March 5
is the 64th day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (65th in
leap years). There are 301 days remaining in the year.
*
363 -
Roman Emperor Julian moves from
Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the
Sassanid Empire, in a campaign which will bring to his own death.
*
1046 -
Naser Khosrow begins the seven-year
Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book
Safarnameh.
*
1496 -
England King
Henry VII issued letters patent to
John Cabot and his sons, authorizing them to discover of unknown lands.
*
1689 -
Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham is named
Secretary of State for the Northern Department.
*
1766 -
Antonio de Ulloa, the first
Spanish governor of
Louisiana, arrives in
New Orleans.
*
1770 -
Boston Massacre: Five
Americans, including a black slave named
Crispus Attucks, and a boy are killed by
British troops in an event that would help start the
American Revolutionary War five years later.
*
1784 -
Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney is named
President of the Board of Trade.
*
1793 -
French troops are defeated by
Austrian forces and
Liège is recaptured.
*
1821 -
James Monroe is inaugurated for a second term as
President of the United States.
*
1824 -
First Burmese War: The
British officially declare war on
Burma.
*
1836 -
Samuel Colt makes the first production-model
revolver (.34-caliber).
*
1842 - Over 500
Mexican troops led by
Rafael Vasquez invade
Texas, briefly occupy
San Antonio and then head back to the
Rio Grande.
*
1848 -
Louis Antoine Garnier-Pages is named
French minister of Finance.
*
1850 - The
Britannia Bridge across the
Menai Strait between the
Isle of Anglesey and the mainland of
Wales is opened.
*
1860 -
Parma,
Tuscany,
Modena and
Romagna vote in
referenda to join
Kingdom of Sardinia.
*
1861 - The "
Stars and Bars" is adopted as the
flag of the Confederate States of America.
*
1868 - A court of
impeachment is organized in the
United States Senate to hear charges against
President Andrew Johnson.
* 1868 -
Mefistofele, an opera by
Arrigo Boito premieres at
La Scala.
*
1872 -
George Westinghouse patents the
air brake.
*
1877 -
Rutherford B. Hayes is publicly inaugurated as the 19th
President of the United States (he was privately inaugurated on
March 3).
*
1894 -
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery becomes
First Lord of the Treasury.
*
1904 -
Nikola Tesla, in
Electrical World and Engineer, describes the process of
ball lightning formation.
*
1905 -
Russian troops begin to retreat from
Mukden,
Manchuria after losing 100,000 troops in three days.
*
1907 - The second
Duma opens in
St. Petersburg, Russia and 40,000 demonstrators have to be dispersed by
Russian troops.
*
1912 -
Italian forces are the first to use
airships for military purposes, using them for
reconnaissance behind
Turkish lines.
*
1915 -
World War I:
LZ 33, a
zeppelin, is damaged by enemy fire and stranded south of
Ostend.
*
1916 -
Spanish football club
Real Club Deportivo Mallorca founded.
*
1917 -
Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated for a second term as
President of the United States.
*
1918 -
Bolshevist Russia moves the national
capital from
Petrograd to
Moscow.
*
1924 -
Shefqet Verlaci becomes
Prime Minister of
Albania.
*
1931 -
Daniel Salamanca Urey is named
President of
Bolivia.
*
1933 -
Great Depression:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "
bank holiday", closing all
United States banks and freezing all financial transactions.
* 1933 - In
Germany, the
Nazis win 44 percent of the vote in
parliamentary elections.
*
1936 - First flight of
fighter airplane
Spitfire Type 300.
*
1940 - Members of
Soviet politbiuro sign an order for the execution of 25,700
Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700
Polish POW, known also as
Katyn massacre.
*
1943 - First flight of
Gloster Meteor jet aircraft in the
United Kingdom.
*
1946 -
Winston Churchill uses the phrase "
Iron Curtain" in his speech at
Westminster College in
Fulton, Missouri.
*
1949 - The
Jharkhand Party is founded in
India.
*
1955 -
President of Lithuania,
Antanas Merkys dies, after having been imprisoned and deported to the
Soviet Union.
*
1958 -
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is established.
* 1958 -
Explorer 2 spacecraft launches, fails to reach
Earth orbit.
*
1964 -
Ceylon declares emergency crisis due to unrest.
*
1966 - A
BOAC Boeing 707 jet crashes on
Mount Fuji,
Japan, killing 124.
* 1966 - In
Luxembourg,
Udo Jürgens wins the eleventh
Eurovision Song Contest for
Austria.
* 1966 -
Bob Seagren vaults 5.19m, an indoor world record.
*
1968 -
U.S. launches
Solar Explorer B, aka
Explorer 37 from
Wallops Island to study the
Sun.
*
1970 - A
nuclear non-proliferation treaty goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
* 1970 -
Dubnium atoms first detected conclusively.
*
1973 -
Donald DeFreeze, future
Symbionese Liberation Army leader, escapes from
Vacaville Prison.
*
1974 -
Yom Kippur War:
Israeli forces withdrew from the west bank of the
Suez Canal.
*
1976 - British
pound falls below $2
U.S. for the first time.
*
1978 -
Landsat 3 is launched from
Vandenberg AFB in
California.
*
1979 - Detection equipment picks up a
gamma ray burst originating from the
Large Magellanic Cloud, leading to the discovery of
soft gamma repeaters.
* 1979 -
Voyager 1's closest approach to
Jupiter, 172000 miles.
*
1980 -
Earth satellites record
gamma rays from remnants of
supernova N-49.
*
1982 -
Venera 14, a
Soviet satellite arrives at the planet
Venus.
*
1983 -
Bob Hawke becomes
Australian prime minister after defeating
Malcolm Fraser in
Australian elections.
*
1984 - The
Indian government order an attack on the
Golden Temple.
*
1988 -
Constitution of
Turks and Caicos Islands restored and revised.
*
1991 -
Iraq releases all
Gulf War prisoners.
*
1995 - The
Free_Internet_Chess_Server was brought online and remains operational today.
*
1998 -
NASA announces that the
Clementine probe orbiting the
Moon has found enough water to support a human colony.
*
1999 -
Paul Okalik is elected first
Premier of Nunavut.
*
2001 - In
Mecca, 35
Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death during the annual
Hajj pilgrimage.
* 2001 - In
Santee, California, a
school massacre occurs at
Santana High School, leaving 2 dead and 15 wounded.
*
2003 -
Natalie Maines of the
Dixie Chicks provokes controversy in the
U.S. by stating that the band was "ashamed the
president of the United States is from
Texas."
*
1133 -
King Henry II of England (d.
1189)
*
1324 -
King David II of Scotland (d.
1371)
*
1512 -
Gerardus Mercator, Flemish cartographer (d.
1594)
*
1563 -
John Coke, English politician (d.
1644)
*
1575 -
William Oughtred, English mathematician (d.
1660)
*
1585 -
John George I, Elector of Saxony (d.
1656)
*
1658 -
Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French explorer (d.
1730)
*
1693 -
Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian (d.
1754)
*
1696 -
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (d.
1770)
*
1703 (N.S.) -
Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (d.
1768)
*
1748 -
Jonas C. Dryander, Swedish botanist (d.
1810)
* 1748 -
William Shield, English musician (d.
1829)
*
1750 -
Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison, French classical scholar (d.
1805)
*
1794 -
Jacques Babinet, French physicist (d.
1872)
*
1814 -
Wilhelm von Giesebrecht, German historian (d.
1889)
*
1815 -
John Wentworth, American politician (d.
1888)
*
1817 -
Austen Henry Layard, English archaeologist (d.
1894)
*
1836 -
Charles Goodnight, American cattle rancher (d.
1929)
*
1853 -
Howard Pyle, American author and illustrator (d.
1911)
*
1867 -
Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, Premier of Quebec (d.
1952)
*
1869 -
Michael von Faulhaber, German cardinal and archbishop (d.
1952)
*
1870 -
Frank Norris, American writer (d.
