Witchcraft condemned by Pope Innocent VIII

Innocent VIII condemned witchcraft this day in 1484 via papal bull, and subsequently he dispatched inquisitors to Germany to try witches and persecuted a chief exponent of Renaissance Platonism, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.1484 

The International Olympic Committee banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Games in P’yŏngch’ang, South Korea, after uncovering a Russian state-sponsored doping program. 2017. 

South African nationalist and statesman Nelson Mandela, who helped end the country‘s apartheid system of racial segregation and ushered in a peaceful transition to majority rule, died at age 95. 2013. 

Fijian military leader Frank Bainimarama became acting president of the island country following a coup. 2006.

A lethal smog began blanketing London, causing thousands of deaths; the incident prompted passage of the Clean Air Act. 1952. 

Director Fritz Lang—whose films, dealing with fate and man’s inevitable working out of his destiny, are considered masterpieces of visual composition—was born in Vienna. 1890. 

In his annual message to Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in California, helping to spark the Gold Rush, which brought an estimated 300,000 people to the territory. 1848. 

Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna at age 35. 1791. 

In his greatest victory, Prussian King Frederick II (the Great) defeated the Austrians at Leuthen during the Seven Years’ War. 1757.

Walt Disney (born December 5, 1901, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.—died December 15, 1966, Burbank, California) was an American motion-picture and television producer and showman, famous as a pioneer of animated cartoon films and as the creator of such cartoon characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He also planned and built Disneyland, a huge amusement park that opened near Los Angeles in 1955, and before his death he had begun building a second such park, Walt Disney World, near Orlando, Florida. The Disney Company he founded has become one of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates.