December 5 ...

In 1776 the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. In 1782 the first native US president -- the country's eighth, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, NY. In 1791 composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35. In 1792 George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president. In 1831 former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the US House of Representatives, the only former president to be elected to the US House. In 1848 President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of 1849 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California. In 1901 movie producer Walt Disney was born in Chicago. In 1932 German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States. In 1933 Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment. 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 1992 Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota resigned his seat in the US Senate and was sworn into the other seat from North Dakota, becoming the only US Senator ever to have held two seats on the same day. In 1994 Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.