February 5: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – February 5 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 5th Feb 1428: King Alfonso V of Aragon orders Jews in Sicily to attend conversion sermons.
2. 5th Feb 1488: Roman Catholic German emperor Maximilian I was caught in Belgium.
3. 5th Feb 1512: Bologna was rescued by French troops under Gaston de Folx.
4. 5th Feb 1556: The Treaty of Versailles was signed by King Henri I and King Philip II.
5. 5th Feb 1597: The new government of Japan kills a group of Japanese Christians as they consider them to be a threat to Japanese society.
6. 5th Feb 1644: The first livestock branding law in the US was passed by Connecticut.
7. 5th Feb 1649: The Covenanter Parliament of Scotland proclaimed the Prince of Wales King Charles II.
8. 5th Feb 1679: Leopold I, the German emperor signs peace with France.
18th Century – What Happened on February 5 – The 1700s
9. 5th Feb 1777: Georgia on this day abolished both entail and Primogeniture. It became the first US state to do so.
10. 5th Feb 1782: Articles of Confederation were ratified by South Carolina. It was the first state to do so.
11. 5th Feb 1783: Sever earthquakes strike Calabria killing 30,000 people.
12. 5th Feb 1783: Independence of the US was recognized by Sweden.
19th Century – February 5 This Day That Year – The 1800s
13. 5th Feb 1817: On this day the first US gas company was established in Baltimore. Coal gas was used for street lights.
14. 5th Feb 1825: The first detachable shirt collar was created by Hannah Lord Montague of New York.
15. 5th Feb 1850: Adding a machine using depressible keys was patented on this day in New York.
16. 5th Feb 1861: Colman Sellers of Philadelphia patents Kinematoscope on this day.
17. 5th Feb 1864: Federals occupy Jackson on this day in Mississippi.
18. 5th Feb 1870: On this day first motion picture was screened in a theater in Philadelphia.
19. 5th Feb 1885: On this day the news of the fall of Khartoum reaches London.
20. 5th Feb 1885: Congo was established as a personal colonial possession by King Leopold II of Belgium.
21. 5th Feb 1894: A female suffrage organization was formed in Amsterdam on this day.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day February 5th – The 1900s
22. 5th Feb 1900: British troops under Gen Buller occupy Vaal Krantz, Natal.
23. 5th Feb 1900: A treaty for the Panama Canal was signed by the United States and the United Kingdom.
24. 5th Feb 1901: The US Steel Corporation was formed on this day by Pierpont Morgan.
25. 5th Feb 1904: The American occupation of Cuba ends on this day.
26. 5th Feb 1911: On this day the Society of Dutch Composers was formed in Amsterdam.
27. 5th Feb 1917: Wilson’s veto, curtailing Asian immigration was overridden by the US Congress on this day.
28. 5th Feb 1917: The establishment of the modern-day constitution in Mexico was proclaimed by the Mexican President Venustiano Carranza on this day.
29. 5th Feb 1917: The last of the troops commanded by General John Pershing leave Mexico on this day.
30. 5th Feb 1918: Stephen W Thompson downed an enemy airplane and became the first US pilot to down an enemy plane.
31. 5th Feb 1918: Separation of the church and the state begins in the USSR on this day.
32. 5th Feb 1922: The Reader’s Digest magazine was 1st published on this day.
33. 5th Feb 1923: General mine strike in Saar. The strike was against wage cuts.
34. 5th Feb 1923: This day saw the mass arrest of socialists and communists in Italy.
35. 5th Feb 1924: On this day the Royal Greenwich Observatory began broadcasting the hourly time signals. This signal was known as Greenwich Time Signal or the “BBC pips”.
36. 5th Feb 1931: Maxine Dunlap becomes the first US woman to earn a glider pilot license.
37. 5th Feb 1936: The National Wildlife Federation was formed on this day.
38. 5th Feb 1937: A bill proposing to increase tax exemption from homesteads from $2000 to $3500 was passed on this day in Texas USA.
39. 5th Feb 1937: “Modern Times” the first Charlie Chaplin talkie was released on this day.
40. 5th Feb 1938: The third British Empire Games opens in Sydney, Australia on this day.
41. 5th Feb 1940: General Winckelman becomes the Dutch supreme commander replacing Gen Reijders.
42. 5th Feb 1943: Nazi general Seyffardt was shot on this day by Amsterdam resistance group CS-6.
43. 5th Feb 1943: Clandestine Radio Atlantiksender begins its first transmission in Germany.
44. 5th Feb 1944: Stettin was attacked by 358 RAF bombers.
45. 5th Feb 1945: US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manila on this day.
46. 5th Feb 1946: The Chondoist Chongu Party was founded in North Korea on this day.
47. 5th Feb 1952: The first “Don’t Walk” sign was installed in New York City on this day. This was to make pedestrian traffic safer. It is still in use in New York.
48. 5th Feb 1953: The United States steel industry was reported to be thriving because of the demand created by World War II. The need for steel continues.
49. 5th Feb 1953: This day marks the end of the sweet rationing imposed by Britain during World War II.
50. 5th Feb 1956: The 7th Winter Olympic Games close at Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy on this day.
51. 5th Feb 1956: A bill to create a $ 30 million Brooklyn Sports Center Authority was sponsored by New York Mayor Robert Wagner and Brooklyn Boro President Frank Cashmore on this day.
