May 5Birthdays & History

On this day: May 5 in history

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

1. 553The Second Council of Constantinople begins.Middle East
2. 1192Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem marries Henry II, Count of Champagne.Middle East
3. 1215Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.Europe
4. 1260Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.Asia
5. 1292Election of Count Adolf of Nassau as King of the Romans in the Dominican monastery of Frankfurt.Europe
6. 1494On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown.Latin AmericaEurope
7. 1609Daimyō (Lord) Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa.Asia
8. 1640King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.Europe
9. 1654Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the Scots, proclaimed in Edinburgh.Europe
10. 1762Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.Europe
11. 1789In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.Europe
12. 1809Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.North America
13. 1821The first edition of The Manchester Guardian, now The Guardian, is published.Europe
14. 1821Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.Europe
15. 1835The first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen.Europe
16. 1862Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.EuropeLatin America
17. 1864American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County.North America
18. 1865American Civil War: The Confederate government is declared dissolved at Washington, Georgia.North America
19. 1866Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.North America
20. 1877American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.North America
21. 1886Workers marching for the eight-hour day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are shot at by Wisconsin National Guardsmen in what becomes known as the Bay View Massacre.North America
22. 1887The Peruvian Academy of Language is founded.Latin America
23. 1891The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.North America
24. 1904Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.North America
25. 1905The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.Europe
26. 1912The first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda is published.Europe
27. 1920US authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.North America
28. 1930The 1930 Bago earthquake, the first of two major earthquakes in southern Burma, kills as many as 7,000 in Yangon and Bago.Asia
29. 1936March of the Iron Will: Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.EuropeAfrica
30. 1940World War II: Norwegian campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.Europe
31. 1941Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots' Victory Day.Africa
32. 1945World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation.Europe
33. 1945World War II: Battle of Castle Itter, one of only two battles in that war in which American and German troops fought cooperatively.North AmericaEurope
34. 1945World War II: A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army kills six people near Bly, Oregon.AsiaNorth America
35. 1946The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.Asia
36. 1955The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect.EuropeNorth America
37. 1961Project Mercury: Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight.North America
38. 1964The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day.Europe
39. 1972Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.Europe
40. 1973Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59.4, an as-yet-unbeaten record.North America
41. 1980Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.EuropeMiddle East
42. 1981Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital (Northern Ireland) after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27.Europe
43. 1985Ronald Reagan visits the military cemetery at Bitburg and the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he makes a speech.Europe
44. 1987Iran–Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States.Middle EastNorth America
45. 1991A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man.North AmericaLatin America
46. 1994American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism.North AmericaAsia
47. 1994The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.Europe
48. 2006The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.Africa
49. 2007Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashes after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Douala, Cameroon, killing all 114 aboard, making it the deadliest aircraft disaster in Cameroon.Africa
50. 2010Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek government-debt crisis.Europe
51. 2023The World Health Organization declares the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency.World

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