August 5

Events
Up to 1900
25 - Gwangwu claims the throne as Emperor during political turmoil, restoring China's Han Dynasty after the collapse of the short-lived Xin Dynasty.
642 - Battle of Maserfeld - Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Bernicia.
910 - The last major Danish army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex.
1100 - Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
1278 - The Siege of Algeciras ends in the context of the Spanish Reconquista, pitting the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada. It ends in a victory for the Emirate of Granada.
1305 - William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, was captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.
1388 - The Battle of Otterburn, a border conflict between Scotland and England, takes place.
1583 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
1620 - The Mayflower sets sail from Southampton on its first attempt to reach North America.
1689 - 1,500 Iroquois attack village of Lachine, in New France.
1763 - Pontiac's War - Battle of Bushy Run - British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Native Americans at Bushy Run.
1772 - First Partition of Poland begins.
1775 - Spanish seafarer Juan de Ayala cross the Golden Gate in San Francisco Bay, landing on the island of Isla de los Angeles.
1781 - The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place between British and Dutch forces.
1812 - War of 1812: Tecumseh's Native American force ambushes Thomas Van Horne's 200 Americans at Brownstone Creek, causing them to flee and retreat.
1824 - Greek War of Independence: Constantine Canaris leads a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian ships in the Battle of Samos.
1858 - Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It operated for less than a month.
1860 - Carl IV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.
1861 - The United States Army gets rid of flogging.
1861 - American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issues the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US$800; rescinded in 1872).
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge - Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay begins - At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
1874 - Japan begins its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.
1882 - Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.
1884 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
1888 - Bertha Benz makes the first long-distance car journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim in Germany.
1901 2000
1901 - Peter O'Connor sets a long jump world record of 7.61 meters. The record stands for almost 20 years, when Edward Gourdin jumps 7.69 meters on July 23, 1921.
1906 - Persian Constitutional Reform: Shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar agrees to end feudalism, and for the government to become a constitutional monarchy.
1914 - In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.
1915 - World War I: German troops occupy Warsaw, Poland.
1925 - The Plaid Cymru political party is founded in Wales. One of its founding aims was to protect and promote the Welsh language, which was close to dying out at the time.
1926 - Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes in a sealed tank, before escaping.
1936 - Jesse Owens wins gold in the 200-metre run at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
1940 - World War II: The Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.
1941 - World War II: Battle of Smolensk - Germany captures 300,000 Soviet prisoners.
1944 - Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
1944 - At least 545 Japanese soldiers escape from a prisoner of war camp in Cowra, New South Wales.
1949 - In Ecuador an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6000.
1949 - The Mann Gulch fire kills 13 firefighters in Montana.
1957 - The television program American Bandstand first appears on the ABC network.
1960 - Burkina Faso, then known as "Upper Volta", became independent from France
1962 - Movie actress and sex icon, Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles, California home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills.
1962 - Nelson Mandela is jailed in South Africa.
1963 - United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
1964 - Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow - American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 - The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 starts when Pakistani soldiers cross the Line of Control dressed as locals.
1969 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
1969 - Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress places a one billion dollar limit on 1974 military aid to South Vietnam.
1971 - The first Pacific Islands Forum is held in Wellington, New Zealand, to encourage countries in Oceania to work together.
1972 - In Uganda, people holding British passports are given two months to leave the country.
1973 - An Arab gunman opens fire in a passenger lounge at Athens International Airport, killing 3 people.
1981 - Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
1983 - IRA members are jailed for a total of 4,000 years.
1989 - The Sandinistas win a majority in Nicaragua's general election.
1995 - The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is captured by Croatian forces during Operation Storm.
From 2001
2003 - A car bomb explodes outside the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 12 people, and injuring around 150.
2009 - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad starts his second term as President of Iran.
2009 - The Spanish Wikipedia reaches the milestone of 500,000 articles.
2010 - The Copiapo mining accident occurs in Chile, trapping 33 miners underground. They are discovered to be alive two weeks later, and are successfully rescued in October, in a rescue that is followed around the world.
2011 - Yingluck Shinawatra becomes Prime Minister of Thailand.
