June 5Birthdays & History

On this day: June 5 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 830Theodora is crowned Byzantine empress and marries then emperor Theophilos in the Hagia Sophia. She is credited with restoring Christian orthodoxy and icons.Europe
2. 1086Tutush, brother of Seljuk sultan Malik Shah, defeats Suleiman ibn Qutalmish, the Turkish ruler of Anatolia in the battle of Ain Salm.Middle East
3. 1257Kraków, in Poland, receives city rights.Europe
4. 1284Battle of the Gulf of Naples: Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon, destroys the Neapolitan fleet and captures Charles of Salerno.Europe
5. 1288The Battle of Worringen ends the War of the Limburg Succession, with John I, Duke of Brabant, being one of the more important victors.Europe
6. 1305Election of Pope Clement V following the death of Pope Benedict XI in the previous year.Europe
7. 1610The masque Tethys' Festival is performed at Whitehall Palace to celebrate the investiture of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales.Europe
8. 1644The Qing dynasty's Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor take Beijing during the collapse of the Ming dynasty.Asia
9. 1794Haitian Revolution: Battle of Port-Républicain: British troops capture the capital of Saint-Domingue.Latin AmericaEurope
10. 1798Battle of New Ross: The attempt to spread the United Irish Rebellion into Munster is defeated.Europe
11. 1817The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched.North America
12. 1829HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.Latin America
13. 1832The June Rebellion breaks out in Paris in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis Philippe.Europe
14. 1837Houston is incorporated by the Republic of Texas.North America
15. 1849Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy by the signing of a new constitution.Europe
16. 1851Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.North America
17. 1862As the Treaty of Saigon is signed, ceding parts of southern Vietnam to France, the guerrilla leader Trương Định decides to defy Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam and fight on against the Europeans.AsiaEurope
18. 1864American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont: Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.North America
19. 1873Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar closes the great slave market under the terms of a treaty with Great Britain.AfricaEurope
20. 1879The Zungeni Mountain skirmish takes place between British and Zulu forces during the second invasion of the Zulu Kingdom.EuropeAfrica
21. 1883The first regularly scheduled Orient Express departs Paris.Europe
22. 1888The Rio de la Plata earthquake takes place.Latin America
23. 1893The trial of Lizzie Borden for the murder of her father and step-mother begins in New Bedford, Massachusetts.North America
24. 1900Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria.AfricaEurope
25. 1915Denmark amends its constitution to allow women's suffrage.Europe
26. 1916Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court; he is the first American Jew to hold such a position.North America
27. 1916World War I: The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire breaks out.Middle East
28. 1917World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day".North America
29. 1940World War II: After a brief lull in the Battle of France, the Germans renew the offensive against the remaining French divisions south of the River Somme in Operation Fall Rot ("Case Red").Europe
30. 1941World War II: Four thousand Chongqing residents are asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing.Asia
31. 1942World War II: The United States declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.North AmericaEurope
32. 1944World War II: More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.Europe
33. 1945The Allied Control Council, the military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.Europe
34. 1946A fire in the La Salle Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, kills 61 people.North America
35. 1947Cold War: Marshall Plan: In a speech at Harvard University, the United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe.North AmericaEurope
36. 1949Thailand elects Orapin Chaiyakan, the first female member of Thailand's Parliament.Asia
37. 1956Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.North America
38. 1959The first government of Singapore is sworn in.Asia
39. 1960The Lake Bodom murders occur in Finland.Europe
40. 1963Movement of 15 Khordad: Protests against the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In several cities, masses of angry demonstrators are confronted by tanks and paratroopers.Middle East
41. 1963The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigns in a sex scandal known as the "Profumo affair".Europe
42. 1964DSV Alvin is commissioned.North America
43. 1967The Six-Day War begins: Israel launches surprise strikes against Egyptian air-fields in response to the mobilisation of Egyptian forces on the Israeli border.Middle East
44. 1968Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.North America
45. 1975The United Kingdom holds its first country-wide referendum on membership of the European Economic Community (EEC).Europe
46. 1975The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War.Middle East
47. 1976The Teton Dam in Idaho, United States, collapses. Eleven people are killed as a result of flooding.North America
48. 1981The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that five people in Los Angeles, California, have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.North America
49. 1983More than 100 people are killed when the Russian river cruise ship Aleksandr Suvorov collides with a girder of the Ulyanovsk Railway Bridge. The collision caused a freight train to derail, further damaging the vessel, yet the ship remained afloat and was eventually restored and returned to service.Europe
50. 1984Operation Blue Star: Under orders from India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi, the Indian Army begins an invasion of the Golden Temple, the holiest site of the Sikh religion.Asia
51. 1989The Tank Man halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.Asia
52. 1991Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-40, the fifth spacelab mission.World
53. 1993Portions of the Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK, fall into the sea following a landslide.Europe
54. 1995The Bose–Einstein condensate is first created.North America
55. 1997The Second Republic of the Congo Civil War begins.Africa
56. 1998A strike begins at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan, that quickly spreads to five other assembly plants. The strike lasts seven weeks.North America
57. 2000The Six-Day War in Kisangani begins in Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, between Ugandan and Rwandan forces. A large part of the city is destroyed.Africa
58. 2001Tropical Storm Allison makes landfall on the upper-Texas coastline as a strong tropical storm and dumps large amounts of rain over Houston. The storm causes $5.5 billion in damages, making Allison the second costliest tropical storm in U.S. history.North America
59. 2002Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-111, carrying the Expedition 5 crew to the International Space Station to replace the Expedition 4 crew. Astronaut Franklin Chang-Díaz becomes the second person to have flown on seven spaceflights.World
60. 2003A severe heat wave across Pakistan and India reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50 °C (122 °F) in the region.Asia
61. 2004Noël Mamère, Mayor of Bègles, celebrates marriage for two men for the first time in France.Europe
62. 2009A fire at a day-care center kills 49 people in Hermosillo, Mexico.Latin America
63. 2009After 65 straight days of civil disobedience, at least 31 people are killed in clashes between security forces and indigenous people near Bagua, Peru.Latin America
64. 2012Last transit of Venus until the year 2117.World
65. 2015An earthquake with a moment magnitude of 6.0 strikes Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia, killing 18 people, including hikers and mountain guides on Mount Kinabalu, after mass landslides that occurred during the earthquake. This is the strongest earthquake to strike Malaysia since 1975.Asia
66. 2016Two shootings in Aktobe, Kazakhstan, kill six people.Asia
67. 2017Six Arab countries—Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates—cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region.Middle EastAfrica
68. 2017Montenegro becomes the 29th member of NATO.Europe
69. 2022A constitutional referendum is held in Kazakhstan following violent protests and civil unrest against the government.Asia
70. 2024The Boeing Starliner is launched on its first crewed flight, carrying astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station.World
71. 2025The Nintendo Switch 2 video game console is released worldwide.Asia

Source: Wikipedia "June 5" / CC BY-SA 4.0