TODAY IN HISTORY - DECEMBER 5TH

1782 – Martin Van Buren, American lawyer and politician, 8th President of the United States (d. 1862) is born.

1822 – Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, American philosopher and academic, co-founded Radcliffe College (d. 1907) is born.

1831 – Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.

1847 – Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. senate.

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.

1876 – The Brooklyn Theatre fire kills at least 278 people in Brooklyn, New York.

1879 – Clyde Vernon Cessna, American pilot and businessman, founded the Cessna Aircraft Corporation (d. 1954) is born.

1901 – Walt Disney, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1966) is born.

1902 – Strom Thurmond, American educator, general, and politician, 103rd Governor of South Carolina (d. 2003) is born.

1916 – Hilary Koprowski, Polish-American virologist and immunologist, created the world's first effective live polio vaccine (d. 2013) is born.

1926 – Claude Monet, French painter (b. 1840) dies.

1932 – Little Richard, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor is born.

1933 – Prohibition in the United States ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment. (This overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States.)

1951 – Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player and manager (b. 1887) dies.

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.)

1969 – The four node ARPANET network is established.

1973 – Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish engineer, invented the radar (b. 1892) dies.

1998 – Albert Gore, Sr., American lawyer and politician (b. 1907) dies.

2007 – Westroads Mall shooting: A gunman opens fire with a semi-automatic rifle at an Omaha, Nebraska, mall, killing eight people before taking his own life.

2015 – Chuck Williams, American businessman and author, founded Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (b. 1915) dies.