September 5

Events
Up to 1900
917 Liu Yan declares himself Emperor, establishing the southern Han state in China.
1590 Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the Siege of Paris.
1666 Great Fire of London ended: A large fire in London burns out after three days. 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral were destroyed, but only 16 people are known to have died.
1698 In an effort to move his people away from Asiatic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards; All men except priests and peasants, are required to pay a tax of one hundred rubles a year and the commoners had to pay one kopek each.
1725 Louis XV of France and Maria Leszczynska marry in Fontainbleau.
1774 First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1781 Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War: The British Navy is repelled by the French Navy, contributing to the British surrender at Yorktown.
1793 In France, the French National Convention votes to implement terror measures to enforce the principles of the French Revolution, initiating (starting) the Reign of Terror.
1798 Conscription (military service) is made mandatory (meaning young men had to do it) in France.
1800 Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders Malta to Great Britain.
1812 War of 1812: Siege of Fort Wayne begins with Chief Winamac's forces attacking two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses.
1836 Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
1839 The United Kingdom declares the First Opium War on the Qing Dynasty of China.
1840 First performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Un giorno di regno at La Scala in Milan.
1862 American Civil War: In the Confederacy's first invasion of the North, General Robert E. Lee leads 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River at White's Ford near Leesburg, Virginia into Maryland.
1877 Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.
1882 Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is founded in London.
1882 The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
1887 Fire at the Theatre Royal in Exeter, England kills 186 people.
1901 2000
1901 The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (later renamed Minor League Baseball), is formed in Chicago.
1905 Russo-Japanese War: Treaty of Portsmouth signed - In New Hampshire a treaty mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, is signed by victor Japan and defeated party Russia.
1906 Brandbury Robinson throws the first legal forward pass in an American football game.
1914 World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins - Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.
1927 The Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Trolley Troubles, produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures.
1932 French Upper Volta is broken up between French Sudan, Ivory Coast and Niger.
1936 Federico Borrell Garcia, a Republican soldier in the Spanish Civil War, is photographed in the moment of his death by Robert Capa.
1937 Spanish Civil War: The fall of Llanes.
1939 World War II: The United States declares its neutrality in the war. It later enters on the side of the Allies.
1941 World War II : Siege of Leningrad begins.
1941 World War II: Estonia is occupied by Nazi Germany.
1942 World War II: The Battle of Milne Bay in the Pacific Ocean ends in a Japanese defeat against the Allies.
1943 World War II: The 503rd Parachute Regiment under American General Douglas MacArthur lands and occupies Nazdab in Papua New Guinea.
1944 World War II: The USSR declares war on Bulgaria.
1944 Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg form the Benelux.
1945 Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
1948 Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France
1949 A former sharpshooter in World War II, Howard Unruh kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.
1957 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista bombs a revolt in the city of Cienfuegos.
1958 The English language translation of the novel Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak is published.
1960 Leopold Sedar Senghor is elected as the 1st President of Senegal.
1960 Cassius Clay wins the gold medal in boxing at the Rome Olympic Games.
1961 The first conference of countries of the Non Aligned Movement is held in Belgrade.
1969 My Lai Massacre: Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
1970 Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien Province.
1972 Munich Massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attack Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.
1973 Palestinian terrorists attack Saudi Arabia's Embassy in Paris.
1975 In Sacramento, California, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson named Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate US President Gerald Ford, but is thwarted by a Secret Service agent.
1977 Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
1977 In Cologne, Hanns Martin Schleyer is kidnapped by members of the Red Army Faction
1978 Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
1980 The St. Gotthard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.32 km) stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.
1983 The half-hour Robert MacNeil Report changes its name to the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, becoming the first hour-long network news show.
1983 Peter Jennings becomes lead anchor for ABC World News Tonight.
1983 Tom Brokaw becomes lead anchor for NBC Nightly News.
1984 Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to ban capital punishment.
