ON THIS DAY DECEMBER 5
1717 English pirate Blackbeard (real name William Teach) ransacks the merchant sloop Margaret and keeps her captain, Henry Bostock, prisoner for eight hours before releasing him. Bostock later provides the first record of Blackbeard’s appearance and the source for his real name.
1766 In London, auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale.
1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 35, dies a pauper in Vienna, Austria. He is considered one of the finest composers who ever lived.
1839 George Armstrong Custer is born in New Rumley, Ohio. He graduates from the West Point military academy at the bottom of his class, then becomes a dashing cavalry officer in the US Civil War. As a brigadiergeneral, he takes part in the Western expedition against the Sioux Indians, but in June 1867, Custer and over 200 of his soldiers are slain by the Sioux at Little Bighorn in Montana.
1901 Walt Disney is born in Chicago, Illinois. As a little boy, he liked to draw farm animals. He moved to Hollywood and in 1928 produced Steamboat Willie, starring Mickey Mouse, in the first cartoon with synchronised sound. In 1937, he released his full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs. The company he founded has since grown into a global entertainment empire.
1931 The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow is destroyed on orders from Joseph Stalin so that a grand Palace of the Soviets could be built, which was never built because of World War II. Rebuilt between 1995 and 2000 and, at 103m in height, the cathedral is the tallest Orthodox church in the world.
1941 Georgy Zhukov launches a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army, driving them out of Moscow.
1945 Flight 19, the “Lost Squadron” of five torpedo bombers and 14 airmen, is lost east of Florida in the supposed Bermuda Triangle.
1952 A cold fog descends on London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12 000 in the weeks and months that follow.
1983 A bomb blast shatters the Johannesburg office of the Department of Foreign Affairs. It is the 42nd attack of the year by ANC saboteurs.
2013 Nelson Mandela dies. Born to the Thembu royal family and respected around the world, he spent 27 years in prison, but nonetheless had a vision and respect for human dignity that brought hope to a country previously ravaged by injustice and discrimination.