Today in history

On Dec. 5, 1776, the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

In 1782 the first native U.S. president, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y.

In 1791 composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna; he was 35.

In 1792 George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.

In 1831 former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1848 President James Polk triggered the Gold Rush of ’49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.

In 1901 filmmaker Walt Disney was born in Chicago.

In 1902 Strom Thurmond, who would become the longest-sitting U.S. senator, was born in Edgefield, S.C.

In 1932 German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United

States. Also in 1932 singer Little Richard was born Richard Penniman in Macon, Ga.

In 1933 national prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.

In 1955 the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany.

In 1978 the American space probe Pioneer Venus 1, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet.

In 1979 feminist Sonia Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

In 1988 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.)

In 1989 East Germany’s former leaders, including ousted Communist Party chief Erich Honecker, were placed under house arrest.

In 1992 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.

In 1993 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.

In 1994 Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP House speaker in four decades.

In 1996 President Bill Clinton announced the foreign policy team for his second term, including Madeleine Albright as the first female secretary of state; William Cohen as defense secretary; and Anthony Lake as CIA director.

In 1997 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. In 1998 James P. Hoffa claimed the Teamsters presidency after challenger Tom Leedham conceded defeat in the union’s presidential election. Also in

1998 former Sen. Albert Gore Sr., father of the vice president, died in Carthage, Tenn.; he was 90.

In 1999 Cuban President Fidel Castro demanded that the United States return 5-year-old Elian Gonzalez, who was rescued at sea, to his father in Cuba within 72 hours.

In 2001 Afghan leaders signed a pact in Germany to create an interim government.

In 2002 Gen. Ne Win, former dictator of Myanmar, died in Yangon; he was

91. Also in 2002 ABC executive Roone Arledge died in New York; he was 71.

In 2003 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. Also in

2003 a suicide bombing on a commuter train in southern Russia killed 44 people, two days before the nation’s parliamentary elections.

Also in 2003 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.

In 2005 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied the United States engaged in torture or lesser forms of cruel treatment against terror suspects.

In 2012 jazz pianist and Dave Brubeck, best known for the song “Take Five,” died of a heart failure in Norwalk, Conn.; he was 91.

In 2013 Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid icon jailed for 27 years and South Africa’s first black president, died; he was 95.