2011 - The Juno space probe is launched to the planet Jupiter.
2013 - The first laboratory-grown hamburger is served and eaten in London.
2013 - Two boys are strangled to death by a rock python that escaped from a pet shop in New Brunswick, Eastern Canada.
2015 - A migrant boat capsizes off Sicily, with 200 people being rescued, and many feared drowned.
2015 - A piece of wreckage found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion on July 29 is identified as belonging to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing on March 8, 2014.
2016 - The opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro takes place. It is the first time that the Olympic Games are held in South America.
2017 - The United Nations Security Council, with all members' support, approves sanctions (punishments) against North Korea over its nuclear testing.
2018 - 5 August 2018 Lombok earthquake: An earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Lombok, killing over 560 people.
2019 - The government of India removes Indian-administered Kashmir's special status with immediate effect.
Births
Up to 1900
1301 - Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician (d. 1330)
1397 - Guillaume Dufay, Flemish composer (d. 1474)
1461 - Alexander Jagiellon, King of Poland (d. 1506)
1540 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, Dutch philologist (d. 1609)
1623 - Pietro Antonio Cesti, Italian composer (d. 1669)
1737 - Antonio Franconi, Italian impresario (d. 1836)
1737 - Johann Friedrich Struensee, German physician and minister in Denmark (d. 1772)
1742 - Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz, Czech composer and harpist (d. 1790)
1749 - Thomas Lynch, Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1779)
1758 - Emperor Go-Momozono of Japan (d. 1779)
1795 - Byron Diman, Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1865)
1797 - Friedrich August Kummer, German composer (d. 1879)
1802 - Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician (d. 1829)
1811 - Ambroise Thomas, French composer (d. 1896)
1813 - Ivar Aasen, Norwegian poet and linguist (d. 1896)
1815 - Edward John Eyre, English explorer and colonial official (d. 1901)
1827 - Deodoro da Fonseca, first President of Brazil (d. 1892)
1828 - Louise of the Netherlands, Queen of Sweden and Norway (d. 1871)
1833 - Carola Vasa, consort of Albert of Saxony (d. 1907)
1843 - James Scott Skinner, Scottish violinist and composer (d. 1927)
1844 - Ilya Repin, Ukrainian painter (d. 1930)
1850 - Guy de Maupassant, French writer (d. 1893)
1862 - Joseph Merrick, British man, who through his deformities, was often referred to as the Elephant Man (d. 1890)
1866 - Harry Trott, Australian cricketer (d. 1917)
1868 - Oskar Merikanto, Finnish composer (d. 1924)
1869 - J. C. W. Beckham, American politician, Governor of Kentucky (d. 1940)
1872 - Oswaldo Cruz, Brazilian physician (d. 1917)
1872 - Thomas Wyllie, Scottish footballer (d. 1943)
1875 - Malin Craig, American general (d. 1945)
1877 - Tom Thomson, Canadian painter (d. 1917)
1880 - Hermann Ludemann, German politician (d. 1959)
1889 - Conrad Aiken, American author and poet (d. 1973)
1890 - Naum Gabo, American sculptor and architect (d. 1977)
1890 - Erich Kleiber, Austrian conductor (d. 1956)
1897 - Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (d. 1972)
1900 - Rudolf Schottlaender, German philosopher, translator and classicist (d. 1988)
1901 1950
1905 - Artem Mikoyan, Soviet-Armenian aircraft designer (d. 1970)
1905 - Wassily Leontief, Russian-American economist (d. 1999)
1906 - John Huston, American director (d. 1987)
1906 - Joan Hickson, British actress (d. 1998)
1907 - Syd Ward, New Zealand cricketer (d. 2010)
1908 - Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
1908 - Miriam Rothschild, British conservationist (d. 2005)
1910 - Herminio Masantonio, Argentine footballer (d. 1956)
