Today in History - History - December 5th

1717Blackbeard ransacks the merchant sloop "Margaret" and keeps her captain, Henry Bostock, prisoner for 8 hours before releasing him. Bostock would later provide the first recorded of Blackbeard's appearance, with specific reference to his "very black beard", providing the source for his name

1832Andrew Jackson re-elected President of US

2008Human remains previously found in 1991 are finally identified by Russian and American scientists as those of Tsar Nicholas II.

1840Napoleon Bonaparte receives a french state funeral in Paris 19 years after his death

1949Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for heavyweight boxing title

1946Pres Harry Truman creates Committee on Civil Rights by Exec Order #9808

1792George Washington re-elected as US president

1978Free agent Pete Rose signs 4-year, $32 million contract with Phillies becoming highest paid baseball player

2008OJ Simpson is sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery

63 BCCicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations.

1901Walter Elias disney, Chicago, animator (Mickey Mouse), (d. 1966)

1782Martin Van Buren, Kinderhook New York, (D) 8th US president (1837-41)

1903Cecil Frank Powell, Tonbridge, Kent, physicist, discovered pion (Nobel 1950), (d.1969)

1443Pope Julius II, Albisola, Republic of Genoa, Pope (1503-13), patron of Michelangelo, Bramante, Raphael, (d. 1513)

1859John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, British Admiral of the Fleet, Southampton

1839George Armstrong Custer, New Rumley, Ohio, Mjr General (Union volunteers), (d. 1876)

1945Actor Eddie Albert (39) weds actress Margo (28)

1926Gangster Carlo Gambino (24) weds his first cousin Catherine Castellano

2013Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist, political prisoner (1962-1990) and South African President (1994-99) dies of a lung infection at 95

1870Alexandre Dumas, French writer, dies at 68

1965Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist, Nobel laureate for shock therapy (b. 1874)

2002Roone Arledge, American sports broadcasting pioneer, dies of prostate cancer at 71

1784Phillis Wheatley, American poet and first published African-American woman, dies in Boston at 31

1926Claude Monet, French impressionist, dies at 86