What happened on December 5 ?

749 - Saint John of Damascus, theologian

1082 - Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona

1355 - John III, Duke of Brabant (b. 1300)

1560 - King Francis II of France (b. 1544)

1624 - Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist (b. 1560)

1654 - Jean François Sarrazin, French writer

1663 - Severo Bonini, Italian composer (b. 1582)

1749 - Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye, New French explorer and trader (b. 1685)

1758 - Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (b. 1688)

1770 - James Stirling, Scottish mathematician (b. 1692)

1784 - Phillis Wheatley, British poet (b. 1753)

1791 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1756)

1819 - Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, German poet (b. 1750)

1870 - Alexandre Dumas père, French writer (b. 1802)

1887 - Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (b. 1804)

1891 - Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (b. 1825)

1925 - W?adys?aw Reymont, Polish writer and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)

1926 - Claude Monet, French impressionist painter (b. 1840)

1931 - Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)

1940 - Jan Kubelík, Austro-Hungarian-born Czechoslovak violinist (b. 1880)

1950 - Shri Aurobindo, Indian guru (b. 1872)

1951 - Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player (b. 1889)

1951 - Abanindranath Tagore, Indian writer (b. 1871)

1963 - Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Prime Minister Pakistan (b. 1892)

1963 - Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer (b. 1905)

1963 - Sri Deep Narayan Mahaprabhuji, Indian Hindu mystic

1965 - Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)

1989 - Sir John Pritchard, British conductor (b. 1921)

1991 - Richard Speck, American mass murderer (b. 1941)

1993 - Doug Hopkins, American guitarist and songwriter (Gin Blossoms) (b. 1961)

2001 - Franco Rasetti, Italian physicist (b. 1901)

2002 - Roone Arledge, American sports broadcasting pioneer (b. 1931)

2002 - Ne Win, Burmese leader (b. 1911)

2005 - Frits Philips, Dutch industrialist and businessman from multinational Philips Electronics (b. 1905)

2005 - Kevin "Big Kev" Mc Quay, Australian businessman (b. 1949)