Following are some of the major events to have occurred on December 5:
1914 – Italy announces neutrality in World War One.
1926 – The French Impressionist painter Claude Monet died.
1933 – The 21st amendment of the U.S. constitution was ratified, ending the “noble experiment” of alcohol prohibition.
1977 – Egypt broke ties with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen after they all opposed its peace moves with Israel.
1995 – Spanish foreign minister Javier Solana was formally appointed secretary-general of NATO, the first Spaniard to lead the Western military alliance.
2001 – Afghan factions signed an accord to set up a post-Taliban government headed by Pashtun chief Hamid Karzai. The deal created a government of 30 members.
2001 – Former Sotheby’s auction house chairman Alfred Taubman was found guilty in a U.S. District Court of conspiring to fix prices with rival Christie’s.
2001 – Peter Blake, the skipper who twice won the America’s Cup sailing competition for New Zealand, was killed by pirates who stormed his vessel at the mouth of the Amazon River.
2003 – An explosion tore through a morning commuter train just outside Yessentuki station on Russia’s southern fringe. Forty-six people were killed and more than 160 injured.
2006 – Fiji’s military staged a bloodless coup d’etat, the nation’s fourth coup in 20 years.
2017 – French singer Johnny Hallyday dies.
(Reuters)