1915 - Hans Schnitger, Dutch field hockey player (d. 2013)
1918 - Kondapalli Koteswaramma, Indian Communist revolutionary and writer (d. 2018)
1919 - David Morgenthaler, American businessman (d. 2016)
1922 - L. Tom Perry, American religious leader (d. 2015)
1923 - Devan Nair, former President of Singapore (d. 2005)
1925 - Albert Eschenmoser, Swiss organic chemist
1926 - Per Wahloo, Swedish writer (d. 1975)
1926 - Betsy Jolas, French composer
1926 - Clifford Husbands, former Governor-General of Barbados (d. 2017)
1928 - Carla Lane, English television writer (d. 2016)
1929 - Al Alvarez, English poet and writer (d. 2019)
1929 - Don Matheson, American actor (d. 2014)
1929 - Nathalia Timberg, Brazilian actress
1930 - Neil Armstrong, American pilot and astronaut, first person to walk on the Moon (d. 2012)
1930 - Richie Ginther, American racing driver (d. 1989)
1930 - Michal Kovac, Slovakian politician and former President (d. 2016)
1931 - Billy Bingham, Northern Irish footballer
1931 - Gita Dey, Indian actress (d. 2011)
1932 - Vladimir Fedoseyev, Russian conductor
1934 - Giovanni Anselmo, Italian artist
1934 - Cammie King, American actress (d. 2010)
1934 - Zakes Mokae, South African actor (d. 2009)
1935 - Michael Ballhaus, German cinematographer (d. 2017)
1935 - Wanda Ventham, British actress
1937 - Brian G. Marsden, British astronomer (d. 2010)
1937 - Herb Brooks, American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2003)
1937 - Manuel Pinta da Costa, President of Sao Tome and Principe
1939 - Princess Irene of the Netherlands
1940 - Ally Shewan, Scottish footballer
1941 - Leonid Kizim, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 2010)
1941 - Bob Clark, American movie producer and director (d. 2007)
1941 - Airto Moreira, Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist
1943 - Leo Kinnunen, Finnish racing driver (d. 2017)
1943 - Andy Roxburgh, Scottish footballer and manager
1943 - Sammi Smith, American singer and songwriter (d. 2005)
1944 - Stellan Bojerud, Swedish politician (d. 2015)
1944 - Polycarp Pengo, Archbishop of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
1944 - Hans-Peter Uhl, German politician
1946 - Loni Anderson, American actress
1946 - Shirley Ann Jackson, American physicist
1946 - Xavier Trias, 118th Mayor of Barcelona
1946 - Reinhard Tritscher, German skier (d. 2019)
1947 - Angry Anderson, Australian actor and singer
1948 - Ray Clemence, English footballer
1948 - David Hungate, American bassist (Toto)
1948 - Carole Laure, Canadian actress and singer
1950 - Rosi Mittermaier, German skier
1951 1975
1952 - Louis Walsh, Irish music manager
1955 - John Whitaker, British equestrian showjumper
1955 - Eddie Ojeda, American guitarist
1956 - Christopher Chessun, English bishop
1956 - Jerry Ciccoritti, Canadian actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1956 - Maureen McCormack, American actress, author and recording artist
1959 - Pete Burns, English singer (d. 2016)
1959 - Pat Smear, American musician
1960 - David Baldacci, American writer
1960 - Gerard Onesta, French politician
1961 - Janet McTeer, English actress
1961 - Greg Kite, American basketball player
1962 - Patrick Ewing, American basketball player
1963 - Doris Schroder-Kopf, German author and politician
1963 - Mark Strong, English actor
1963 - Brian Sandoval, American politician, 30th Governor of Nevada
1964 - Adam Yauch, American singer and musician (Beastie Boys) (d. 2012)
1964 - Dougie Arnott, Scottish footballer
1965 - Motoi Sakuraba, Japanese composer
1965 - Jean-Marc Morandini, French television host
1966 - Jonathan Silverman, American actor
1966 - Senarath Attanayake, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (d. 2017)
1967 - Kazunori Yamauchi, Japanese Vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment
1968 - Terri Clark, Canadian country music singer