1984 The Space Shuttle Discovery (mission STS-41-D) lands after its maiden voyage.
1986 Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
1988 With US$2 billion in federal aid, the Robert M. Bass Group agrees to buy the United States's largest bankrupt thrift, American Savings and Loan Association.
1990 Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan army soldiers murder 158 civilians.
1991 The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, the Indigenous and Tribal People's Convention, 1989, comes into force.
1995 France tests an atomic bomb on Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia.
1996 Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina, where 27 people are killed, and three billion dollars worth of damage are caused.
1997 At least 87 people killed in the Beni-Messous massacre in Algeria.
2000 Tuvalu joins the United Nations.
From 2001
2001 Peru's attorney general files homicide charges against ex-President Alberto Fujimori.
2001 Young Left formed in Toronto, Ontario.
2002 A car bomb kills 30 people in Kabul, Afghanistan, in an apparent assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
2002 The Sour Biscuit Fire in Oregon and northern California, which burned 499,570 acres (2,020 km2), is finally contained.
2002 The Beltway sniper attacks begin with the murder of Paul LaRuffa.
2004 Future Hurricane Ivan becomes a Hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.
2005 A Mandala Airlines plane crashes in a residential area in Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 104 on board and 39 on the ground.
2005 In Solden, Tyrol, Austria, an aerial lift accident kills nine German tourists, as a transport helicopter hits a cable car, which then plunges to the ground.
2008 Quentin Bryce becomes Governor-General of Australia.
2012 A magnitude 7.9 earthquake hits Costa Rica.
2012 A firecracker factory explodes near Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, India, killing 40 people.
2012 An accidental explosion at a Turkish army ammunition store in Afyon, Western Turkey, kills 25 soldiers.
2012 The bodies of Saad al-Hilli, two members of his family, and a local cyclist are found near Annecy, in the alpine region of France, having all been shot, while al-Hilli's two daughters survived. The case remains unsolved, as no killer or motive has been determined.
2014 Ukraine and Russia agree to a ceasefire during the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
Births
Up to 1800
699 Abu Hanifa, Iraqi scholar (d. 767)
1187 King Louis VIII of France (d. 1226)
1201 Alix, Duchess of Brittany (d. 1221)
1319 Peter IV of Aragon (d. 1387)
1533 Jacopo Zaparella, Italian philosopher (d. 1589)
1540 Magnus, Duke of Holstein (d. 1583)
1567 Date Masamuno, Japanese daimyo (d. 1636)
1568 Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian, philosopher, and poet (d. 1639)
1638 King Louis XIV of France (d. 1715)
1651 William Dampier, English explorer (d. 1715)
1666 Gottfried Arnold, German historian and theologian (d. 1714)
1667 Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri, Italian Jesuit and mathematician (d. 1733)
1695 Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician (d. 1770)
1722 Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony (d. 1763)
1733 Christoph Martin Wieland, German poet, translator and publisher (d. 1813)
1735 Johann Christian Bach, German composer (d. 1782)
1750 Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (d. 1774)
1751 John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth, British politician (d. 1834)
1764 Henriette Herz, German writer (d. 1847)
1771 Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, Austrian general (d. 1847)
1772 Fat 'h-Ali Shah Qajar, Persian King (d. 1834)
1774 Caspar David Friedrich, German artist (d. 1840)
