April 5: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – April 5 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 5th April 1242: Russian troops today repelled an attempted invasion by Teutonic Knights.
2. 5th April 1614: American Indian Pocahontas today married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.
3. 5th April 1621: The Mayflower today set sail for its return trip to England from Plymouth.
18th Century – What Happened on April 5 – The 1700s
4. 5th April 1792: The first presidential veto was today cast by President George Washington in the matter of appropriating representatives from the states.
19th Century – April 5 This Day That Year – The 1800s
5. 5th April 1806: The Cider mill was today patented by Isaac Quintard.
6. 5th April 1827: American actor James H. Hackett performed at Covent Garden in London, England, and became the first American actor to perform abroad.
7. 5th April 1843: Hong Kong was today proclaimed by Queen Victoria to be the British crown colony.
8. 5th April 1887: The Ithaca Daily Journal in New York, today published an advertisement introducing a new 10-cent Ice Cream Specialty called a Cherry Sunday.
9. 5th April 1892: Gold leaf in rolls was patented by Walter H. Coe.
10. 5th April 1895: Playwright Oscar Wilde who was accused of homosexual practices today lost his criminal case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
11. 5th April 1897: The Greco-Turkish War, which is also referred to as the “Thirty Day’s War”, is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day April 5th – The 1900s
12. 5th April 1900: An attempted assassination of Edward, Prince of Wales in Brussels, fails.
13. 5th April 1901: Bulgaria is forced to arrest the leaders of the Macedonian Committee, under threat from the Ottoman Turkish Government.
14. 5th April 1902: In Glasgow, Scotland a section of a grandstand collapses causing the Ibrox disaster which killed 25 and injured 517.
15. 5th April 1908: British Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman resigns.
16. 5th April 1908: As the Russians retreated; the Japanese Army reached the Yalu River.
17. 5th April 1911: Waldorf W Aster acquires Daily Observer.
18. 5th April 1911: The MCC tour match against Jamaica finishes in a tie.
19. 5th April 1916: French troops occupy Bois de Caillette.
20. 5th April 1919: Eamon de Valera today became the President of Ireland.
21. 5th April 1919: Polish Army executes 35 young Jews.
22. 5th April 1923: The first regular production of balloon tires was started today by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.
23. 5th April 1925: Belgian Workers Party wins the parliamentary election.
24. 5th April 1929: Lithuania signs Livinov-pact today.
25. 5th April 1930: Mahatma Gandhi today made salt in India in defiance of British law.
26. 5th April 1932: About 10,000 rioters seized the Colonial Building in the Dominion of Newfoundland, leading to the end of self-government.
27. 5th April 1932: Dutch textile strike broken by trade unions.
28. 5th April 1933: The first operation to remove a lung was on this day performed at the Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. MO.
29. 5th April 1935: Croatian Farmer’s arty today won the Yugoslavian election.
30. 5th April 1936: A tornado virtually annihilated Tupelo Mississippi, killing 216 people.
31. 5th April 1938: Anti-Jewish riots break out in Dabrowa Poland.
32. 5th April 1939: Membership of Hitler Youth becomes obligatory.
33. 5th April 1941: In San Francisco, Castro and Fillmore streetcars were replaced by buses today.
34. 5th April 1941: German commandos today secured docks along the Danube River to prepare for Germany’s invasion of the Balkans.
35. 5th April 1943: Japanese troops conquer Indin.
36. 5th April 1943: The Allies bomb Mortsel, Belgium’s worst loss of life (936 civilians) during World War II
37. 5th April 1944: After being adrift for 133 days Chinese steward Poon Lim was found off the coast of Brazil.
38. 5th April 1944: During World War II, 270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura were executed by the Germans.
39. 5th April 1944: 140 Lancasters bomb aircraft factory in Toulouse.
40. 5th April 1945: Kuniaki Koiso resigns as Prime Minister of Japan. He was replaced by Kantaro Suzuki.
41. 5th April 1949: Fireside Theater debuts on US television today.
42. 5th April 1949: Seventy-seven people were killed when a sixty-year-old St Antony’s Hospital in Effingham, Illinois caught fire.
43. 5th April 1950: Prague espionage trial against bishops and priests begins today.
44. 5th April 1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of America were today sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.
45. 5th April 1953: For his involvement in orchestrating the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
46. 5th April 1955: Winston Churchill today resigned as British Prime Minister.
47. 5th April 1955: Antony Eden succeeds Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
48. 5th April 1958: In one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time, Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada was destroyed.
49. 5th April 1961: Dutch governor Platteel installs New Guinea Council.
50. 5th April 1962: NASA’s civilian pilot Neil Armstrong takes X-15 to 54,600 meters.
51. 5th April 1962: St Bernard Tunnel completed. Swiss and Italian workers shake hands.
