Today in History - History - December 5th

1932German physicist Albert Einstein granted a visa to enter America

2006Greg Maddux signs a one-year deal with the San Diego Padres worth $10 million

771Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman.

1967Benjamin Spock & Allen Ginsberg arrested protesting against Vietnam war

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

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

198156th Australian Women Tennis: Navratilova beats Chris Evert (67 64 75)

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

1984A's trade Rickey Henderson to Yankees for Jay Howell & Jose Rijo

1847Jefferson Davis is elected to the US senate, his first political post.

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

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

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

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)

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

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

1926Claude Monet, French impressionist, dies at 86

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

1870Alexandre Dumas, French writer, dies at 68

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

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

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