1775 Juan Martinez Diez, Spanish captain (d. 1825)
1781 Anton Diabelli, Austrian music publisher, editor and composer (d. 1858)
1786 Sergey Uvarov, Russian politician and literary scholar (d. 1855)
1791 Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer (d. 1864)
1801 1900
1806 Christophe Leon Louis Juchault de Lamoriciere, French general and statesman (d. 1865)
1807 Richard Chenevix Trench, clergyman and philologist (d. 1886)
1809 Manuel Montt, 6th President of Chile (d. 1880)
1817 Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
1818 Edmund Kennedy, Australian explorer (d. 1848)
1826 John Wisden, English cricketer (d. 1884)
1827 Goffredo Mameli, Italian patriot, poet and writer (d. 1849)
1829 Lester Allan Pelton, American inventor (d. 1908)
1836 Justiniano Borgono, President of Peru (d. 1921)
1846 Jack Daniel, American businessman (d. 1911)
1847 Jesse James, American outlaw (d. 1882)
1867 Amy Beach, American composer and pianist (d. 1944)
1869 Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria (d. 1945)
1871 Friedrich Akel, Estonian politician (d. 1941)
1873 Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer and engineer (d. 1942)
1874 Nap Lajoie, baseball player (d. 1959)
1881 Otto Bauer, Austrian politician (d. 1938)
1883 Mel Sheppard, AMerican athlete (d. 1942)
1888 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, second President of India (d. 1975)
1892 Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (d. 1973)
1897 Ella Schuler, American supercentenarian (d. 2011)
1901 1950
1901 Florence Eldridge, American actress (d. 1988)
1901 Mario Scelba, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1991)
1902 Darryl F. Zanuck, movie producer and executive (d. 1979)
1905 Arthur Koestler, Austrian writer (d. 1983)
1906 Sunnyland Slim, American blues singer and pianist (d. 1995)
1910 Phiroze Palia, Indian cricketer (d. 1981)
1912 John Cage, American composer (d. 1992)
1912 Kristina Soderbaum, German actress and photographer (d. 2001)
1913 Frank Thomas, American animator (d. 2004)
1914 Nicanor Parra, Chilean poet (d. 2018)
1914 Stuart Freeborn, British make-up artist (d. 2013)
1915 Horst Sindermann, German politician (d. 1990)
1916 Frank Yerby, novelist (d. 1991)
1918 Luis Alcoriza, Mexican actor, screenwriter and director (d. 1992)
1918 Buddy Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1986)
1920 Fons Rademakers, Dutch-Swiss actor, director, producer and screenwriter (d. 2007)
1921 Farida of Egypt, Queen Consort of Egypt (d. 1988)
1921 Jack Valenti, American political advisor and movie executive (d. 2007)
1927 Paul Volcker, American economist
1928 Albert Mangelsdorff, German trombonist (d. 2005)
1929 Bob Newhart, American actor and comedian
1929 Andriyan Nikolayev, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 2004)
1930 Ken Naganuma, Japanese footballer (d. 2008)
1932 Simon Achidi Achu, former Prime Minister of Cameroon
1934 Carol Lawrence, American actress and singer
1934 Kevin McNamara, English politician
1934 Paul Josef Cordes, German cardinal
1935 Dieter Hallervorden, German comedian, actor and singer
1935 Doreen Massey, Baroness Massey of Darwen, English politician
1936 Bill Mazeroski, American baseball player
1936 John Danforth, American politician and diplomat
1937 Antonio Valentin Angelillo, Argentine footballer
1939 George Lazenby, Australian actor
1939 William Devane, actor
1939 Clay Regazzoni, Swiss racing driver (d. 2006)
1939 Susumu Tonegawa, Japanese Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist
1940 Raquel Welch, American actress
1942 Werner Herzog, German movie director
1944 Dario Bellezza, Italian poet, author and playwright
1944 Gareth Evans, Australian lawyer and politician
1945 Gerard d'Aboville, French politician and navigator
1945 Eva Bergman, Swedish movie, theatre and television director
