Title: March 5 Content: == Events == === Up to 1900 === * 1046 – Naser Khosrow begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he would later describe in his book Safarnameh. * 1279 - The Livonian Order is defeated in the Battle of Aizkraukle by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. * 1496 – England King Henry VII issued letters patern to John Cabot and his sons, authorizing them to discover of unknown lands. * 1616 - Nicolaus Copernicus' book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is banned by the Roman Catholic Church. * 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 Crispus Attucks, 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. * 1811 - Peninsular War: A French force under command of Marshal Victor is heavily defeated while trying to prevent an English-Spanish-Portuguese army from ending the Siege of Cadiz in the Battle of Barrosa. * 1821 – James Monroe is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. * 1824 – First Burmese War: The British officially declares 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. * 1849 – Zachary Taylor is inaugurated as the 12th President of the United States. * 1850 – The Britannia Bridge, a railway bridge, linking the Isle of Anglesey to mainland Wales across the Menai Strait, opens. * 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. * 1861 – Montgomery Blair is named 23rd Postmaster General of the United States by Abraham Lincoln * 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). * 1878 - Manchester United Football Club is founded under the name of Newton Heath LYR FC. * 1888 – Samuel Teleki and Ludwig von Hoehnal reach Lake Rudolf, present-day Lake Turkana in the Great Rift Valley. It lies in what is now Kenya. * 1894 – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery becomes First Lord of the Treasury. === 1901 - 1950 === * 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. * 1916 - Off Santos, Brazil, Spanish luxury liner Principe de Asturias hits a rock and sinks within five minutes, killing 445 people. * 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. * 1919 - The main railway station in Helsinki opens. * 1924 – Shefqet Verlaci becomes Prime Minister of Albania. * 1929 – LanChile airline begins operations. * 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 22000 Polish POW, known also as Katyn massacre. * 1943 – First flight of Gloster Meteor jet aircraft in Britain. * 1946 – Winston Churchill uses the phrase "Iron Curtain" in his speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. * 1946 - The Hungarian Communists and Social Democrats co-found the left bloc. * 1948 – US rocket flies a record 4800 km/h to 126 km height. * 1949 – The Jharkhand Party is founded in India. === 1951 - 2000 === * 1953 – Both Josef Stalin and Sergei Prokofiev die in Soviet Union. * 1955 – President of Lithuania, Antanas Merkys dies, after having been imprisoned and deported to the Soviet Union. * 1956 – Ernie Terrell becomes the WBA world heavyweight champion, beating Eddie Machen. * 1956 – "King Kong" first televised. * 1958 – Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is established. * 1958 – Explorer 2 spacecraft launches, fails to reach Earth orbit. * 1960 - Alberto Korda takes the famous "Guerrillero Heroico" photograph of Che Guevara. * 1960 – Elvis Presley is discharged from a 2-year hitch in the United States Army. * 1963 – Country singer Patsy Cline dies in a plane crash. * 1964 – Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr announces a baseball team is moving there. * 1964 – Ceylon declares emergency crisis due to unrest. * 1965 – First performance of Walter Piston's Eighth Symphony. * 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 – US 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. * 1971 – First live performance of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." * 1973 – Two Spanish aircraft collide in mid-air over France, killing 68 people. * 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. * 1974 – "Candide", by Leonard Bernstein, opens at Broadway Theatre in NYC for 740 performances. * 1976 – British pound falls below $2 US 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. * 1981 – Cannibal Alferd Packer pardoned posthumously. * 1982 – SNL star John Belushi dies of a drug overdose in his hotel room. * 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. * 1983 - In the oldest regular match in international rugby union, Scotland achieves its most recent away win over England to-date, winning 22-12 at Twickenham Stadium in London. * 1984 - 6,000 miners in the United Kingdom begin their strike at Cortonwood Colliery. * 1985 – The body of undercover DEA agent Enrique Camarena is found. * 1988 – Constitution of Turks and Caicos Islands