Today is Friday, Dec. 5, the 339th day of 2025. There are 26 days left in the year.<\/p>\n
Today in history:<\/p>\n
On Dec. 5, 1952, the Great Smog of London descended on the British capital; the unusually thick fog, which contained toxic pollutants, lasted five days and was blamed for causing thousands of deaths.<\/p>\n
Also on this date:<\/p>\n
In 1848, in an address to Congress, President James K. Polk sparked the Gold Rush of \u201949 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In 1994, Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.<\/p>\n
In 2008, O.J. Simpson was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison after being convicted of 12 criminal charges in connection with a 2007 confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel. (Simpson was released on parole after serving nine years; he died in 2024).<\/p>\n
In 2009, a jury in Perugia, Italy, convicted American student Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, of murdering Knox\u2019s British roommate, Meredith Kercher, and sentenced them to long prison terms. (After a series of back-and-forth rulings, Knox and Sollecito were definitively acquitted in 2015 by Italy\u2019s highest court.)<\/p>\n
In 2013, Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa\u2019s first Black president, died at age 95.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Democratic Congressman John Conyers of Michigan resigned from Congress after a nearly 53-year career, becoming the first Capitol Hill politician to lose his job amid sexual misconduct allegations sweeping the nation\u2019s workplaces; Conyers denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Peru\u2019s constitutional court ordered a humanitarian release for imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year sentence in connection with the death squad slayings of 25 Peruvians in the 1990s. (Fujimori died in September 2024 at age 86.)<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Birthdays:<\/p>\n