Today is Monday, Dec. 5, the 340th day of 2016. There are 26 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Dec. 5, 1791, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35.
On this date:
In 1782, the eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, New York; he was the first chief executive to be born after American independence.
In 1831, former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1916, British Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith resigned (he was succeeded by David Lloyd George).
In 1933, national Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.
In 1945, five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers mysteriously disappeared after taking off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a training mission with the loss of all 14 crew members; "The Lost Squadron" contributed to the legend of the Bermuda Triangle.
In 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany.
In 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union announced a bilateral space agreement on exchanging weather data from satellites, mapping Earth's geomagnetic field and cooperating in the experimental relay of communications.
In 1979, feminist Sonia Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church because of her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
In 1988, a federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted PTL founder Jim Bakker and former aide Richard Dortch on fraud and conspiracy charges. (Bakker was convicted on all counts; Dortch pleaded guilty to four counts and cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence. Bakker was initially sentenced to 45 years in prison; the term was eventually reduced to eight years, and he served a total of about five.)
In 1991, Richard Speck, who'd murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966, died in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
In 1994, Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.
In 2013, Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president, died at age 95.
