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 Today's highlight in history:
On Dec. 5, 1791, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35.
On this date:
In 1776, the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
In 1782, the first native U.S. president, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y.
In 1792, George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.
In 1831, former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1848, President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.
In 1932, German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States.
In 1933, Prohibition ended as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.
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.
In 1991, Richard Speck, who had murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966, died in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.
In 1994, Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.
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 Ten years ago: The space shuttle Columbia returned from a 16-day mission that had been marred by the bungled release of a satellite. The World Trade Organization rejected American claims that the Fuji film company had conspired with the Japanese government to keep Eastman Kodak products out of Japan.
Five years ago: Strom Thurmond, the oldest and longest-serving senator in history, celebrated his 100th birthday on Capitol Hill. (It was at this gathering that Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, in toasting Thurmond, seemed to express nostalgia for Thurmond's segregationist past; the resulting firestorm prompted Lott to resign his leadership position.) In Kansas City, Mo., a pharmacist who had diluted chemotherapy drugs given to thousands of cancer patients was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Gen. Ne Win, former dictator of Myanmar, also called Burma, died in Yangon at age 91. ABC executive Roone Arledge died in New York at age 71.
One year ago: Robert Gates won speedy and unanimous approval from the Senate Armed Services Committee to be secretary of defense. New York became the first city in the nation to ban artery-clogging trans fats at restaurants.
Today's birthdays: Singer Little Richard is 75. Author Joan Didion is 73. Author Calvin Trillin is 72. Musician J.J. Cale is 69. Actor Jeroen Krabbe is 63. Opera singer Jose Carreras is 61. Pop singer Jim Messina is 60. Actress Morgan Brittany is 56. Actor Brian Backer is 51. Country singer Ty England is 44. Rock singer-musician John Rzeznik (The Goo Goo Dolls) is 42. Country singer Gary Allan is 40. Comedian-actress Margaret Cho is 39. Writer-director Morgan J. Freeman is 38. Actress Amy Acker is 31. Actor Nick Stahl is 28. Actor Frankie Muniz is 22. Actor Ross Bagley is 19.
Thought for today: "Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."
-- attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
[Associated Press]
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