Today in History - History - December 5th

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

1949Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for heavyweight boxing title

1832Andrew Jackson re-elected President of US

1932German physicist Albert Einstein granted a visa to enter America

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

1492Columbus discovers Hispaniola (El Espanola/Haiti)

1947Joe Louis beats Jersey Joe Walcott in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1973Paul McCartney releases album "Band on the Run" album

1967Benjamin Spock & Allen Ginsberg arrested protesting against Vietnam war

63 BCCicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations.

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

1926Claude Monet, French impressionist, dies at 86

1870Alexandre Dumas, French writer, dies at 68

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

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