52. 5th Feb 1958: Gamel Abdel Nasser was nominated as the first President of the United Arab Republic.
53. 5th Feb 1958: Clifton R Wharton became the first US black foreign minister (Romania).
54. 5th Feb 1958: West Indian cricketer Lance Gibbs makes his test debut against Pakistan in Port-of-Spain.
55. 5th Feb 1958: Vanguard TV-3 was launched into the Earth’s orbit. It reaches 6km.
56. 5th Feb 1962: On this day President Charles de Gaulle of France called for independence of Algeria.
57. 5th Feb 1962: On this day a suit was filed to bar Englewood NJ from “racially segregated” schools.
58. 5th Feb 1962: On this day seven planets, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn aligned within 16 degrees.
59. 5th Feb 1963: The Soviet Lunar probe failed on this day.
60. 5th Feb 1966: On this day BBC opened a relay radio station on Ascension Island.
61. 5th Feb 1967: Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Robert Penn Warren on this day.
62. 5th Feb 1967: On this day Nicaragua elects Anastasio Somoza as its President.
63. 5th Feb 1968: Skater Kees Verkerk wins Olympic gold medal in the 1500m event.
64. 5th Feb 1970: The US performs a nuclear test on this day at its Nevada test site.
65. 5th Feb 1971: The third US manned Moon expedition Apollo 14 lands on the moon. The astronauts walk on the moon for four hours.
66. 5th Feb 1972: Two members of the IRA were killed on this day when the bomb they were planting went off prematurely.
67. 5th Feb 1972: Mandatory inspection of passengers and baggage by the US airlines began on this day.
68. 5th Feb 1973: The comic strip “Hagar the Horrible” makes its debut on this day.
69. 5th Feb 1974: On this day the maximum speed on the Autobahn was reduced to 100kmph.
70. 5th Feb 1974: John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran to become an elected member of the Congress of the United States.
71. 5th Feb 1974: The first close-up photos of planet Venus’s cloud structure were sent on this day by US Mariner 10.
72. 5th Feb 1974: British miners go on strike on this day.
73. 5th Feb 1976: This day was the last day of test cricket for Lance Gibbs and Ian Redpath.
74. 5th Feb 1979: Sears Radio Theater premiered on CBS on this day.
75. 5th Feb 1980: Egypt votes to end boycott on Israel on this day.
76. 5th Feb 1981: A Military Jury in North Carolina convicted Robert Garwood of collaborating with the enemy.
77. 5th Feb 1982: On this day Chin A Sen. ended his term as President of Surinam.
78. 5th Feb 1982: The first low-cost airline operating out of the UK, Laker Airways collapsed on this day owing £270 million to the banks and other creditors. Its chairman Sir Freddie Laker asked Clydesdale Bank to appoint a receiver.
79. 5th Feb 1983: Klaus Barbie, who was chief of the Gestapo in Lyon, France, during the Nazi occupation was flown to France on this day. He was indicted of “crimes against humanity”.
80. 5th Feb 1988: General Manuel Noriega of Panama with 16 others was indicted by the US federal grand jury for drug trafficking and money laundering.
81. 5th Feb 1988: Arizona House of Representatives on this day voted to impeach Republican Governor Evan Meacham
82. 5th Feb 1989: The last of the Russian troops withdraw from the capital city of Kabul Afghanistan.
83. 5th Feb 1991: Dr Jack Kevorkian was barred by a Michigan court from assisting in suicides.
84. 5th Feb 1992: This day was the last day of test cricket for Indian cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar.
85. 5th Feb 1992: Jury selection begins on this day in the Los Angeles police violence against Rodney King case.
86. 5th ‘Feb 1993: On this day James Woolsey becomes the 16th Director of the CIA.
87. 5th Feb 1993: Grenade explosion in Sarajevo kills 63 and injures 160 on this day.
88. 5th Feb 1955: On this day British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his concern about social division of society and warned that it could threaten the unit of the United Kingdom.
89. 5th Feb 1995: The local elections in Japan were won on this day by Japan’s Shinshinto Party.
90. 5th Feb 1996: For the first time genetically modified food goes on sale in the British supermarket.
91. 5th Feb 1997: A $70 million Holocaust fund was created by 3 Swiss banks on this day.
92. 5th Feb 1997: Plans to cut import tariffs on crude oil and most petroleum product was announced by Japan’s Finance Ministry on this day.
93. 5th Feb 1997: Brook Lee of Hawaii was on this day crowned 46th Miss USA.
21st Century – February 5 This Day In History – The 2000s
94. 5th Feb 2003: The US Secretary of State Colin Powell urges the UN Security Council to move against Iraq. He said that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was harboring terrorists.
95. 5th Feb 2004: A group; of 35 cockle-pickers were trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay in England. Twenty-three Chinese people were drowned. 21 bodies were recovered.
96. 5th Feb 2008: There was a major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States. It leaves at least 58 dead.
97. 5th Feb 2009: Port Royal, the United States Navy guided missile cruiser ran aground on this day off Oahu, Hawaii damaging the ship and also the coral reef.
98. 5th Feb 2013: The House of Commons in the UK on this day voted in favor of same-sex marriage.
99. 5th Feb 2013: The US Postal Service on this day announced the cessation of Saturday first-class mail delivery. This is to take effect from August 2013.
100. 5th Feb 2016: Computer hackers try to steal 1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York using Bangladesh banking codes. They stole 81 million before the authorities were alerted by a typo.
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