September 5
Events
Pre-1600
- 917 - Liu Yan declares himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu.
- 1367 - Swa Saw Ke becomes king of Ava
- 1590 - An army led by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma forces Henry IV of France to lift the siege of Paris.
1601–1900
- 1661 - Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV's Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers.
- 1697 - War of the Grand Alliance : A French warship commanded by Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville defeated an English squadron at the Battle of Hudson's Bay.
- 1698 - In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.
- 1725 - Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczyńska.
- 1774 - First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia.
- 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.
- 1791 - Olympe de Gouges writes the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.
- 1793 - French Revolution: The French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.
- 1798 - Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law.
- 1812 - War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses.
- 1816 - Louis XVIII of France has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable.
- 1836 - Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
- 1839 - The United Kingdom declares war on the Qing dynasty of China.
- 1862 - American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia crosses the Potomac River at White's Ford in the Maryland Campaign.
- 1877 - American 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 - The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
- 1887 - A fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter kills 186, making it the UK's deadliest ever building fire.
1901–present
- 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, United States, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.
- 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.
- 1915 - The pacifist Zimmerwald Conference begins.
- 1932 - The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.
- 1937 - Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls to the Nationalists following a one-day siege.
- 1938 - Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are executed after surrendering during a failed coup.
- 1941 - Whole territory of Estonia is occupied by Nazi Germany.
- 1942 - World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, the first major Japanese defeat in land warfare during the Pacific War.
- 1943 - World War II: In the Pacific Theater, the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Lae Nadzab Airport, near Lae during the Salamaua–Lae campaign.
- 1944 - Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux.
- 1945 - Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
- 1945 - Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American who broadcast under the name Orphan Annie during World War II, is arrested in Yokohama by U.S. military authorities amid widespread speculation of her being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose.
- 1948 - In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister; as such, he is the French negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.
- 1954 - KLM Flight 633 crashes into the River Shannon in Shannon, County Clare, Ireland, killing 28.
- 1957 - Cuban Revolution: Fulgencio Batista bombs the revolt in Cienfuegos.
- 1960 - Poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is the first elected President of Senegal.
- 1960 - Muhammad Ali wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.
- 1968 – End of the Congress of Carrara, one of the major 20th century anarchist congresses.
- 1969 - Mỹ Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lieutenant 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 Thừa Thiên–Huế Province.
- 1972 - Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and nine are murdered the following day.
- 1975 - Sacramento, California: Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.
- 1977 - Voyager Program: NASA launches the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
- 1978 - Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace discussions at Camp David, Maryland.
- 1980 - The Gotthard Road Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at stretching from Göschenen to Airolo.
- 1981 - The first women arrive at what becomes Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in the UK.
- 1984 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
- 1984 - Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
- 1986 - Pan Am Flight 73 from Mumbai, India with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
- 1990 - Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers slaughter 158 civilians.
- 1991 - The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, comes into force.
- 1996 - Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people.
- 2005 - Mandala Airlines Flight 091 crashes after takeoff from Polonia International Airport in Medan, Indonesia, killing 149.
- 2012 - An accidental explosion at a Turkish Army ammunition store in Afyon, western Turkey kills 25 soldiers and wounds four others.
- 2021 - The President of Guinea, Alpha Condé is captured by armed forces during a coup d'état.
- 2022 - Liz Truss is declared the winner of the UK Conservative Party leadership election, beating Rishi Sunak.
- 2022 - At least 93 people die and 25 are missing after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Sichuan, China.
Births
Pre-1600
- 989 - Fan Zhongyan, Chinese chancellor
- 1187 - Louis VIII, king of France
- 1201 - Alix of Thouars, duchess of Brittany
- 1269 - Agnes of Bohemia, Duchess of Austria
- 1319 - Peter IV, king of Aragon
- 1451 - Isabel Neville, daughter of Richard Neville
- 1500 - Maria of Jever, ruler of the Lordship of Jever
- 1533 - Jacopo Zabarella, Italian philosopher and logician
- 1540 - Magnus of Holstein, prince of Denmark
- 1567 - Date Masamune, Japanese daimyō
- 1568 - Tommaso Campanella, Italian poet, philosopher, and theologian
1601–1900
- 1638 - Louis XIV, king of France
- 1641 - Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, English diplomat
- 1642 - Maria of Orange-Nassau, Dutch princess
- 1651 - William Dampier, English explorer
- 1666 - Gottfried Arnold, German historian and theologian
- 1667 - Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri, Italian priest, mathematician, and philosopher
- 1694 - František Václav Míča, Czech conductor and composer
- 1695 - Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician and diplomat
- 1722 - Frederick Christian, Prince-Elector of Saxony
- 1725 - Jean-Étienne Montucla, French mathematician and theorist
- 1735 - Johann Christian Bach, German-English viol player and composer
- 1750 - Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet and author
- 1769 - John Shortland, English commander
- 1771 - Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
- 1772 - Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, Iranian king
- 1774 - Caspar David Friedrich, German painter and etcher
- 1775 - Juan Martín Díez, Spanish general
- 1781 - Anton Diabelli, Austrian composer and publisher
- 1787 - François Sulpice Beudant, French mineralogist and geologist
- 1791 - Giacomo Meyerbeer, German pianist and composer
- 1792 - Ours-Pierre-Armand Petit-Dufrénoy, French geologist and mineralogist
- 1806 - Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière, French general and politician, French Minister of War
- 1817 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian poet, author, and playwright
- 1818 - Edmund Kennedy, Australian explorer and surveyor
- 1826 - John Wisden, English cricketer and businessman
- 1827 - Goffredo Mameli, Italian poet and songwriter
- 1829 - Lester Allan Pelton, American inventor
- 1831 - Victorien Sardou, French author and playwright
- 1833 - George Huntington Hartford, American businessman
- 1836 - Justiniano Borgoño, Peruvian soldier and politician, 57th President of Peru
- 1847 - Jesse James, American outlaw
- 1850 - Eugen Goldstein, German physicist
- 1856 - Thomas E. Watson, American lawyer, publisher, and politician
- 1867 - Amy Beach, American pianist and composer
- 1871 - Friedrich Akel, Estonian physician and politician, Head of State of Estonia
- 1872 - V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, Indian lawyer and politician
- 1872 - Horace Rice, Australian tennis player
- 1873 - Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American general and engineer
- 1874 - Nap Lajoie, American baseball player and manager
- 1876 - Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, German field marshal
- 1880 - José María of Manila, Spanish-Filipino priest and martyr
- 1881 - Otto Bauer, Austrian philosopher and politician, Foreign Minister of Austria
- 1881 - Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron Wilson, English field marshal
- 1883 - Otto Erich Deutsch, Austrian musicologist and scholar
- 1888 - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher and politician, 2nd President of India
- 1892 - Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist and educator
- 1897 - Morris Carnovsky, American actor
- 1897 - Arthur Nielsen, American market analyst, founded ACNielsen
- 1899 - Humphrey Cobb, American author and screenwriter
- 1899 - Helen Creighton, Canadian author and educator