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December 5

Published in On this Day listing

1922 The Irish Free State Constitution Act and the Consequential Provisions Act received the royal assent; the king approved T.M. Healy as governor-general designate of the Free State. Saorstát Éireann (the Irish Free State) came into existence the following day.
1967 Michael P. O’Connor, writer and broadcaster, died.
1914 The Endurance, captained by Sir Ernest Shackleton with Tom Crean as second in command, set out from South Georgia with the objective of crossing the Antarctic continent.

On this Day

1820 Edward Bransfield from Ballinacurra, Middleton, Co. Cork, commander of the English merchant vessel Williams, made the first sighting of the mainland of Antarctica—Trinity Peninsula, the northernmost point of the continent.
1968 Vietnam War—the Tet Offensive. After declaring a truce over the seven-day Tet (lunar New Year) holiday, c. 70,000 Viet Cong troops launched surprise attacks on US and South Vietnam forces throughout South Vietnam.
1948 Mahatma Ghandi (78), India’s prophet of non-violence, was assassinated in his own garden in New Delhi by the Hindu extremist Nathuran Vinayak Godse.
1864 The National Gallery of Ireland in Merrion Square, Dublin, financed by William Dargan from a testimonial of £5,000 he received in acknowledgement of his services to the Dublin Exhibition (1853), was formally opened.
1661 Oliver Cromwell, former lord protector of England, was formally executed, more than two years after his death.
1933 Adolph Hitler was appointed German chancellor by President von Hindenburg.