1902)
*
1871 -
Rosa Luxemburg, Socialist revolutionary (d.
1919)
*
1873 -
Olav Bjaaland, Norwegian explorer and cross-country skier (d.
1961)
*
1874 -
Henry Travers, British actor (d.
1965)
*
1879 -
Sir William Beveridge, British economist (d.
1963)
*
1886 -
Dong Biwu, founder of the Communist Party of China (d.
1975)
*
1887 -
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer (d.
1959)
*
1897 -
Set Persson, Swedish communist politician (d.
1960)
*
1898 -
Zhou Enlai,
Premier of the People's Republic of China (d.
1976)
* 1898 -
Soong May-ling, Chinese wife of
Chiang Kai-Shek (d.
2003)
*
1904 -
Karl Rahner, German theologian (d.
1984)
*
1908 -
Irving Fiske, American writer, playwright, (d.
1990)
* 1908 - Sir
Rex Harrison, English actor (d.
1990)
*
1910 -
Józef Marcinkiewicz, Polish mathematician (d.
1940)
*
1915 -
Laurent Schwartz, French mathematician (d.
2002)
*
1918 -
James Tobin, American economist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
2002)
*
1920 -
Virginia Christine, American actress (d.
1996)
*
1921 -
Elmer Valo, baseball player (d.
1998)
*
1922 -
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian writer and film director (d.
1975)
*
1923 -
David Nathan, Welsh journalist (d.
1966)
* 1923 -
Laurence Tisch, American investor
*
1927 -
Jack Cassidy, American actor (d.
1976)
*
1934 -
Daniel Kahneman, Israeli economist,
Nobel Prize laureate
* 1934 -
James B. Sikking, American actor
*
1936 -
Canaan Banana, first
President of Zimbabwe (d.
2003)
* 1936 -
Dean Stockwell, American actor
*
1937 -
Olusegun Obasanjo, leader of Nigeria
*
1938 -
Fred Williamson, American football player and actor
*
1939 -
Peter Woodcock, Canadian serial killer
* 1939 -
Pierre Wynants, Belgian chef
* 1939 -
Samantha Eggar, British actress
*
1942 -
Felipe González Márquez,
Prime Minister of Spain*
1943 -
Billy Backus, American boxer
*
1944 -
Roy Gutman, American journalist,
Pulitzer Prize Winner
* 1944 -
Lucio Battisti, Italian singer (d.
1998)
*
1947 -
Clodagh Rodgers, Irish singer
*
1948 -
Eddy Grant, Guyana-born singer
* 1948 -
Elaine Paige, English singer and actress
*
1954 -
Marsha Warfield, American actress, comedienne
*
1955 -
Penn Jillette, American magician and comedian
*
1957 -
Mark E. Smith, Vocalist with The Fall
*
1958 -
Andy Gibb, English singer (d.
1988)
*
1966 -
Michael Irvin, American football player
*
1969 -
MC Solaar, French hiphop artist
*
1970 -
John Frusciante, American musician (
Red Hot Chili Peppers)
*
1971 -
Evil Jared Hasselhoff, American Musician (
Bloodhound Gang)
* 1971 -
Jeffrey Hammonds, Baseball player
*
1972 -
Luca Turilli, Italian musician (
Rhapsody)
*
1974 -
Jens Jeremies, German footballer
* 1974 -
Eva Mendes, American actress
*
1975 -
Jolene Blalock, American actress
* 1975 -
Niki Taylor, American model
*
1976 -
Sarunas Jasikevicius, Lithuanian basketball player
* 1976 -
Paul Konerko, American baseball player
*
1977 -
Bryan Berard, American hockey player
* 1977 -
Wally Szczerbiak, American basketball player
*
1979 -
Flick Shagwell, British porn actress
*
1982 -
Daniel Carter, New Zealand rugby player
*
1986 -
Matty Fryatt, English footballer
*
1989 -
Jake Lloyd, American actor
*
1534 -
Antonio da Correggio, Italian painter (b.
1489)
*
1539 -
Nuno da Cunha, Portuguese governor in India (b.
