December 5

1408 – The Mongolian Golden Horde, under Edigu Khan, reaches and besieges Moscow.

1578 – On his voyage of circumnavigation, Sir Francis Drake, sails through Strait of Magellan the raids Valparaiso.

1766 – In London, auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale.

1770 – At trial, among others charged with Murder, British 29th Regiment of Foot Privates Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy, who, defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy II, assisted by Sampson Blowers and Paul Revere, are the only soldiers found guilty for the lesser charge of Manslaughter of Crispus Attucks and Samuel Gray in the ‘Boston Massacre’. Pleading Benefit of Clergy, the right to a lesser sentence for a first offender, their punishment is to be branded on the thumb.

1775 – At Fort Ticonderoga, New York, troops under Henry Knox begins transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1776 – Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the U.S., holds its first meeting at the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia

1791 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies, age 35, at his home in Vienna, Austria.

1831 –Defeated for re-election as President by Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828, but elected as a Congressional Representative for Massachusetts in the election of 1830, former President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives, where he serves for 8 terms.

1848 – In a message to Congress, President Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.

1933 – The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment authorizing prohibition.

1945 – U.S. Navy Flight 19, a group of 5 Avenger bombers on a training flight, disappears in the Bermuda Triangle.

1955 – 20 years after breaking away, the members of the Congress of Industrial Organizations remerge with the American Federation of Labor and form the AFL–CIO.

1964 – For heroism in battle against a much larger force of Viet Cong earlier in the year, U.S. Army Captain Roger Donlon, commanding officer of a Special Forces camp at Nam Dong, is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Vietnam War.

2007 – 19 year old Robert A. Hawkins kills 8 people and wounds 4 before killing himself at a Von Maur department store, Westroads Mall, in Omaha, Nebraska

2014 – Exploration Flight Test 1, the first flight test of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

2021 – World War II veteran and retired Senator Robert Dole, dies, age 98 at his home in Washington D.C.

2022 – Actress Kirstie Alley, dies, age 71 at her home in Clearwater Florida.