235 years ago today
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Dies at 35
On December 5, 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna at the age of just 35, leaving his Requiem Mass unfinished on his work table. The cause of his death remains disputed to this day — rheumatic fever, kidney disease, poisoning, and other causes have all been proposed by historians and physicians. He was buried in a common grave, as was the custom for middle-class Viennese citizens. In his brief life, Mozart composed over 800 works — symphonies, operas, concertos, chamber music, and sacred pieces — that remain central to the classical repertoire and are widely considered the most perfectly realized in the Western canon. His death at the height of his powers is among the greatest losses in the history of music.
Walt Disney
American Animation Pioneer & Entrepreneur
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Werner Heisenberg
German Theoretical Physicist
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Little Richard
American Singer-Songwriter & Rock Pioneer
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Martin Van Buren
8th President of the United States
The first U.S. president born as an American citizen rather than a British subject, Van Buren was a master political organizer who built the Democratic Party into a national institution. His presidency was dominated by the Panic of 1837 financial crisis.
Christina Rossetti
English Poet
One of the most significant English poets of the Victorian era, Rossetti wrote with intense lyrical beauty about love, death, and spiritual longing. Her poem In the Bleak Midwinter became one of the most beloved Christmas carols, and Goblin Market is considered a masterpiece of Victorian fantasy verse.
Joan Didion
American Novelist & Journalist
One of the defining voices of American literary journalism, Didion's essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album captured the fragmentation of American culture in the 1960s and 1970s. Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, written after the sudden death of her husband, became a landmark work on grief.
Cicero Delivers the Fourth Catilinarian Oration
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Pope Innocent VIII Issues Witch-Hunting Bull
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James Christie Holds His First Auction
Auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale in London, beginning the house that would become Christie's — now one of the two most prestigious auction houses in the world, handling hundreds of billions of dollars in fine art and collectibles.
Mozart Dies at 35
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna, leaving the Requiem unfinished. In just 35 years, he composed over 800 works that define the classical era and remain central to the Western musical canon.
President Polk Confirms the California Gold Rush
President James K. Polk addresses Congress, confirming reports of extraordinary gold discoveries in California and triggering the California Gold Rush that would bring 300,000 prospectors to the West within two years.
Prohibition Ends in the United States
The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition and ending the 13-year federal ban on alcohol. The experiment had spawned organized crime empires and proven largely unenforceable.
Flight 19 Disappears over the Bermuda Triangle
Five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo bombers comprising Flight 19 vanish during a training flight over the Atlantic. A Martin Mariner rescue aircraft sent to find them also disappears. All 27 men are lost, fueling decades of Bermuda Triangle mythology.
Great Smog of London Begins
A deadly combination of fog and industrial air pollution descends on London, killing an estimated 12,000 people over the following weeks. The catastrophe directly prompted the Clean Air Act of 1956 and transformed environmental policy in Britain.
AFL-CIO Labor Federation Formed
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations merge to form the AFL-CIO, creating the largest labor federation in U.S. history and unifying the organized labor movement under a single umbrella organization.
Russia Banned from 2018 Winter Olympics
The International Olympic Committee bans Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang following evidence of a state-sponsored doping program, allowing only "clean" Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag.
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Austrian Composer
Mozart died at 35 in Vienna, leaving his Requiem unfinished. In a life of extraordinary brevity, he composed over 800 works — symphonies, operas, concertos, and chamber pieces — that represent the pinnacle of the Classical style and rank among the most performed music in history.
Alexandre Dumas
French Novelist & Playwright
The author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas was one of the most widely read French writers of the 19th century. His sweeping adventure novels are still in print in virtually every language on earth.
Claude Monet
French Impressionist Painter
The founding figure of French Impressionism, Monet devoted the final decades of his long life to his garden at Giverny and the monumental Water Lilies series, a cycle of nearly 250 oil paintings that are among the most celebrated works in Western art.
Dave Brubeck
American Jazz Pianist & Composer
One of the most popular jazz musicians of the 20th century, Brubeck pioneered jazz in unusual time signatures, most famously with Take Five (in 5/4 time), which became one of the best-selling jazz recordings of all time. He died one day before his 92nd birthday.
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