1945 Al Stewart, British musician
1945 Khaleda Zia, Bangladeshi politician
1946 Freddie Mercury, British singer (Queen) (d. 1991)
1946 Loudon Wainwright III, American singer and composer
1946 Buddy Miles, American musician
1948 Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Austrian diplomat and politician
1949 Pat McQuaid, Irish cyclist and official
1950 Cathy Guisewite, American cartoonist
1950 Rosie Cooper, English politician
1951 1975
1951 Paul Breitner, German footballer
1951 Michael Keaton, American actor
1956 Roine Stolt, Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
1958 Lars Danielsson, Swedish jazz bassist and cellist
1959 Frank Schirrmacher, German journalist (d. 2014)
1960 Abdullah Abdullah, Afghan politician
1960 Candy Maldonado, Puerto Rican baseball player, manager and sportscaster
1962 Brian A. Joyce, American politician (d. 2018)
1962 Peter Wingfield, British actor
1963 Juan Alderete, American bass player and songwriter
1963 Kristian Alfonso, American actress, figure skater and model
1964 Frank Farina, Australian footballer
1964 Ken Norman, American basketball player
1964 Sergei Loznitsa, Belarussian-Ukrainian director and screenwriter
1965 David Brabham, Australian racing driver
1965 Murdo Fraser, Scottish politician
1965 Osamu Maeda, Japanese footballer
1965 Chris Morris, British writer
1965 Cesar Rincon, Colombian bullfighter
1967 Matthias Sammer, German footballer
1967 Jane Sixsmith, English field hockey player
1969 Dweezil Zappa, American musician and son of Frank Zappa
1969 Leonardo Araujo, Brazilian footballer
1969 Sebastian Edathy, German politician
1969 Mark Ramprakash, English cricketer
1970 Liam Lynch, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and director
1971 Adam Hollioake, English cricketer
1973 Paddy Considine, English actor, director and producer
1973 Rose McGowan, American actress
1974 Ivo Ulich, Czech footballer
1975 George Boateng, Dutch footballer
From 1976
1976 Tatyana Gutsu, Ukrainian gymnast
1976 Carice van Houten, Dutch actress
1976 Richard Marsland, Australian writer, actor and comedian (d. 2008)
1977 Teresa Marinova, Bulgarian athlete
1978 Chris Jack, New Zealand rugby player
1978 Laura Bertram, Canadian actress
1978 Zhang Zhong, Chinese chess player
1979 John Carew, Norwegian footballer
1979 Juan Fuenmayor, Venezuelan footballer
1980 Marianna Madia, Italian politician
1980 Stefan Logi Magnusson, Icelandic footballer
1981 Nina Eichinger, German actress
1981 Bruno Neves, Portuguese cyclist (d. 2008)
1983 Pablo Granoche, Uruguayan footballer
1983 Priscilla Meirelles, Brazilian model
1987 Pierre Casiraghi, Monegasque royalty
1988 Felipe Caicedo, Ecuadorean footballer
1988 Nuri Sahin, Turkish footballer
1989 Ben Youngs, English rugby player
1989 Jose Angel Valdes, Spanish footballer
1989 Katerina Graham, American actress
1990 Kim Yu-Na, South Korean figure skater
1990 Giovanni Pernice, Italian professional dancer
1990 Franco Zuculini, Italian footballer
1991 Skandar Keynes, English actor
1991 Stuart Donaldson, Scottish politician
1993 Gage Golightly, American actress
1995 Tehilla Blad, Swedish actress
1995 Caroline Sunshine, American actress
1996 Sigrid, Norwegian singer
Deaths
Up to 1900
590 Authari, King of Lombardy (b. 540)
1165 Emperor Nijo of Japan (b. 1143)
1201 Constance, Duchess of Brittany (b. 1161)
1235 Henry I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1165)
1548 Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII of England (b. c. 1512)
1629 Domenico Allegri, Italian composer (b. 1585)
1803 Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and writer (b. 1741)
1836 Ferdinand Raimund, Austrian playwright (b. 1790)
1838 Charles Percier, French architect (b. 1764)
1855 Thomas Mitchell, Scottish explorer of Australia (b. 1792)
1857 Auguste Comte, French sociologist (b. 1798)
