Today in History for Dec. 5, 2015

Shoeless Joe Jackson

Dec. 5, 1484 - Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis Desiderantes, a decree which officially recognized witches and gave permission for the Inquisition to begin rooting out practitioners of witchcraft.

Dec. 5, 1492 – Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

Dec. 5, 1749 – Canadian commander and explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye died at the age of 64 in Montreal, Quebec. In the 1730s, he and his four sons opened up the area west of Lake Superior and thus began the process that added Western Canada to the original New France in the Saint Lawrence basin. He was also the first known European to reach North Dakota and the upper Missouri River.

Dec. 5, 1775 – At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox began his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dec. 5, 1776 - In Williamsburg, Virginia, a group of five students at the College of William and Mary gather at Raleigh’s Tavern to found a new fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa. Intended to follow strictly American principles as opposed to those of England or Germany, the new society engaged in the fervent political debate typical of student life at Thomas Jefferson’s beloved college in Virginia’s capital. The fluent scholars of Greek and Latin who gathered to found the society, which was destined to count presidents and poets of the newly declared republic among its ranks, could not have differed more greatly from their Patriot fellows suffering as prisoners of the crown in British-occupied New York.

Dec. 5, 1777 - Pennsylvania militiamen were sent to meet British General William Howe's troops on the way to Whitemarsh, Pa. The men quickly fled back into the hills and watched Howe's every move.

Dec. 5, 1782 - The first native U.S. president, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, New York.

Dec. 5, 1791 - Composer and prominent Freemason Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria at the age of 35.

Dec. 5, 1813 – General Ferdinand Claiborne wrote to General Andrew Jackson, congratulating him on his victories, giving him an account of the operations in the Southern Seat of War and acquainting him with the fact that an abundance of corn and other provisions were to be obtained in the neighborhood of Fort Claiborne.

Dec. 5, 1821 – The Alabama legislature passed an act expressing gratitude for the services of Col. Sam Dale and granting him the rank of brevet brigadier general of the militia.

Dec. 5, 1830 – Pre-Raphaelite poet Christina Rossetti was born in London. She is best remembered for her most famous collection, “Goblin Market and Other Poems,” which was published in 1862.

Dec. 5, 1839 - Union General George Armstrong Custer was born in Harrison County, Ohio. Although he is best known for his demise at the hands of the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Montana, on June 25, 1876, Custer built a reputation as a dashing and effective cavalry leader during the Civil War.

Dec. 5, 1847 – Jefferson Davis was elected to the U.S. senate.

Dec. 5, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought in the vicinity of Russellville, Ky.

Dec. 5, 1861 – During the Civil War, a five-day Federal expedition through Current Hills, Mo. began.

Dec. 5, 1864 – After getting captured by the Union at Campbell’s Station on Dec. 8, 1863, Noah Dallas Peacock (Lewis Lavon Peacock’s older brother) was paroled at Camp Chase, just outside of Columbus, Ohio.

Dec. 5, 1869 – First Presbyterian Church of Demopolis’ wooden church building was dedicated on the site of the modern day church building. The land was donated by Dr. Cincinnatus Ashe.

Dec. 5, 1886 – Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, was born in De Smet in what is now South Dakota. Together, Rose and her mother created the beloved “Little House” books.

Dec. 5, 1896 – Robert Gaston Bozeman was born. He would go on to own The Evergreen Courant newspaper in Conecuh County and was inducted into the Alabama Newspaper Hall of Honor in 1980.

Dec. 5, 1908 - At the University of Pittsburgh, numerals were first used on football uniforms worn by college football players.

Dec. 5, 1910 – Melt Booker allegedly killed Will Raines of near Finklea around 11 a.m. on this Sunday morning by shooting him with a small rifle. The shooting occurred on a public road, there were no eye witnesses and the cause of the shooting was unknown.

Dec. 5, 1912 – Travel writer Kate Simon was born Kaila Grobsmit in Warsaw.

Dec. 5, 1919 - Loraine Bedsole Bush became the first woman to head a state agency in Alabama when she is named director of the newly created Child Welfare Department. Long involved in state and national efforts to reform child labor laws, Bush was largely responsible for the establishment of the department.

Dec. 5, 1933 - Prohibition came to an end when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, thus establishing the required 75 percent of states needed to enact the amendment. (This overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States.)

Dec. 5, 1934 – Essayist, novelist and memoirist Joan Didion was born in Sacramento, Calif.

Dec. 5, 1935 - The Alabama Highway Patrol, Alabama’s first statewide law enforcement agency, was created by Gov. Bibb Graves. The patrol originally consisted of 12 motorcycle officers. Today the Department of Public Safety has a staff of over 1,100 who are responsible for the highway patrol, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, driver’s license administration, and other support activities.

Dec. 5, 1941 – John Steinbeck’s nonfiction book “Sea of Cortez” is published.

Dec. 5, 1945 – Five Navy TBM Navy Avenger bombers, the famous “Flight 19,” also known as the “Lost Squadron,” disappeared in the “Bermuda Triangle” with a total crew of 14 during a training flight from Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station. They were never heard from again.

Dec. 5, 1945 - A PBM Martin Mariner bomber dispatched with a crew of 13 to assist the Flight 19 patrol disappeared without a trace.

Dec. 5, 1951 – Major League Baseball outfielder Joseph Jefferson “Shoeless Joe” Jackson passed away in Greenville, S.C. at the age of 64. He is remembered for his performance on the field and for his alleged association with the Black Sox Scandal, in which members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. As a result of Jackson's association with the scandal, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Major League Baseball's first commissioner, banned Jackson from playing after the 1920 season.

Dec. 5, 1952 – Evergreen High School’s basketball team was scheduled to open the 1952-53 season against Beatrice High School in Beatrice, Ala.

Dec. 5, 1955 – E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Ala.

Dec. 5, 1959 - Alabama author Lonnie Coleman's “Jolly's Progress,” a dramatic version of his book “Adam's Way,” opened on Broadway.

Dec. 5, 1966 – Orlando Sentinel staff writer Elvis Lane commented that the many sightings of the creature that had been dubbed the “Florida Sandman,” in contrast to the “Abominable Snowman,” had created a “Lock Ness-like atmosphere” in Osceola County, Fla.

Dec. 5, 1973 - Ron Santo became the first Major League Baseball player to veto his trade.

Dec. 5, 1976 – American actress Amy Acker was born in Dallas, Texas.

Dec. 5, 1977 – Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen. The move was in retaliation for the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt and due to Egypt’s peaceful relations with Israel.

Dec. 5, 1978 - Pete Rose signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. The contract was for four years and $3.2 million making Rose the highest paid athlete in team sports.

Dec. 5, 1982 - Mel Gray ended an NFL streak of 121 consecutive games with receptions.

Dec. 5, 1983 - Steve Howe of the Los Angeles Dodgers was suspended for one year for cocaine use.

Dec. 5, 1983 - The video arcade game "NFL Football" was unveiled in Chicago. It was the first video arcade game to be licensed by the National Football League.

Dec. 5, 1984 - Iran's official news agency quoted the hijackers of a Kuwaiti jetliner parked at Tehran airport as saying they would blow up the plane unless Kuwait released 14 imprisoned extremists.

Dec. 5, 1995 - Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins passed for 300 yards in a game for the 52nd time to set an NFL record.

Dec. 5, 1998 - James P. Hoffa became the head of the Teamsters union, 23 years after his father was the head. His father disappeared and was presumed dead.