CNN Interactive - Almanac - December 5, 1998

Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are scheduled to play in the Carlos Baerga Celebrity Softball Game in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is scheduled to visit Sweden.
Parliamentary elections are under way in Taiwan.

On Sunday, December 6, local elections are to be held in Russia.
On Monday December 7, the Presidents Golf Cup Tournament is to be held in Melbourne, Australia. South African President Nelson Mandela, and former U.S. presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush expected to attend.
On Tuesday, December 8, President Clinton is scheduled to hold the first White House conference on Social Security in Washington.
Also on December 8, The House Judiciary Committee is tenatively scheduled to hear president Clinton's defense in connection with possible articles of impeachment. Presentations by GOP counsel David Schippers and Democratic counsel Abbe Lowell are scheduled.
On Wednesday, December 9, a hearing for Dr. Jack Kevorkian is scheduled in Pontiac, Michigan. He was charged with first-degree murder after the euthanization of a terminally ill man aired on national television.

NEWSLINK:		NOTABLE:
Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are scheduled to play in the Carlos Baerga Celebrity Softball Game today. For more details, click here.		Actress Morgan Brittany ("The Birds") is 48. Opera Singer Jose Carreras (The Three Tenors) is 52. Actress Margaret Cho ("All American Girl") is 30. Author Joan Didion is 64. Actress Carrie Hamilton ("Fame") is 35. Actor Jeroen Krabbe ("The Fugitive") is 54. Singer Jim Messina is 51. Singer Chad Mitchell is 62. Football player Art Monk is 41. Author Calvin Trillin is 63.

In 1766, London auctioneers Christie's held their first sale.
In 1832, President Andrew Jackson was re-elected for a second term.
In 1872, the American ship Mary Celeste was found abandoned in the Atlantic en route to Genoa.
In 1904, the Russian fleet was almost totally destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur.
In 1933, the 21st amendment of the U.S. constitution was ratified, thus ending the "noble experiment" of prohibition.
In 1945, the so-called "Lost Squadron," five U.S. Navy Avenger bombers carrying 14 Navy flyers, took off on a training mission from the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air
Station and were never seen again. They were popularly believed to have vanished in the "Bermuda Triangle."
In 1957, the Indonesian government ordered the expulsion of all Dutch nationals.
In 1965, General Charles De Gaulle failed to obtain a clear majority in French presidential elections, winning 44 percent of the vote.
In 1977, Bophuthatswana in South Africa was created as the Tswana tribal homeland, covering some 13,500 square miles.
In 1977, Egypt broke off relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen, all opponents of its peace moves with Israel.
In 1979, Jack Lynch resigned as Prime Minister of Ireland; Charles Haughey succeeded him.
In 1985, Britain announced it would withdraw from UNESCO on December 31, claiming it had an anti-Western bias and accusing it of financial extravagance.
In 1990, British author Salman Rushdie, who had been in hiding since Iran ordered his death for blasphemy, appeared public for the first time for nearly two years.
In 1991, after almost seven years in captivity, the last American hostage in Lebanon, journalist Terry Anderson, was released in Beirut.
In 1993, Venezuelans elected Rafael Caldera president for the second time in 25 years.
In 1995, Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana was formally appointed secretary-general of NATO, the first Spaniard to lead the Western alliance.