December 5th is

Comfort Food Day

Repeal of Prohibition Day *

Sacher-Torte Day *

World Soil Day *

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MORE! Cicero, Joan Didion and Amy Winehouse, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Alpine European Christian tradition– Krampus, impish companion of St. Nick, punishes bad children on eve of the feast of Saint Nicholas (December 6)

Unitarian Universalist – First Monday in December, first night of Chalica, 7 nights celebrating principles of Unitarian Universalism, making volunteer/donation pledges to appropriate causes 

Austria –
Ischgl:
› Krampus Run
Klagenfurt:
› Krampusnacht

Thailand –
Father’s Day/King’s Birthday

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On This Day in HISTORY

63 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero gives the fourth and final of his Catiline Orations in the Roman Senate, purporting to expose a plot to overthrow the government led by Lucius Segius Catilina and his allies – the truth of Cicero’s allegations have been debated by scholars ever since

1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull that deputizes inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany. While much of the bull dealt with jurisdictional issues in Germany, it endorses belief in the existence of witches, and approval for the Inquisition to proceed in “correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising” such persons “according to their deserts” – By confirming witchcraft as a spiritual and secular crime, it added fuel to the fires that were to come with the expansion the Inquisition

1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of ‘ Hispaniola’ (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic)

1496 – King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree of expulsion of “heretics”

1666 – Francesco Scarlatti is born, Italian violinist and composer

1766 – London’s James Christie holds his first sale, beginning of his auction house

1791 – Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna, Austria, age 35

1792 – President George Washington and V.P. John Adams are re-elected

1830 – Christina Rossetti is born, English poet and author

1831 – Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives

1832 – Apprentice chef Franz Sacher, filling in for head chef, who is ill, creates his delicious Sacher-Torte for Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich and his guests, who were all impressed and delighted

1847 – Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. senate

1848 – In a message to the U. S. Congress, President James K. Polk confirms the discovery of gold in California

1854 – Aaron Allen patents a folding chair

1879 – Clyde Vernon Cessna born, founder of Cessna Aircraft Corporation

1890 – Fritz Lang born, Austrian-American film director-producer

1901 – Walt Disney is born, American animator-director- producer-screenwriter, co-founder of Walt Disney Company

1931 – Britain outlaws the sending of arms to Ireland; and Joseph Stalin orders Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour destroyed

1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa; and Little Richard, American singer-songwriter, is born

1933 – Utah and Nevada are the final two states to vote for ratification of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which repeals the 18th Amendment, ending Prohibition – Repeal of Prohibition Day *

1934 – Joan Didion born, American author and screenwriter

1935 – In Montebello, CA, the first commercial hydroponics operation is launched

1946 – José Carreras born, Spanish tenor and opera star

1951 – First push button-controlled garage opens in Washington, DC

1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO; and  E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957 – Sukarno expels all Dutch people from Indonesia

1958 – The Preston By-pass, the UK’s first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time (now part of the M6 and M55)

1962 – U.S. and the Soviet Union agree to cooperate in peaceful uses of outer space

1963 – Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards born, U.K. Olympic Skier

1964 – Lloyd J. Old discovered the first linkage between major histocompatibility complex(MHC) and disease,mouse leukemia, beginning recognition of MHC’s importance in the immune response

1971 – The Soviet Union, at U.N. Security Council, vetoes a resolution calling for a cease-fire in hostilities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir

1977 – Egypt’s peace negotiations with Israel cause a rift with other Arab countries; diplomatic relations are broken with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen

1978 – The Soviet Union signs a “friendship treaty” with the Republic of Afghanistan

1979 – Sonia Johnson is excommunicated by the Mormon Church for outspoken support of the Equal Rights Amendment (still not ratified)

1986 – The Soviet Union says it will abide by the SALT II treaty limits on nuclear weapons, in spite of the decision by the U.S. to exceed them

1983 – Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina

1988 – Televangelist Jim Bakker and former aide Richard Dortch are indicted by a federal grand jury in North Carolina on fraud and conspiracy charges

1992 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin keeps the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia’s Congress

2002 – The International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) launches World Soil Day * to highlight soil as a critical component of the global ecosystem, and its enormous role in food security

2004 – The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there, granting the same legal rights and responsibilities as civil marriage, to same-sex couples

2006 – New York City becomes the first U.S. city to ban artificial trans fats in restaurant foods. The NYC Board of Health gives restaurants until July 2008 to eliminate trans fats from all the food they serve

2011 – A posthumous Amy Winehouse album, Lioness: Hidden Treasures, is released in the U.K. featuring unreleased songs and demos

2014 – NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is launched for a four hour test flight, which lands on target in the Pacific Ocean

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Visuals

• Sacher-Torte
• World Soil Day poster
• International flags
• Witch burning in Schiltach, Germany (1533)
• Christina Rossetti quote
• 1946 CESSNA Airplane Ad
• Joan Didion quote
• “Eddie the Eagle”
• Sonia Johnson’s memoir bookcover
• First UK Civil Partners 2004, Grainne Close and Shannon Sickels

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