December 5: Father's Day in Thailand, St Nicholas's Eve in various European countries.

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus (pictured) became the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

• 1590 – Niccolò Sfondrati became Pope Gregory XIV, succeeding Pope Urban VII who died two months earlier.

• 1766 – In London, James Christie opened what is today the world's leading art business and fine arts auction house.

• 1933 – Prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States officially ended when the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

• 1945 – Flight 19, a squadron of five Avenger TBM torpedo bombers of the U.S. Navy, disappeared in the area now known as the Bermuda Triangle.