Today in History - History - December 5th

1832Andrew Jackson re-elected President of US

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

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

1958Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.

1804Thomas Jefferson re-elected US President, George Clinton Vice President

1492Columbus discovers Hispaniola (El Espanola/Haiti)

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

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

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

1949Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for heavyweight boxing title

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

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

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)

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

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

2003Cold play band lead vocalist Chris Martin (35) weds actress and singer Gwyneth Paltrow (39) at the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, California

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

1870Alexandre Dumas, French writer, dies at 68

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

1926Claude Monet, French impressionist, dies at 86

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