1968 - Katrina Adams, American tennis player
1968 - Kendo Kashin, Japanese professional wrestler
1968 - Marine Le Pen, French politician
1968 - Oleh Luzhny, Ukrainian footballer
1968 - Colin McRae, Scottish rally driver (d. 2007)
1968 - Stephanie Flanders, English journalist, former BBC Economics editor
1968 - John Olerud, American baseball player
1969 - Jackie Doyle-Price, English politician
1969 - Venkatesh Prasad, Indian cricketer
1970 - James Gunn, American director, screenwriter, producer and actor
1970 - Leonid Stadnyk, Ukrainian claimant to world's tallest man title (d. 2014)
1971 - Valdis Dombrovskis, former Prime Minister of Latvia
1971 - Jared Hasselhoff, American musician (Bloodhound Gang)
1974 - Antoine Sibierski, French footballer
1974 - Julio Cesar Enciso, Paraguayan footballer
1975 - Kajol, Indian actress
1975 - Eicca Toppinen, Finnish cellist (Apocalyptica)
From 1976
1976 - Jewel De'Nyle, American pornographic actress
1977 - Soraya Jimenez, Mexican weightlifter (d. 2013)
1977 - Santiago Perez, Spanish cyclist
1977 - Hunico, Mexican-American professional wrestler
1978 - Kim Gevaert, Belgian athlete
1979 - David Healy, Northern Irish footballer
1980 - Wayne Bridge, English footballer
1980 - Jason Culina, Australian footballer
1980 - Salvador Cabanas, Paraguayan footballer
1980 - Morten Solem, Norwegian ski jumper
1980 - Sophie Winkleman, English actress
1981 - Carl Crawford, American baseball player
1981 - Erik Guay, Canadian skier
1981 - Cory Williams, American actor
1981 - Jesse Williams, American actor
1982 - LoLo Jones, American athlete
1982 - Michele Pazienza, Italian footballer
1982 - Ryu Seung-min, South Korean table tennis player
1983 - Dawn Richard, American singer
1983 - Kara Tointon, English actress
1984 - Helene Fischer, Russian-born German singer and television presenter
1985 - Salomon Kalou, footballer from Ivory Coast
1985 - Laurent Ciman, Belgian footballer
1987 - Lexi Belle, American pornographic actress
1987 - Genelia D'Souza, Indian actress
1988 - Federica Pellegrini, Italian swimmer
1988 - Michael Jamieson, Scottish swimmer
1989 - Ryan Bertrand, English footballer
1991 - Esteban Gutierrez, Mexican Formula One racing driver
1991 - Andreas Weimann, Austrian footballer
1992 - Tray Walker, American football player (d. 2016)
1993 - Sverrir Ingi Ingason, Icelandic footballer
1995 - Kylian Hazard, Belgian footballer
1997 - Olivia Holt, American actress
1997 - Adam Irigoyen, American actor
1998 - Kanon Suzuki, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
Deaths
Up to 1950
642 - Oswald of Northumbria (b. 604)
882 - King Louis III of France (b. 863)
1063 - Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, King of Gwynedd (b. 1007)
1364 - Emperor Kogon of Japan (b. 1313)
1579 - Stanislaus Hosius, Polish cardinal (b. 1504)
1633 - George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1562)
1729 - Thomas Newcomen, English engineer (b. 1664)
1792 - Frederick North, Lord North, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1732).
1862 - Felix de Muelenaere, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1793)
1868 - Jacques Boucher de Crevecoeur de Perthes, French archaeologist (b. 1788)
1877 - Gustav, Prince of Vasa, Swedish royal (b. 1799)
1880 - Ferdinand von Hebra, Austrian physician (b. 1816)
1888 - Philip Sheridan, American general (b. 1831)
1895 - Friedrich Engels, German thinker who wrote about Communism with Karl Marx (b. 1820).
1901 - Victoria, Princess Royal, British princess and Empress of Germany (b. 1840).
1911 - Bob Caruthers, American baseball player (b. 1864)
1921 - Dimitrios Rallis, Greek politician (b. 1844)
1929 - Millicent Fawcett, British suffragette (b. 1847)
1933 - Charles Harold Davis, American painter (b. 1856)
1940 - Frederick Cook, American physician and explorer, claimed to be first at the North Pole (b. 1865).
