Dec. 5 in History: Prohibition Ends; Dr. Martin Luther King Bus Boycott Begins

Photo caption: The "Rosa Parks Bus" as displayed in the Henry Ford museum in Detroit. Image via wikipedia and creative commons licensing.

Here are 10 events of historical significance that took place on December 5, as brought to you by History.net:

1791 - Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna.

1861 - In the U.S. Congress, petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery are introduced.

1904 - The Japanese destroy a Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.

1909 - George Taylor makes the first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider that he designed himself.

1933 - The 21st Amendment ends Prohibition in the United States, which had begun 13 years earlier.

1936 - The New Constitution in the Soviet Union promises universal suffrage, but the Communist Party remains the only legal political party.

1937 - The Lindberghs arrive in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary exile.

1950 - Pyongyang in Korea falls to the invading Chinese army.

1953 - Italy and Yugoslavia agree to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.

1955 - A bus boycott begins under the leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Montgomery, Alabama.

1966 - Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory heads for Hanoi, North Vietnam, despite federal warnings against it.

1978 - The Soviet Union signs a 20-year friendship pact with Afghanistan.