SomeFacts | May 5

On this day - May 5

553 — The Second Council of Constantinople begins.

1215 — Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England ...

1260 — Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

1494 — On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus ...

1609 — Daimyō (Lord) Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain in ...

1640 — King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.

1654 — Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the ...

1762 — Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.

1789 — In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time ...

1809 — Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a ...

1821 — The first edition of The Manchester Guardian, now The ...

1821 — Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena ...

1835 — The first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels ...

1862 — Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French ...

1864 — American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in ...

1865 — American Civil War: The Confederate government was declared ...

1866 — Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, ...

1877 — American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota ...

1886 — Workers marching for the Eight-hour day in Milwaukee, ...

1887 — The Peruvian Academy of Language is founded.

1891 — The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) ...

1904 — Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington ...

1905 — The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, ...

1912 — The first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was ...

1920 — Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for ...

1930 — The 1930 Bago earthquake, the former of two major earthquakes ...

1936 — Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1940 — World War II: Norwegian campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra ...

1941 — Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa; the country ...

1945 — World War II: Battle of Castle Itter, one of only two battles ...

1945 — World War II: A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese ...

1945 — World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the ...

1946 — The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in ...

1955 — The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United ...

1961 — Project Mercury: Alan Shepard becomes the first American to ...

1964 — The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day.

1972 — Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, ...

1973 — Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59.4, an ...

1980 — Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the ...

1981 — Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 ...

1985 — Ronald Reagan visits the military cemetery at Bitburg and the ...

1987 — Iran–Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings ...

1991 — A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, ...

1994 — American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for ...

1994 — The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and ...

2006 — The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan ...

2007 — Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashes after takeoff from Douala ...

2010 — Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity ...

2023 — The World Health Organization declares the end of the COVID-19 ...