Today's Event – 5th December 2021

• 63 BC – Cicero gives the fourth and final of the Catiline Orations.

• 633 – Fourth Council of Toledo takes place.

• 1082 – Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona is assassinated.

• 1408 – Emir Edigu of Golden Horde reaches Moscow.

• 1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany.

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

• 1496 – King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree ordering the expulsion of Jewish "heretics" from the country.

• 1560 – Charles IX becomes king of France.

• 1578 – Sir Francis Drake, after sailing through Strait of Magellan raids Valparaiso.

• 1649 – The town of Raahe (Swedish: Brahestad) was founded by Count Per Brahe the Younger.

• 1757 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen: Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.

• 1766 – In London, auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale.

• 1775 – At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• 1776 – Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the U.S., holds its first meeting at the College of William & Mary

• 1831 – Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.

• 1847 – Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. Senate.

• 1848 – California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.

• 1865 – Chincha Islands War: Peru allies with Chile against Spain.

• 1895 – New Haven Symphony Orchestra of Connecticut performs its first concert

• 1931 – Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow is destroyed on orders from Joseph Stalin.

• 1933 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.

• 1936 – The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.

• 1945 – Flight 19, a group of TBF Avengers, disappears in the Bermuda Triangle.

• 1952 – Beginning of the Great Smog in London. A cold fog combines with air pollution and brings the city to a standstill for four days. Later, a Ministry of Health report estimates 4,000 fatalities as a result of it.

• 1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO.

• 1955 – E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery bus boycott.

• 1958 – Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.

• 1958 – The Preston By-pass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. (It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.)

• 1964 – Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.

• 1964 – Lloyd J. Old discovers the first linkage between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease—mouse leukemia—opening the way for the recognition of the importance of the MHC in the immune response.

• 1971 – Battle of Gazipur: Pakistani forces stand defeated as India cedes Gazipur to Bangladesh.

• 1977 – Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen. The move is in retaliation for the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt.

• 1983 – Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina.

• 1991 – Leonid Kravchuk is elected the first president of Ukraine.

• 1995 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lanka's government announces the conquest of the Tamil stronghold of Jaffna.

• 2004 – The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.

• 2005 – The 6.8 Mw  Lake Tanganyika earthquake shakes the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme),killing six people.

• 2006 – Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.

• 2013 – Militants attack a Defense Ministry compound in Sana'a, Yemen, killing at least 56 people and injuring 200 others.

• 2014 – Exploration Flight Test 1, the first flight test of Orion, is launched.

• 2017 – The International Olympic Committee bans Russia from competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics for doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

National Events- 

•  The Indian Navy’s 22nd Missile Vessel Squadron, that bombed the Karachi Port and sunk Pakistan Navy’s vessels in the 1971 war, will receive the President’s Standard, a rare honour for its distinguished service, from President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday, the Navy said.

•  SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Sunday said the Samajwadi Party will conduct a caste census and give representation to all sections of the society as per their numbers, if voted to power in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

•  Five persons were injured in a shootout at convoy of ex Block Pramukh Haji Yunus on Sunday, police said here.

•  Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday attacked the Centre over the killing of civilians during an anti-insurgency operation in Mon district of Nagaland, saying the government must give a “real reply” as to what is the home ministry doing when “neither civilians nor security personnel are safe in our own land”.

• An active northeast monsoon season, which uncharacteristically saw five consecutive low-pressure systems develop in the North Indian Ocean Region, triggered heavy rains across southern India in recent weeks. In October, Kerala alone received record rainfall of 589.9 mm (94 per cent surplus),its highest in 122 years. Rains have continued over southern India since August and more showers are in store in December.

International Events- 

•  A pilot crashed his light aircraft into a truck on Saturday after being forced to carry out an emergency landing on an autobahn bridge used by cars, local police confirmed in a statement. The 72-year-old had been flying from France to the Netherlands, over the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, when his single-engine began to fail and he had to quickly decide when to bring the aircraft down.

•  A total solar eclipse, the only one in 2021, took place on Saturday and was visible from Antarctica and the surrounding regions.

•  Rescuers were searching for survivors Sunday on the slopes of the highest volcano on Indonesia’s island of Java after it was rocked by an eruption that killed at least 13 people, as smoldering debris and thick mud hampered their efforts.

•  Five people were killed and at least 15 arrested after Myanmar security forces in a car rammed into an anti-coup protest on Sunday morning in Yangon, local news portal Myanmar Now reported.

• Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has assured Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa that there will be no mercy to the mob which lynched Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana over allegations of blasphemy, the President’s office here said on Sunday.

Job alerts-

• Sainik School Nagrota Jobs for Ward Boys and other posts. Last date 18/12/2021

• 762 TPT ASC (Civil GT) Jobs for Civil Motor Driver and other posts. Last date 17/12/2021

• NIAB Jobs for Field Assistant and other posts. Last date 13/12/2021

Sports-

•  Just 6.2 overs from a possible 98 were possible as Pakistan resumed the day on 161-2 and reached 188-2 before the umpires called it a day.

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra for motivating young students at a school, saying such efforts will increase curiosity towards sports and exercising.

•  Indian shuttler PV Sindhu settled for a silver medal after going down meekly to South Korea’s An Seyoung 16-21 12-21 in the summit clash of the BWF World Tour Finals on Sunday.

•  It was an amazing game (Game 6). Even Magnus (Carlsen) said that people might remember him as someone who won a World Championship game after five years; the first decisive game in classical chess after such a big gap. It was a pretty tongue-in-cheek comment. The last decisive game happened in 2016.

• RB Leipzig, last season’s Bundesliga runners-up, have mutually agreed to part company with head coach Jesse Marsch after a poor start to the season, the German club said on Sunday.

Technology-

• While AirTags are useful in finding lost items like keys, backpacks and more, there was always this sense of them being misused. 

•  Google has started rolling out functionality that enables users to install apps on their Android-enabled smart TVs through their phones.

•  Last month, WhatsApp rolled out a feature for the web users that allows them to create stickers from photos. The platform also started rolling out skin tone combinations

•  Meta-owned Facebook said it will start testing the Split Payments feature, a free and fast way to share the cost of bills and expenses in Facebook Messenger in the US.

• South Korean tech giant Samsung is reportedly planning to launch more water-resistant Galaxy A series mid-range smartphones in 2022.

Economy – 

•  The initial share-sale of footwear retailer Metro Brands Ltd, which is backed by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, will open for public subscription on December 10.

•  Bitcoin was 12 per cent down at 0920 GMT at $47,495. It fell as low as $41,967.5 during the session, taking total losses for the day to 22 per cent. The broad selloff in cryptos also saw ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, plunge over 10 per cent.

•  A strong regulatory ecosystem including purchase-price subsidies and tax exemptions can fuel electric mobility growth in the country, a senior official of Italian luxury car maker Maserati said.

•  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday urged officials of intelligence wings to ensure a logical and speedy conclusion to every case which would act as a deterrence for perpetrators of economic crimes such as smuggling.

• The finance ministry on Sunday said over three crore income tax returns have been filed for the financial year 2020-21 so far and advised taxpayers who are yet to file their return to do so at the earliest.

Local –

•  At Lok Nayak Hospital on Sunday, which has been designated for treatment of patients infected with the new Omicron variant of coronavirus. A total of 17 people have been sent from the Delhi airport to the hospital, of which one has tested positive for the new variant.

•  The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recorded the statement of suspended Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh in connection with its money laundering case against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.

• TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to campaign for the party’s candidates in the December 19 Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, state minister Partha Chatterjee said here on Saturday. 

•  Sri Lankan Navy personnel threw stones and bottles to drive them away while they were fishing near Katchatheevu, leading to some damage to more than 10 boats, fishermen who returned here following the incident alleged on Sunday.

• The November 30 photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading Janata Dal Secular (JDS) supremo H D Devegowda by his hand before the two held a “cordial meeting” at Parliament House have put the spotlight on the two parties ahead of a crucial Vidhan Parishad election scheduled for December 10.

GK – 

Which institution released ‘The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2021’ report?

[A] Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
[B] NABARD
[C] NITI Aayog
[D] World Bank

‘HAECHI-II’, which was seen in the news recently, is an operation undertaken by which institution?

[A] Central Bureau of Investigation
[B] INTERPOL
[C] Federal Bureau of Investigation
[D] International Monetary Fund

Which institution released ‘The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2021’ report?

[A] Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
[B] NABARD
[C] NITI Aayog
[D] World Bank

“System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research” (SAFAR) is an initiative of which Union Ministry of India?

[A] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
[B] Ministry of Earth Sciences
[C] Ministry of Science and Technology
[D] Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

Which State Police launched the ‘Call your Cop’ mobile App, to connect distressed citizens with Police?

[A] Nagaland
[B] West Bengal
[C] Kerala
[D] Odisha