restored and revised. * 1991 – Iraq releases all Gulf War prisoners * 1993 – Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson is banned from international competition for life after testing positive for banned substances for the second time. * 1998 – NASA announces that the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon has found enough water to support a human colony. * 1998 – NASA announces the choice of United States Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins as the first woman commander of a space shuttle mission. * 1999 – Paul Okalik is elected first Premier of Nunavut. === From 2001 === * 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. * 2002 – MTV begins airing The Osbournes. * 2003 – University of Manchester and UMIST announce agreement to merge operations. * 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." * 2003 – Nature withdraws several papers as a result of the Jan Hendrik Schön scandal. * 2006 - The BBC's major nature documentary series "Planet Earth" is broadcast for the first time. * 2013 - President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez dies, after a Presidency of over 14 years, of complications from cancer. == Births == === Up to 1800 === * 1133 – King Henry II of England (d. 1189) * 1324 – King David II of Scotland (d. 1371) * 1326 – King Louis I of Hungary (d. 1382) * 1512 – Gerardus Mercator, Flemish map maker (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) * 1685 - George Frideric Handel, German composer (d. 1759) * 1693 - Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian (d. 1754) * 1696 - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (d. 1770) * 1703 - Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (d. 1768) * 1713 – Edward Cornwallis, English military officer (d. 1776) * 1713 – Frederick Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1783) * 1723 – Princess Mary of Great Britain (d. 1773) * 1739 - Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge, American physician and statesman (d. 1819) * 1756 - Nathaniel Alexander, 13th Governor of North Carolina (d. 1808) * 1794 - Jacques Babinet, French physicist (d. 1872) === 1801 1900 === * 1815 - John Wentworth, American politician (d. 1888) * 1832 - Isaac Israel Hayes, American physician and polar explorer (d. 1881) * 1836 - Charles Goodnight, American cattle rancher (d. 1929) * 1853 - Howard Pyle, American writer and illustrator (d. 1911) * 1855 - Archduchess Sophie of Austria (d. 1857) * 1858 - José Relvas, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1929) * 1862 – Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player (d. 1934) * 1867 – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, Premier of Quebec (d. 1952) * 1869 - Michael von Faulhaber, German cardinal (d. 1952) * 1870 – Frank Norris, American writer (d. 1902) * 1871 – Rosa Luxemburg, German Socialist revolutionary (d. 1919) * 1873 – Olav Bjaaland, Norwegian explorer and cross- country skier (d. 1961) * 1874 – Henry Travers, British actor (d. 1965) * 1879 – William Henry Beveridge, British economist (d. 1963) * 1882 - Arthur Hussey, American golfer (d. 1915) * 1886 - Dong Biwu, Chinese politician (d. 1975) * 1887 – Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer (d. 1959) * 1888 - Jeff Tesreau, American baseball player (d. 1946) * 1890 - Wilhelm Boden, German politician (d. 1961) * 1893 - Konstantin Muraviev, Prime Minister of Bulgaria (d. 1973) * 1897 - Set Persson, Swedish Communist politician (d. 1960) * 1898 - Misao Okawa, Japanese supercentenarian, oldest-living person (d. 2015) * 1898 – Soong May-ling, First Lady of the Republic of China (d. 2003) * 1898 – Zhou Enlai, Chinese Communist politician (d. 1976) * 1900 - Anna Henderson, American supercentenarian (d. 2014) === 1901 - 1950 === * 1901 - Louis Kahn, Estonian-American architect (d. 1974) * 1904 - Karl Rahner, German theologian (d. 1984) * 1908 – Rex Harrison, British actor (d. 1990) * 1908 - Irving Fiske, American writer and playwright (d. 1990) * 1910 – Momofuko Ando, Taiwanese businessman (d. 2007) * 1910 - Ennio Flaiano, Italian writer, journalist and screenwriter (d. 1972) * 1912 - Jack Marshall, 28th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1988) * 1914 - Philip Farkas, American horn player and teacher (d. 1992) * 1915 - Henry Hicks, Canadian politician, 16th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 1990) * 1915 - Laurent Schwartz, French mathematician (d. 2002) * 1918 - Milt Schmidt, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and manager * 1918 – James Tobin, American economist, Nobel laureate (d. 2002) * 1920 - José Aboulker, Algerian surgeon and activist (d. 2009) * 1922 – Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian director (d. 1975) * 1923 - Andrea Aureli, Italian actor * 1924 - Jacques Vergès, French lawyer (d. 2013) * 1927 – Jack Cassidy, American actor (d. 1976) * 1929 - Erik Carlsson, Swedish rally driver (d. 2015) * 1929 - J. B. Lenoir, American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter (d. 1967) * 1930 - John Ashley, NHL referee (d. 2008) * 1930 - Del Crandall, American baseball player * 1931 - Jerrie Cobb, American aviator (d. 2019) * 1933 - Don L. Anderson, American geophysicist (d. 2014) * 1933 - Walter Kasper, German cardinal * 1933 - Evgeni Vasiukov, Russian chess player (d. 2018) * 1933 – Tommy Tucker, American blues singer and guitarist (d. 1982) * 1934 – Daniel Kahneman, Israeli economist * 1934 - James B. Sikking, American actor * 1935 - Philip K. Chapman, Australian astronaut and scientist * 1936 – Canaan Banana, 1st President of Zimbabwe (d. 2003) * 1937 – Olusegun Obasanjo, two-time former President of Nigeria * 1938 – Lynn Margulis, American evolutionary biologist (d. 2011) * 1938 - Fred Williamson, American football player, actor, director, producer and screenwriter * 1940 – Josef Piontek, German footballer * 1940 - John W. Carlin, 40th Governor of Kansas * 1942 – Felipe Gonzalez, former Prime Minister of Spain * 1942 - Mike Resnick, American science fiction writer * 1943 - Lucio Battisti, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1998) * 1943 - Christian Führer, German pastor and activist (d. 2014) * 1944 - Roy Gutman, American journalist * 1946 - Murray Head, British actor and singer * 1947 - John Kitzhaber, former Governor of Oregon * 1948 – Elaine Paige, English singer and actress * 1948 - Eddy Grant, Guyanese-British musician * 1948 – Jan van Beveren, Dutch footballer (d. 2011) * 1948 - Paquirri, Spanish bullfighter (d. 1984) * 1949 – Franz Josef Jung, German politician === 1951 1975 === * 1952 – Alan Clark, British musician (Dire Straits) * 1952 - Fernando de Piedade Dios dos Santos, former Prime Minister of Angola * 1953 – Michael Sandel, American political philosopher * 1954 - Steve Prestwich, English-Australian musician and songwriter (d. 2011) * 1955 - Penn Jillette, American illusionist, comedian, musician and writer * 1956 - Marco Paolini, Italian stage actor and writer * 1956 – Teena Marie, American singer- songwriter (d. 2010) * 1957 - Mark E. Smith, English musician (d. 2018) * 1958 – Andy Gibb, English-born Australian singer and teen idol (d. 1988) * 1959 – Vazgen Sargsyan, Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 1999) * 1959 - David Fury, American television and producer * 1962 – The Proclaimers, Scottish singers and musicians * 1963 - Lotta Engberg, Swedish singer * 1963 - Joel Osteen, American televangelist * 1964 - Bertrand Cantat, French singer-songwriter * 1966 - Oh Eun-Sun, South Korean mountaineer * 1968 – Gordon Bajnai, former Prime Minister of Hungary * 1968 – Theresa Villiers, British politician * 1970 – John Frusciante, American musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers) * 1970 - Lisa Robin Kelly, American actress (d. 2013) * 1972 - Brian Grant, American basketball player * 1972 - Luca Turilli, Italian guitarist and songwriter * 1973 - Yannis Anastasiou, Greek footballer * 1974 – Kevin Connolly, American actor and comedian * 1974 – Matt Lucas, British actor and comedian * 1974 – Jens Jeremies, German footballer * 1974 – Eva Mendes, American actress * 1975 – Nelly Arcan, Canadian writer (d. 2009) === From 1976 === * 1976 – Sarunas Jasikevicius, Lithuanian basketball player * 1977 - Wally Szczerbiak, American basketball player * 1978 - Kimberly McCullough, American actress * 1978 - Carlos Ochoa, Mexican footballer * 1981 – Andreas Wiig, Norwegian snowboarder * 1982 – Dan Carter, New Zealand rugby union player * 1982 - Nikki Walker, Scottish rugby union player * 1982 - Giorgia Palmas, Italian television personality and model * 1984 - Aarthi Agarwal, Indian actress (d. 2015) * 1985 - Kenichi Matsuyama, Japanese actor * 1985 – David Marshall, Scottish footballer * 1985 - Brad Mills, American baseball player * 1986 - Ellen Whitaker, British equestrian showjumper * 1987 – Anna Chakvetadze, Russian tennis player * 1987 – Ishmael Miller, English footballer * 1988 - Bjarni Vidarsson, Icelandic footballer * 1989 - Kensuke Nagai, Japanese footballer * 1989 - Sterling Knight, American actor and singer * 1989 – Jake Lloyd, American actor * 1990 - Danny Drinkwater, English footballer * 1991 - Michael Hayböck, Austrian ski jumper * 1993 - Harry Maguire, English footballer * 1994 - Daria Gavrilova, Russian tennis player * 1999 - Madison Beer, American singer == Deaths == === Up to 1900 === * 254 - Pope Lucius I (b. 200) * 1534 - Antonio da Correggio, Italian painter (b. 1489) * 1539 - Nuno da Cunha, Portuguese admiral and politician (b. 1487) * 1592 - Michael Coxcie, Flemish painter (b. 1499) * 