1487)
*
1592 -
Michael Coxcie, Flemish painter (b.
1499)
*
1605 -
Pope Clement VIII (b.
1536)
*
1611 -
Shimazu Yoshihisa, Japanese warlord and samurai (b.
1533)
*
1622 -
Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma (b.
1569)
*
1695 -
Henry Wharton, English writer (b.
1664)
*
1726 -
Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, English politician
*
1778 -
Thomas Augustine Arne, English composer (b.
1710)
*
1815 -
Franz Mesmer, Austrian developer of hypnotism (b.
1734)
*
1827 -
Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician (b.
1749)
* 1827 -
Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (b.
1745)
*
1829 -
John Adams, last surviving HMS Bounty mutineer (b.
1766)
*
1849 -
David Scott, Scottish painter (b.
1806)
*
1876 -
Marie d'Agoult, German-born writer (b.
1805)
*
1893 -
Hippolyte Taine, French historian (b.
1828*
1895 -
Henry Rawlinson, British soldier (b.
1810)
* 1895 -
Nikolai Leskov, Russian writer (b.
1831)
*
1903 -
George Francis Robert Henderson, British soldier (b.
1854)
*
1907 -
Friedrich Blass, German classical scholar (b.
1843)
*
1926 -
Clément Ader, French aviation pioneer (b.
1841)
*
1927 -
Franz Mertens, German mathematician (b.
1840)
*
1931 - Fr.
Arthur Tooth SSC,
Anglican Clergyman prosecuted and imprisoned for
ritualist activities (b.
1839)
*
1940 -
Cai Yuanpei, Chinese educator (b.
1868)
*
1944 -
Max Jacob, French poet and writer (b.
1876)
*
1945 -
Lena Baker, American murderer (b.
1901)
*
1947 -
Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (b.
1883)
*
1953 -
Sergei Prokofiev,
Russian composer, (b.
1891)
* 1953 -
Joseph Stalin,
Georgian leader of the Soviet Union (b.
1879)
* 1953 -
Herman J. Mankiewicz, American screenwriter (b.
1897)
*
1963 -
Patsy Cline, American singer (b.
1932)
*
1965 -
Chen Cheng, Chinese politician (b.
1897)
* 1965 -
Pepper Martin, baseball player (b.
1904)
*
1966 -
Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (b.
1889)
*
1967 -
Georges Vanier, Governor General of Canada (b.
1888)
*
1974 -
Sol Hurok, Russian-born impresario (b.
1888)
*
1980 -
Jay Silverheels, Canadian actor (b.
1912)
* 1980 -
Winifred Wagner, German opera producer (b.
1897)
*
1981 -
Yip Harburg, American lyricist (b.
1896)
*
1982 -
John Belushi, American actor (b.
1949)
*
1984 -
Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (b.
1915)
* 1984 -
William Powell, American actor (b.
1892)
*
1988 -
Alberto Olmedo, Argentine comedian (b.
1933)
*
1995 -
Vivian Stanshall, English musician, artist, actor, writer,
Bonzo Dog Band (b.
1943)
*
1996 -
Whit Bissell, American actor (b.
1909)
*
1997 -
Samm Sinclair Baker, American diet author (b.
1909)
*
1999 -
Richard Kiley, American actor (b.
1922)
*
2000 -
Lolo Ferrari, French actress (b.
1970)
*
2004 -
Walt Gorney, American actor (b.
1912)
*
2006 -
Richard Kuklinski, Mafia hit man (b.
1935)
*
Learn from Lei Feng Day in
China.
*Approximate beginning of month of
jīngzhé in
Chinese calendar.
Liturgical feasts
*
St Piran's Day -
Cornwall's national day.
*Saint Adrian (died 308)
*
Feast of St. Kieran, patron of the
Diocese of Ossory, in
Irish calendar.
*
Saint Theophile (d. 195)
*
Saint Gerarda*
Saint Olivia (d. 308)
*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaMarch 4 -
March 6 -
February 5 -
April 5 --
listing of all days
