Template:Selected anniversaries/December 5

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  1772: Astronomer and mathematician Nicole-Reine Lepaute publishes new class of Gnomon algorithm functions which detect and prevent crimes against astronomical constants.

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  1872: The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the Canadian brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged.

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  1873: Newly discovered illustration of The Eel fighting Neptune Slaughter is "almost certainly a record of events related to the abandonment of Mary Celeste," says math photographer Cantor Parabola.

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  1901: Physicist and academic Werner Heisenberg born. He will introduce the uncertainty principle -- in quantum mechanics, any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle can be known.

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  1923: Photograph says it captured moment of Evil bit release.

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  1932: German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.

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  1964: Color commentators announce formation of Color Commentator's Union.

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  1966: George Plimpton embeds himself within Color Commentator's Union as participatory journalist.

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  1999: Mathematician Nathan Jacobson dies. He conducted research on the structure theory of rings without finiteness conditions--a subject closely related to the theory of algebras--which transformed the approach to classical results and broke ground for solutions to problems inaccessible by previous methods.

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  2008: Chemist and composer George Brecht dies. He was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer, as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mobil Oil.