12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for December 5, 2025
Today’s History
- 63 BC – Roman orator Cicero delivers his fourth and final speech against Catiline in the Temple of Concord, helping to crush the conspiracy against the Republic.
- 1496 – King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree effectively expelling Jews from Portugal unless they convert to Christianity, intensifying Iberian persecution of Jewish communities.
- 1757 – In the Battle of Leuthen, Frederick the Great’s Prussian army decisively defeats a much larger Austrian force during the Seven Years’ War, cementing Prussia’s military reputation.
- 1776 – The Phi Beta Kappa Society, destined to become the oldest academic honor society in the United States, holds its first meeting at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.
- 1876 – Fire breaks out at the Brooklyn Theater in New York; overcrowding and poor exits contribute to nearly 300 deaths, making it one of the deadliest theater fires in U.S. history.
- 1914 – Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance departs South Georgia Island on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition—its last touch of land before being trapped in Antarctic ice for over a year.
- 1921 – England’s Football Association bans women’s football from FA-affiliated grounds, calling the game “quite unsuitable for females,” a prohibition that sidelines the women’s game for about 50 years.
- 1933 – The 21st Amendment is certified, repealing Prohibition and ending nearly 14 years of the nationwide ban on alcohol in the United States.
- 1936 – The Soviet Union adopts a new Stalin-era constitution and formally transforms the Kirghiz ASSR into the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, reshaping internal Soviet borders and governance.
- 1952 – The lethal Great Smog of London begins, as a mix of coal smoke and weather inversion cloaks the city for five days and ultimately leads to thousands of deaths and landmark clean-air laws.
- 1955 – The Montgomery Bus Boycott launches in Alabama following Rosa Parks’ arrest, becoming a foundational moment of the U.S. civil rights movement and elevating Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence.
- 1955 – The AFL and CIO formally merge to create the AFL-CIO, a unified U.S. labor federation that becomes a central force in organized labor and national politics.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1968 – Margaret Cho, Korean American stand-up comedian, actress, and LGBTQ+ advocate known for sharp social and political satire (57).
- 1973 – José Guillermo Cortines, Dominican actor and singer recognized for roles in telenovelas like El Rostro de Analía and Más Sabe el Diablo (52).
- 1975 – Paula Patton, American actress and producer who has starred in films such as Hitch, Déjà Vu, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (50).
- 1975 – Ronnie O’Sullivan, English snooker legend nicknamed “The Rocket,” a seven-time world champion and one of the sport’s most decorated and charismatic players (50).
- 1976 – Amy Acker, American actress best known for TV roles in Angel, Alias, Person of Interest, and The Gifted (49).
- 1982 – Keri Hilson, American R&B singer-songwriter and actress behind hits like “Knock You Down,” also a prolific songwriter for other major artists (43).
- 1985 – Frankie Muniz, American actor and professional racing driver, famous for starring in the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle and later competing in stock-car series including NASCAR’s Truck Series (40).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1791 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer whose prolific and innovative works—symphonies, operas, concertos, and chamber music—help define the classical canon, dies in Vienna after a brief, much-debated illness (35).
- 1926 – Claude Monet, French painter and pioneering Impressionist whose series like Water Lilies and Haystacks transform modern landscape art, dies at his home in Giverny (86).
- 2012 – Dave Brubeck, influential American jazz pianist and composer known for Time Out and “Take Five,” dies one day before his 92nd birthday (91).
- 2012 – Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect famed for the modernist civic buildings of Brasília and co-designing the United Nations headquarters in New York, dies in Rio de Janeiro (104).
- 2013 – Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid revolutionary and first democratically elected president of South Africa, dies after a long illness, prompting a global outpouring of tributes (95).
- 2021 – Bob Dole, American politician, World War II veteran, and long-time U.S. senator from Kansas who was the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, dies in Washington, D.C. (98).
- 2022 – Kirstie Alley, American actress best known for her Emmy-winning role as Rebecca Howe on Cheers and films like Look Who’s Talking, dies from colon cancer (71).
Our revenue comes from a combination of direct subscriptions from users and commissions earned by affiliate commissions from sponsors’ links and banners. Some of the links you click may be affiliate links that generate that revenue.