Today in History: Wednesday, December 05, 2012

On Dec. 5, 1933, national Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.

1776 The first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

1782 Martin Van Buren, the eighth U.S. president and the first to be born after the country was formed, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y.

1791 Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna at age 35.

1792 George Washington was re-elected president and John Adams was re-elected vice president.

1831 Former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

1848 President James K. Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.

1901 Movie producer Walt Disney was born in Chicago.

1955 The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO.

1994 Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.

1996 Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan questioned whether the stock market was overvalued due to investors' "irrational exuberance."

2006 New York became the first city in the nation to ban artery-clogging trans fats at restaurants.

2008 A judge in Las Vegas sentenced O.J. Simpson to 33 years in prison for an armed robbery at a hotel room.