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) * 1770 – Crispus Attucks, American revolutionary figure * 1776 – Yeongjo of Joseon of Korea (b. 1694) * 1778 – Thomas Arne, English composer (b. 1710) * 1815 – Franz Mesmer, German physician and astrologer (b. 1734) * 1827 – Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician (b. 1749) * 1827 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and inventor (b. 1745) * 1895 – Nikolai Leskov, Russian writer (b. 1831) === 1901 2000 === * 1925 – Jonas Jensen, Danish mathematician (b. 1859) * 1926 - Clement Ader, French engineer (b. 1841) * 1929 – David Dunbar Buick, Scottish- born American engineer, inventor and industrialist (b. 1854) * 1940 - Cai Yuanpei, Chinese educator (b. 1868) * 1944 – Max Jacob, French poet and writer (b. 1876) * 1947 - Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (b. 1883) * 1950 - Edgar Lee Masters, American poet, biographer and dramatist (b. 1868) * 1953 - Herman J. Mankiewicz, American screenwriter (b. 1897) * 1953 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (b. 1891) * 1953 – Joseph Stalin, Georgian leader of the Soviet Union (b. 1879) is assassinated with rat poison * 1955 – Antanas Merkys, Lithuanian politician (b. 1888) * 1963 – Patsy Cline, American singer (b. 1932) * 1963 - Cowboy Copas, American singer (b. 1913) * 1963 - Hawkshaw Hawkins, American singer (b. 1921) * 1965 - Chen Cheng, Chinese politician (b. 1897) * 1965 - Pepper Martin, American baseball player (b. 1904) * 1966 – Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (b. 1889) * 1967 – Mohammed Mossadegh, Iranian Prime Minister (b. 1882) * 1967 - Georges Vanier, 19th Governor General of Canada (b. 1888) * 1974 - Sol Hurok, American impresario (b. 1888) * 1976 - Otto Tief, Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1889) * 1977 – Tom Pryce, Welsh racing driver (b. 1949) * 1980 – Winifred Wagner, German opera producer (b. 1897) * 1980 - Jay Silverheels, Canadian actor (b. 1912) * 1982 – John Belushi, American actor (b. 1949) * 1984 - Pierre Cochereau, French organist and composer (b. 1924) * 1984 - Tito Cobbi, Italian baritone (b. 1915) * 1990 – Edmund Conen, German footballer (b. 1914) * 1990 – Gary Merrill, American actor (b. 1915) * 1995 – Vivian Stanshall, British musician (b. 1943) * 1999 – Richard Kiley, American actor (b. 1922) * 2000 – Lolo Ferrari, French dancer, singer and pornographic actress (b. 1963) === From 2001 === * 2004 - Masanori Tokita, Japanese footballer (b. 1925) * 2006 - Milan Babic, Serbian politician (b. 1956) * 2008 – Joseph Weizenbaum, German-American computer science professor (b. 1923) * 2010 – Philip Langridge, English operatic tenor (b. 1939) * 2011 – Alberto Granado, Argentine biochemist, writer and travel companion of Che Guevara (b. 1922) * 2012 - Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter (b. 1925) * 2013 - Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela (b. 1954) * 2013 - Paul Bearer, American professional wrestler and manager (b. 1954) * 2013 - Dieter Pfaff, German actor (b. 1947) * 2014 - Leopoldo Maria Panero, Spanish poet (b. 1948) * 2014 - Geoff Edwards, American actor and presenter (b. 1931) * 2015 - Edward Egan, American cardinal (b. 1932) * 2015 - Jim McCann, Irish musician (b. 1944) * 2015 - Vlada Divljan, Serbian musician (b. 1958) * 2016 - Hassan al-Turabi, Sudanese religious and political leader (b. 1932) * 2016 - Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer (b. 1941) * 2016 - Al Wistert, American football player (b. 1920) * 2016 - Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Austrian cellist (b. 1929) * 2016 - James Douglas, American actor (b. 1929) * 2017 - Anthony C. Beilenson, American politician (b. 1932) * 2017 - Douglas Henry, American politician (b. 1926) * 2017 - Florence S. Jacobsen, American Mormon leader and missionary (b. 1913) * 2017 - Jay Lynch, American cartoonist (b. 1945) * 2018 - Trevor Baylis, British inventor (b. 1937) * 2018 - John Hall Buchanan Jr., American politician (b. 1928) * 2018 - Tomas Aguon Camacho, Northern Marianas Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1933) * 2018 - Kjerstin Dellert, Swedish opera singer (b. 1925) * 2018 - André S. Labarthe, French actor and film director (b. 1931) * 2018 - Uri Lubrani, Israeli diplomat and military official (b. 1926) * 2018 - Jam Saqi, Pakistani politician (b. 1944) * 2018 - Helmut Maucher, German businessman (b. 1927) * 2018 - Stephan Tanneberger, German oncologist and chemist (b. 1935) * 2018 - Hayden White, American historian (b. 1928) * 2019 - Chu Shijian, Chinese businessman (b. 1928) * 2019 - Jacques Loussier, French businessman (b. 1934) == Observances == * Custom Chief's Day (Vanuatu) * Lei Feng Day (China) * National Tree Planting Day (Iran) * St. Piran's Day (Cornwall) March 05