This Day in History

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 2:00 pm

Okay I know this is an odd time to start a thread like this. Ideally it should be started at the beginning of the year, but I wanna be different.

Now this whole thread is meant to be different, too. If any of you know some obscure or often over-looked bit of history that happened on a certain day, that's what you're meant to share. Not stuff we all know. No D-Day stuff or MLK Jr. birthday/assassination. And it's meant to be international, so even if you're not in the US, please share!!

So I'll start things off...

5 December

In 1933, the 21st Amendment was added to the Constitution of the United States of America repealing Prohibition.

Now go out and celebrate in style! Buy a glass of wine.

princess garnet · Post by **princess garnet** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 2:56 pm

There was a story about the Prohibition in DC that I read in the "Washington Post Express" this morning. People still drank just the same.

Leyland · Post by **Leyland** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 3:33 pm

I guess that's the day racing bootleggers lost their markets and became future NASCAR drivers.

Stock car racing in the United States has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition, when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made in Appalachia. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products, and they typically used small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo capacity, and some of them came to love the fast-paced driving down twisty mountain roads. One of the main 'strips' in Knoxville, Tennessee, had its beginning as a mecca for aspiring bootlegging drivers. from Wiki

And the Kennedy fortunes kept on amassing:

[Joseph P.] Kennedy was reputed to be an importer of alcoholic drinks from Canada into the USA during Prohibition. The allegations were never proven. After Prohibition ended, Kennedy consolidated an even larger fortune when his company, Somerset Importers, became the exclusive American agent for Gordon's Dry Gin and Dewar's Scotch. Anticipating the end of Prohibition, he assembled a large inventory of stock, which he later sold for a profit of millions of dollars when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. also from Wiki

donroc · Post by **donroc** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 3:52 pm

In 1941, at age nine and a half in San Francisco, I did not expect what would happen in two days to happen.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 8:01 pm

[quote=""donroc""]In 1941, at age nine and a half in San Francisco, I did not expect what would happen in two days to happen.[/quote]

Pearl Harbor occurred on a Sunday and this year's anniversary is on a Sunday as well. Of course for many of us who weren't a live back then or at least for me, a date which will live in infamy is 9/11.

SM

Christina · Post by **Christina** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 8:12 pm

Someone told me today that the idea of the Bermuda Triangle began on December 5th 1945 when 5 American air force planes disappeared in the 'triangle'...

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 8:15 pm

[quote=""Christina""]Someone told me today that the idea of the Bermuda Triangle began on December 5th 1945 when 5 American air force planes disappeared in the 'triangle'...[/quote]

Not only that but a search plane looking for them disappeared as well.

SM

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 8:19 pm

Here's something going on right this very day:
DNA laboratory identificated the remains of tsar Nicholas II family
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.htm ... &PageNum=0

http://www.google.com/news?sourceid=nav ... tnG=Search

SM

Alaric · Post by **Alaric** » Sat December 6th, 2008, 2:29 am

Today, December 6, Kyiv fell to the Mongol Empire thus putting the future Russia into Mongol control for the next two hundred years, Pridge's Purge happened as Pride purged the Long Parliament of MP's who supported Charles I, and Bonnie Prince Charlie began his second retreat in the '45. It's also the birthday of Henry VI, George Monck and the day of death of Saint Nicholas and Jefferson Davis.

annis · Post by **annis** » Sat December 6th, 2008, 3:03 am

Born December 6, 1421, Henry VI, the youngest king of England to accede to the throne (at only 269 days old).

And in New Zealand, on December 6, 1935 the first Labour government took office as a result of its landslide victory in November's general election. Led initially by the charismatic Michael Joseph Savage, this government is best remembered for its significant social welfare reform.