Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 — the 339th day of the year. There are 26 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Dec. 5, 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO, led by its first president, George Meany.
Also on this date:
• 1848 — President James K. Polk told Congress that gold had been found in California, helping trigger the Gold Rush of ’49.
• 1933 — Prohibition ended when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th Amendment.
• 1952 — The Great Smog of London descended on the city; the unusually thick, pollution-laden fog lasted five days and was blamed for thousands of deaths.
• 1994 — Republicans elected Newt Gingrich as the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.
• 2008 — O.J. Simpson was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison after being convicted on charges from a 2007 confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel. (He was released on parole after nine years and died in 2024.)
• 2009 — A jury in Perugia, Italy, convicted Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito of murdering Meredith Kercher and handed down long prison terms. (After appeals and reversals, they were definitively acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015.)
• 2013 — Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader and South Africa’s first Black president, died at 95.
• 2017 — Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan resigned after a nearly 53-year career, becoming the first Capitol Hill lawmaker forced out amid a wave of workplace sexual misconduct allegations; he denied wrongdoing.
• 2023 — Peru’s constitutional court ordered a humanitarian release for former President Alberto Fujimori, who had been serving a 25-year sentence for death squad killings in the 1990s. (Fujimori died in September 2024 at age 86.)
Today’s birthdays: Author Calvin Trillin is 90; opera singer José Carreras is 79; musician Jim Messina is 78; Golf Hall of Famer Lanny Wadkins is 76; Football Hall of Famer Art Monk is 68; rock singer-musician John Rzeznik (The Goo Goo Dolls) is 60; country singer Gary Allan is 58; comedian-actor Margaret Cho is 57; actor Paula Patton is 50; singer-songwriter Keri Hilson is 43; actor and stock car driver Frankie Muniz is 40; singer-songwriter Conan Gray is 27.