52. 5th April 1963: Beatles received their 1st silver disc today.
53. 5th April 1964: London’s Underground today runs the first driverless trains.
54. 5th April 1965: The US today performed a nuclear test at its Nevada test site.
55. 5th April 1965: Lava Lamp Day celebrated.
56. 5th April 1967: ATS II was launched but it failed to reach the orbit.
57. 5th April 1968: U.S. Marine base Khe San Vietnam, appalled.
58. 5th April 1968: Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego opens today.
59. 5th April 1969: In many US cities, massive anti-war demonstrations occurred against the Vietnam War.
60. 5th April 1971: Mount Etna erupts in Sicily today.
61. 5th April 1971: Fran Phipps became the 1st woman to reach the North Pole
62. 5th April 1971: In Si Lanka, insurrection against the United Front government of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was today launched by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.
63. 5th April 1971: US Lt William Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre.
64. 5th April 1973: Pioneer 11 was launched to Jupiter today.
65. 5th April 1974: World Trade Center, then the world’s tallest building with 110 stories opens in New York.
66. 5th April 1974: Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai retired from test cricket today.
67. 5th April 1975: The launch of Soyuz 18A was today aborted short of orbit. Cosmonauts return safely to Earth.
68. 5th April 1976: British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns as James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
69. 5th April 1977: The U.S. today performed a nuclear test at its Nevada test site.
70. 5th April 1979: Ex-premier Pol Jar of Cambodia flees out of Cambodia.
71. 5th April 1982: Aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes with escort vessels left Portsmouth for the Falkland Islands.
72. 5th April 1982: British foreign secretary Lord Carrington resigned due to the Falklands War.
73. 5th April 1983: France today expelled 47 Soviet diplomats.
74. 5th April 1984: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers broke Wit Chamberlain’s record of 31,419 points and became the all-time NBA regular season scoring leader.
75. 5th April 1985: John McEnroe said “Any man can beat any woman at any sport, especially tennis.”
76. 5th April 1986: Libyan terrorists today bomber a discotheque in Berlin. The US launched a retaliatory attack with warplanes on Libya on 15th April 1986.
77. 5th April 1989: In Poland, the government and the Solidarity signed agreements today that set free elections for June 1989. The eight-year ban on Solidarity was also lifted.
78. 5th April 1990: Hollywood actor and entrepreneur Aul Newman today won a court case over Julius Gold, to continue giving all profits from Newman Foods to charity.
79. 5th April 1991: The US today began air drops to Kurd refugees in Northern Iraq.
80. 5th April 1991: Space Shuttle Atlantis 8 was launched today by the U.S.
81. 5th April 1991: Southeast Airlines Embracer 120 crashed today in Georgia killing 23 people.
82. 5th April 1992: In Thailand General Suchinda Kraprayoon was today installed as president.
83. 5th April 1992: Hundreds of thousands of abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington D.C.
84. 5th April 1992: Albero Fujimori, President of Peru today suspended the constitution and dissolved Congress.
85. 5th April 1993: Republican Guard kills 65 in Chad.
86. 5th April 1993: The construction of Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame began today.
87. 5th April 1996: John Bobbitt was today put under house arrest in Las Vegas for 120 days.
88. 5th April 1998: In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku and Honshu opened today. It became the largest suspension bridge in the world, built for $ 3.8 billion.
89. 5th April 1999: Two Libyans who are suspected to have bombed a Pan Am Jet in 1988 causing the death of 270 people were today handed over so that they could be flown to the Netherlands for trials.
21st Century – April 5 This Day In History – The 2000s
90. 5th April 2004: The jet in which Mexican President Vicente Fox was on was struck by lightning near Mexico City’s international airport.
91. 5th April 2009: An emergency meeting of the United Nations was called following North Korea’s launch of the Kwangmyongsong-25rocket.
92. 5th April 2012: International internet group Anonymous today hacked several Chinese bureaus in opposition to censorship.
93. 5th April 2012: Severe storms in Argentina resulted in the death of 14 people.
94. 5th April 2012: A 77-year-old committed suicide outside the Greek parliament prompting further protests in Athens.
95. 5th April 2013: A bus collided with an oil tanker in Nigeria killing 60 people.
96. 5th April 2013: Japan’s Nikkei 225 reached its highest level in five years today.
97. 5th April 2015: Rolling Stone Magazine today retracted its “Rape on Campus” story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia after being discredited.
98. 5th April 2016: PayPal today announced the cancellation of a $ 3.6 million investment in North Carolina after the state passed anti-gay legislation.
99. 5th April 2016: San Francisco became the first city to mandate paid paternal leave.
100. 5th April 2016: Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson of Iceland resigns conflicting interest was shown by the Panama Papers leak.
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