March 5

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 Liege 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 Jurgens 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 Schon scandal.
2006 - The BBC's major nature documentary series "Planet Earth" is broadcast for the first time.
2013 - President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez 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 - Jose 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 - Jose Aboulker, Algerian surgeon and activist (d. 2009)
1922 - Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian director (d. 1975)
1923 - Andrea Aureli, Italian actor
1924 - Jacques Verges, 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 Fuhrer, 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 Haybock, 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)
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 Chavez, 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 - Andre 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