On This Day:
Thursday December 5, 2013 This is the 339th day of the year, with 26 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: lava lamp Edward Craven-Walker is responsible for bringing the lava lamp into millions of homes over the years. After seeing a fascinating egg-timer with a blob of wax in it at an English pub around the mid-1940s, and being informed that the person who invented it had passed away, Craven-Walker spent the next 15 years perfecting the lava lamp. Beginning in 1963, Craven-Walker brought the novelty lamps to trade shows, and by 1965 they were being sold in the U.S. The lava lamp, whose original name was "Astrolight" or "Astro Lamp," became a staple fixture during the psychedelic 1960s. More lava lamps were sold in the 1990s than in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s combined.
Holidays Thailand: National Day and King's Birthday.
Feast day of St. Christian, St. Sabas, St. Justinian or Iestin, St. Crispina, St. Nicetius of Trier, St. Sigiramnus or Cyran, and St. John Almond.
Haiti: Discovery Day (1492, by Christopher Columbus).
Events 1766 - James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.
1776 - The first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
1792 - George Washington was re-elected President; John Adams was re-elected Vice President.
1848 - President James Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.
1876 - President Ulysses S. Grant apologized to Congress for mistakes he claimed he had made during his presidency.
1933 - German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States.
1933 - Prohibition came to an end in the United States as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, repealing the 18th Amendment.
1952 - "The Abbott and Costello Show" premiered on TV.
1955 - American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany.
1956 - Under pressure from the United States and the United Nations, British and French forces occupying the Suez Canal in Egypt began their withdrawal from Egypt.
1988 - The Reverend Jim Bakker, a popular television evangelist and founder of the PTL organization, was indicted by a federal grand jury in North Carolina on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy.
1994 - Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.
1996 - U.S. President Bill Clinton nominated Madeleine Albright as secretary of state; she would become the highest-ranking woman ever in the federal government.
Births 1782 - Martin Van Buren (8th President of the United States of America, 1837-1841); first U.S. president born of American parents (i.e. first to have been born a U.S. citizen).
1839 - George Custer, American cavalry officer.
1890 - Fritz Lang, Austrian-American motion picture director.
1894 - Phillip Wrigley, American gum executive.
1901 - Walt Disney, cartoonist, American movie producer, creator of Mickey Mouse, Disneyland, Walt Disney World.
1906 - Otto Preminger, Viennese-born film director.
1934 - Joan Didion, American essayist and novelist.
1935 - Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman), American singer, composer, rock and roll pioneer.
Deaths 1791 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian musical genius and renowned composer.
1926 - Claude Monet, French painter and leader of the Impressionist Art movement.
1999 - Joseph Heller, American satirist probably best remembered for writing the satiric World War II classic "Catch-22."
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