1876 Manuel Blanco Encalada, first President of Chile (b. 1790)
1877 Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux chief (b. 1849)
1898 Sarah Edmonds, Canadian nurse, soldier, and spy (b. 1841)
1901 2000
1901 Ignacij Klemencic, Slovene physicist (b. 1853)
1902 Rudolf Virchow, German doctor, pathologist, biologist, and politician (b. 1821)
1906 Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian phsyicist (b. 1844)
1912 Arthur MacArthur, Jr., American soldier (b. 1845)
1917 Marian Smoluchowski, Polish physicist (b. 1872)
1926 Karl Harrer, German journalist and politician (b. 1890)
1930 Robert Means Thompson, American naval officer (b. 1849)
1931 John Thomson, Scottish footballer (b. 1909)
1932 Francisco Acebal, Spanish novelist, playwright and journalist (b. 1866)
1936 Fernando Borrell Garcia, Spanish Republican soldier, photographed in moment of his death (b. 1912)
1946 John I. Cox, American politician, 33rd Governor of Tennessee (b. 1855)
1954 Eugen Schiffer, German politician (b. 1860)
1960 Earl Long, Governor of Louisiana (b. 1895)
1965 Thomas Johnston, Scottish-born politician (b. 1882)
1966 Dezso Lauber, Hungarian sportsman (b. 1879)
1970 Jochen Rindt, Austrian racing driver, posthumous Formula 1 champion (b. 1942)
1972 Yossef Romano, Israeli weightlifter (b. 1940)
1972 Moshe Weinberg, Israeli wrestling coach (b. 1939)
1973 Jack Fourier, American baseball player (b. 1899)
1979 Alberto di Jorio, Italian cardinal (b. 1884)
1982 Douglas Bader, British fighter pilot (b. 1910)
1984 Adam Malik, 3rd Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1917)
1988 Gert Frobe, actor (b. 1913)
1990 Ivan Mihailov, Bulgarian revolutionary and leader of the IMRO (b. 1896)
1993 Claude Renoir, French cinematographer (b. 1914)
1997 Georg Solti, conductor (b. 1912)
1997 Mother Teresa, Albanian nun and development worker (b. 1910)
1998 Leo Penn, American director (b. 1921)
1999 Alan Clark, English politician and historian (b. 1928)
From 2001
2001 Vladimir Zerjavic, Croat UN statistician (b. 1912)
2003 Gisele MacKenzie, singer (b. 1927)
2010 Shoya Tomizawa, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1990)
2010 Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo, Belgian-born artist (b. 1922)
2011 Salvatore Licitra, Italian tenor (b. 1968)
2011 Vann Nath, Cambodian painter (b. 1946)
2013 Rochus Misch, German SS officer (b. 1917)
2014 Ron Mulock, Australian politician (b. 1930)
2014 Eoin Young, New Zealand journalist (b. 1939)
2014 Simone Battle, American actress, singer and dancer (b. 1989)
2014 Bruce Morton, American news correspondent (b. 1930)
2014 Karel Cerny, Czech art director and producer (b. 1922)
2015 Aadesh Shrivastava, Indian composer and singer (b. 1966)
2015 Alan Steel, Italian bodybuilder and actor (b. 1935)
2015 Setsuko Hara, Japanese actress (b. 1920)
2016 Hugh O'Brian, American actor (b. 1925)
2016 Phyllis Schlafly, American political commentator (b. 1924)
2017 Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch-American physicist (b. 1920)
2017 Gauri Lankesh, Indian journalist and political activist (b. 1962)
2017 Tom Wright, American baseball player (b. 1923)
2017 Holger Czukay, German musician (b. 1938)
2017 Christie Davies, British sociologist (b. 1941)
2017 Hansford Rowe, American actor (b. 1924)
2018 Rachael Bland, British journalist (b. 1978)
2018 Francois Flohic, French admiral (b. 1920)
2018 Mike Hogewood, American sportscaster (b. 1954)
2018 Beatriz Segall, Brazilian actress (b. 1926)
2018 Bhagwatikumar Sharma, Indian writer and journalist (b. 1934)
2019 Ji Guobiao, Chinese engineer (b. 1932)
2019 Kiran Nagarkar, Indian novelist (b. 1942)
2019 Francisco Toledo, Mexican artist (b. 1940)
Observances
Teachers' Day (India)
Architects' Day (Guatemala)
International Day of Charity
September 05