioneer)

1757

Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen: Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.

Seven Years' War

1649

The town of Raahe (Swedish: Brahestad) is founded by Count Per Brahe the Younger.

Raahe

1578

Sir Francis Drake, after sailing through Strait of Magellan, raids Valparaiso.

Francis Drake

1560

Ten-year-old Charles IX becomes king of France, with Queen Mother Catherine de' Medici as regent.

Charles IX of France

1496

King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree ordering the expulsion of Jews from the country.

Manuel I of Portugal

1484

Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany.

Pope Innocent VIII

1456

The first of two earthquakes measuring Mw  7.2 strikes Italy, causing extreme destruction and killing upwards of 70,000 people.

1456 Central Italy earthquakes

1408

Seeking to resubjugate Muscovy, Emir Edigu of the Golden Horde reaches Moscow, burning areas around the city but failing to take the city itself.

Grand Principality of Moscow

1082

Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona is assassinated, most likely by his brother, Berenguer Ramon II.

Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona

1033

The Jordan Rift Valley earthquake destroys multiple cities across the Levant, triggers a tsunami and kills many.

1033 Jordan Valley earthquake

633

Fourth Council of Toledo opens, presided over by Isidore of Seville.

Fourth Council of Toledo

-63

Cicero gives the fourth and final of the Catiline Orations.

Cicero