Today in History, December 5th
On December 5, 1933, Utah ratified the 21st Amendment and Prohibition ended. Plus Mozart's death, the Mary Celeste, and Walt Disney's birthday.
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December 5 is best known for 1933, when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment and national Prohibition came to an end. It is also the day Mozart died in Vienna in 1791 and the birthday of Walt Disney.
The big story: Prohibition is repealed (1933)
On December 5, 1933, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, giving it the three-fourths majority it needed. Utah’s vote, cast late that afternoon, followed two other states’ approvals earlier the same day. With that, national Prohibition was over, and for the first time an amendment to the Constitution had been repealed. The dry era had started when the 18th Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, and Prohibition took effect on January 17, 1920. Congress backed it up with the Volstead Act, passed over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. Enforcement turned out to be costly and full of holes. Organized crime grew rich on illegal liquor, governments lost billions in tax revenue, and public support drained away in the early 1930s. Repeal did not make the whole country wet at once. States were free to stay dry under their own laws, and a few did for decades; Mississippi was the last to give up statewide prohibition, in 1966. Still, after nearly 14 years, a legal drink was back within reach for most Americans.
More events on December 5
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1492 | Christopher Columbus reached the island he named Hispaniola, still convinced he was near the Indies. |
| 1757 | Frederick the Great of Prussia defeated the Austrians at Leuthen, a victory that let him retake Silesia during the Seven Years’ War. |
| 1776 | Five students at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, founded Phi Beta Kappa. |
| 1791 | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna at age 35. |
| 1848 | President James K. Polk officially confirmed the discovery of gold in California in his message to Congress, fueling the gold rush. |
| 1872 | The American ship Mary Celeste was found sailing near the Azores with no one aboard. |
| 1945 | A squadron of U.S. Navy planes known as Flight 19 disappeared in the area later nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle. |
| 1952 | A heavy smog settled over London and lingered for five days, killing at least 4,000 people. |
| 1955 | The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO, with George Meany as its first president. |
| 1964 | Captain Roger Donlon received the first Medal of Honor awarded for action in the Vietnam War. |
| 2013 | Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader and former president of South Africa, died at 95. |
| 2017 | The International Olympic Committee suspended Russia’s Olympic committee from the 2018 Winter Games over state-run doping. |
Born on December 5
- 1782: Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States, born in Kinderhook, New York.
- 1901: Walt Disney, animation pioneer and entertainment entrepreneur, born in Chicago.
- 1901: Werner Heisenberg, German physicist and a founder of quantum mechanics.
- 1932: Little Richard, American rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, born in Macon, Georgia.
Keep reading
Sources
- On This Day: December 5, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- This Day in History: December 5, History.com
- Prohibition ends, History.com
- Battle of Leuthen, EBSCO Research Starters
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Discovery of Gold, Library of Congress
- AFL-CIO, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Russia banned from South Korea Winter Olympics by IOC, Al Jazeera
- Martin Van Buren, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Walt Disney, Encyclopaedia Britannica