1943 - Liane Berkowitz, German resistance activist (b. 1923)
1944 - Maurice Turnbull, Welsh cricketer and rugby player (b. 1906)
1946 - Wilhelm Marx, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1863)
1951 2000
1955 - Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress and singer (b. 1909)
1957 - Heinrich Wieland, German biochemist (b. 1877)
1959 - Edgar Guest, English-American poet (b. 1881)
1960 - Arthur Meighen, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1874)
1961 - Sidney Holland, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1893)
1962 - Marilyn Monroe, American actress (b. 1926)
1963 - Salvador Bacarisse, Spanish composer (b. 1898)
1964 - Art Ross, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1886)
1968 - Luther Perkins, American guitarist (b. 1928)
1978 - Jesse Haines, American baseball player (b. 1893)
1983 - Judy Canova, American actress (b. 1913)
1984 - Richard Burton, Welsh actor (b. 1925)
1991 - Soichiro Honda, Japanese businessman (b. 1906)
1992 - Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1921)
1992 - Jeff Porcaro, American musician (b. 1954)
1998 - Todor Zhivkov, Bulgarian dictator (b. 1911)
1998 - Otto Kretschmer, German U-boat commander (b. 1912)
2000 - Artur Erikson, Swedish singer and preacher (b. 1918)
2000 - Alec Guinness, British actor (b. 1914)
From 2001
2001 - Duong Van Minh, South Vietnamese politician and general (b. 1916)
2001 - Otema Allimadi, Prime Minister of Uganda (b. 1929)
2002 - Josh Ryan Evans, American actor (b. 1982)
2006 - Susan Butcher, American dogsledder (b. 1954)
2007 - Jean-Marie Lustiger, French cardinal (b. 1926)
2009 - Budd Schulberg, American screenwriter (b. 1914)
2010 - Godfrey Binaisa, former President of Uganda (b. 1920)
2011 - Andrzej Lepper, Polish politician (b. 1954)
2011 - Francesco Quinn, American actor (b. 1963)
2012 - Chavela Vargas, Costa Rican-born Mexican singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1919)
2013 - George Duke, American keyboardist (b. 1946)
2014 - Marilyn Burns, American actress (b. 1949)
2014 - Scott Ciencin, American novelist (b. 1962)
2014 - Harold J. Greene, American general (b. 1959)
2014 - Chapman Pincher, English journalist (b. 1914)
2014 - Yoshiki Sasai, Japanese biologist (b. 1962)
2014 - Jesse Leonard Steinfeld, 11th Surgeon General of the United States (b. 1927)
2014 - Vladimir Orlov, Russian author (b. 1936)
2014 - Dmitri Anosov, Russian mathematician (b. 1936)
2014 - Elfriede Bruning, German writer (b. 1910)
2015 - George Cole, English actor (b. 1925)
2015 - Ellen Vogel, Dutch actress (b. 1922)
2016 - Alphons Egli, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1924)
2017 - Irina Berezhna, Ukrainian politician (b. 1980)
2017 - Bruno Canfora, Italian composer, conductor and jazz musician (b. 1929)
2017 - Dionigi Tettamanzi, Italian cardinal (b. 1934)
2017 - Mark White, American politician, 43rd Governor of Texas (b. 1940)
2017 - Ernst Zundel, German publisher and Holocaust denier (b. 1939)
2017 - Helene Martini, French night club owner (b. 1924)
2017 - George Bundy Smith, American lawyer, civil rights activist and judge (b. 1937)
2018 - Barry Chuckle, English entertainer (b. 1944)
2018 - Robert Dugard, English speedway rider (b. 1942)
2018 - Ellen Joyce Loo, Canadian-Hong Kong singer-songwriter (b. 1986)
2018 - Alan Rabinowitz, American zoologist (b. 1953)
2018 - Charlotte Rae, American actress (b. 1926)
2018 - Piotr Szulkin, Polish film director (b. 1950)
2019 - Josef Kadraba, Czech footballer (b. 1933)
2019 - Bjorg Lambrecht, Belgian cyclist (b. 1997)
2019 - Asif Mohseni, Afghan religious leader (b. 1935)
2019 - Toni Morrison, American writer (b. 1931)
Observances
Independence Day (Burkina Faso)
Victory Day (Croatia)
International Beer Day
August 05