December 5th, 2008

Today in History

1484:
Pope Innocent VIII writes a Papal Bull that sets the inquisition into full swing and leads to the deaths hundreds of thousands of people accused of being witches

1933:
Prohibition ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 3/4th of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had outlawed alcohol in the United States).

1932:
German physicist Albert Einstein granted a visa

1992:
Kent Conrad of North Dakota resigns his seat in the United States Senate and is sworn into the other seat from North Dakota, becoming the only US Senator ever to have held two seats on the same day.

1766:
In London, James Christie holds his first sale (he later founded Christie's, the world's oldest auction house).