December 5th, 2008

Today in History

1974:
The last new episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus is broadcast on the BBC.

1952:
The Abbott and Costello Show starring comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, debuts.

1941:
The nonfiction book Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck is published (Steinbeck used knowledge gained writing this book to develop the marine biologist character Doc in Cannery Row).

1776:
At the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Phi Beta Kappa is founded as the first scholastic fraternity in the United States.

1492:
Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).