5 December 1939

UNITED STATES: At 1530 hours local, the Utah legislature becomes the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states' approval thus making the amendment the law of the land. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day. This amendment repeals the 18th Amendment which prohibited "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors" within the U.S. and its territories. It took 288 days to get 36 states to adopt this amendment.

ETHIOPIA: Italian and Ethiopian troops clash at Ualual on the disputed Ethiopian-Italian Somaliland frontier. The Italians have territorial aspirations on Ethiopia since 1896. After World War I, the Italians adopted a treaty of friendship with Ethiopia and supported the kingdom's admission into the League of Nations. However, the clash at Ualual reflects a major change in Italian foreign policy towards imperialism. The Italian government demands an apology from the Ethiopian government and reparations. In response, the Ethiopian government calls for an international investigation of the incident. This clash serves as the precursor for the beginning of the Italian-Ethiopian War.

YUGOSLAVIA: The Government begins deporting Hungarians stating, "In view of the. large amount of unemployment among Yugoslav citizens, the Hungarian attitude at Geneva (Switzerland), and the fact that Hungarians have withdrawn the permits of several hundred Yugoslavs living in Hungary, we decided not to renew these permits as they fell due . . . 27,000 Hungarian citizens have been working and living in Yugoslavia on renewable short-term permits for a long time."

UNITED STATES: Secretary of State Cordell Hull protests the Japanese-inspired autonomy movement in North China stating, "Political disturbances and pressures give rise to uncertainty and misgiving and tend to produce economic and social dislocations. They make difficult the enjoyment of treaty rights and the fulfillment of treaty obligations."

UNITED STATES: A sailor serving in the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) is arrested for threatening to kill film star Ginger Rogers unless she paid him US$5,000 (US$70,252 in year 2005 dollars).

SPAIN: Loyalist Republican forces begin a counter-offensive around Teruel, an operation which forces Lieutenant General Francisco Franco's Nationalist troops to transfer military forces from their campaign in the northeast.

He claimed great success for Britain's policy of moving ships in convoys. There were always 2,000 ships at sea, and losses in convoy were down to one in 750. Two-thirds of the ships now being sunk by the mines belonged to neutrals. As far as the war at sea was concerned, "German friendship has proved far more poisonous than German enmity," Mr. Churchill said. He did not mention the capture off Brazil yesterday of the liner 'Ussukuma', which had been attempting to take supplies to German pocket battleships in the South Atlantic.

U-28 laid 12 mines in the Bristol Channel, later resulting in the sinking of one ship.

U-59 laid 9 mines off Cockle lightship off Lowestoft, which later resulted in the sinking of two ships.

Destroyer ORP Krakowiak laid down.

A Sunderland Mk. I seaplane of the Australian No. 10 Squadron based at Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales, flies on the first official RAAF operation of the war. This is the beginning of six years of war for 10 Squadron, which flew as part of RAF Coastal Command continuously against U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic.

NETHERLANDS: Submarine HNLMS O-23 launched.

FINLAND: Russian troops reach the Mannerheim Line, Finland's main defensive position.

GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Exochorda is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities, who maintain that the 45 tons (41 metric tonnes) of tin plate among the vessel's cargo is contraband. The latter maintain that the cargo must be taken to Marseilles, France, and unloaded there; the manager of the shipping firm (Export Lines) maintains that the ship cannot proceed to a belligerent port without violating the Neutrality Act. Until the impasse is resolved, the merchantman remains at Gibraltar. Freighter SS Exmouth, detained at Gibraltar since 22 November, is released.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Russia rejects a League of Nations proposal to end the war with Finland.

CANADA: Destroyer HMCS Assiniboine departed Halifax for Jamaica and Caribbean patrol.

U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt asks for $1,319 million out of his $9,000 million budget to be spent on defence.