On March 5th...

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1133 King Henry II of England was born.

1179 The 3rd Lateran Council opened in Rome.

1324 King David II of Scotland was born.

1512 Mapmaker Gerhardus Mercator was born.

1558 Smoking tobacco was introduced into Europe by Francisco Fernandes.

1574 Mathematician William Oughtred was born.

1605 Pope Clement VIII died.

1623 Virginia enacted the first temperance law in America.

1743 The first U.S. religious journal, The Christian History, was published in Boston, Massachusetts.

1770 British troops fired on demonstrators in Boston, Massachusetts.

1793 Austria recaptured Liége from France.

1815 Franz Anton Mesmer, pioneer in the field of hypnotism, died.

1821 James Monroe became the first President of the United States to be inaugurated on March 5th, because the 4th was a Sunday.

1824 The British officially declared war on Burma.
1824 Painter-lithographer James Ives was born.

1827 Alessandro Volta, physicist known for his work in electricity, died.

1830 Étienne-Jules Marey, pioneer in motion-picture technology, was born.

1836 Samuel Colt manufactured his first pistol, the 34-caliber "Texas" model.

1842 Over Mexican troops led by Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas.

1850 The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Street between the Isleof Anglesey and the mainland of Wales was opened.

1856 Georgia became the first state to regulate railroads.
1856 The Covent Garden Opera House in London, England, was destroyed by fire.

1860 Parma, Tuscany, Modena,and Romagna voted in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia.

1868 The stapler was patented in England by C. H. Gould.

1872 George Westinghouse patented the triple air brake for trains.

1875 Blanche Kelso Bruce took his seat as the first black to be elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate.

1887 Composer Heitor Villa-Lobos was born.

1894 Seattle, Washington, authorized the first municipal employment office in the United States.

1897 The American Negro Academy was formed.

1898 Chinese leader Zhou Enlai was born.
1898 Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, was born.

1900 The American Hall of Fame was founded.

1907 The first radio broadcast of a musical composition aired.

1908 Mount Erebus in Antarctica was ascended for the first time.
1908 Actor Rex Harrison was born.

1910 The Montreal Wanderers defeated the Ottawa Senators to win the Stanley Cup.

1923 Montana and Nevada became the first states to enact old age pension laws.

1924 Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corp became IBM.

1927 1,000 U. S. marines landed in China to protect American property.
1927 Actor Jack Cassidy was born.

1933 U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed a ten-day bank holiday.

1934 Mother-In-Law's Day was first celebrated in Amarillo, Texas.

1936 Actor Dean Stockwell was born.

1937 Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was born.

1946 Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri.
1946 Musician Murray Head was born.

1948 Musician Eddy Grant was born.
1948 Singer Elaine Paige was born.

1950 Poet Edgar Lee Masters died.

1953 Composer Sergei Prokofiev died.
1953 Russian dictator Joseph Stalin died.

1954 Actress Marsha Warfield was born.

1955 Elvis Presley made his first TV appearance, on "Louisiana Hayride."
1955 Magician Penn Jillette was born.

1956 The F-104A Starfighter made its first test flight.

1958 Singer Andy Gibb was born.

1960 Elvis Presley was mustered out of the U.S. Army.

1963 Minister Joel Osteen was born.
1963 Singer Patsy Cline died.

1966 A BOAC 707 crashed ino Japan's Mount Fuji, killing 124 persons.
1966 Football player Michael Irvin was born.

1967 Major General Georges P. Vanier, Governor-General of Canada, died.

1974 Actress Eva Mendes was born.

1979 Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter.

1980 Actor Jay Silverheels died.

1982 Actor John Belushi died.

1986 The first crew boarded the Soviet space station Mir.

1989 Actor Jake Lloyd was born.

1991 Iraq repealed its annexation of Kuwait.

1993 A Fokker 100 crashed at Skopje, Macedonia, killing 81 persons.

1994 The world's largest milkshake, using 1,955 gallons of chocolate, was made in Nelspruit, South Africa.

1995 The graves of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family were found in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1999 Paul Okalik was elected as the first Premier of Nunavut.
1999 Actor Richard Kiley died.

2001 Thirty-five Muslim pilgrims were crushed to death in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

2003 A Hamas suicide bomb killed 17 persons in Haifa, Israel.

2012 Tropical Storm Irina killed 65 persons in Madagascar.

2013 Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez died.

2016 A U. S. air strike killed 150 Al-Shabaab militants north of Mogadishu, Somalia.

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This page was last updated on March 04, 2018.