March 5
Events
Pre-1600
- 363 - Roman emperor Julian leaves Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sasanian Empire, in a campaign which would bring about his own death.
- 1046 - Nasir Khusraw begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama.
- 1279 - The Livonian Order is defeated in the Battle of Aizkraukle by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
- 1496 - King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.
1601–1900
- 1616 - Nicolaus Copernicus's book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.
- 1766 - Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
- 1770 - Boston Massacre: Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War five years later.
- 1811 - Peninsular War: A French force under the command of Marshal Victor is routed while trying to prevent an Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese army from lifting the Siege of Cádiz in the Battle of Barrosa.
- 1824 - First Anglo-Burmese War: The British officially declare war on Burma.
- 1825 - Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, is defeated in combat and captured by authorities.
- 1836 - Samuel Colt established his first factory to produce recently patented production-model revolver, the.34-caliber "Paterson".
- 1850 - The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened.
- 1860 - Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia.
- 1868 - Mefistofele, an opera by Arrigo Boito, receives its premiere performance at La Scala.
- 1872 - George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
1901–present
- 1906 - Moro Rebellion: United States Army troops bring overwhelming force against the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors.
- 1912 - Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.
- 1931 - The British Raj: Gandhi–Irwin Pact is signed.
- 1933 - Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections, which allows the Nazis to later pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.
- 1939 - Spanish Civil War: The National Defence Council seizes control of the republican government in a coup d'etat, with the intention of negotiating an end to the war.
- 1940 - Six high-ranking members of the Soviet politburo, including Joseph Stalin, sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, in what will become known as the Katyn massacre.
- 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces capture Batavia, capital of Dutch East Indies, which is left undefended after the withdrawal of the KNIL garrison and Australian Blackforce battalion to Buitenzorg and Bandung.
- 1943 - World War II: General strike and protest march in Athens against rumours of forced mobilization of Greek workers for work in Germany, resulting in clashes with the Axis occupation forces and collaborationist police. The decree is withdrawn on the next day.
- 1944 - World War II: The Red Army begins the Uman–Botoșani offensive in the western Ukrainian SSR.
- 1946 - Cold War: Winston Churchill delivers his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College, Missouri.
- 1953 - Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier.
- 1957 - Sutton Wick air crash a Blackburn Beverley of 53 Squadron, Royal Air Forces, crashes into the village of Sutton Wick, Berkshire killing most of the crew and passengers and two local residents.
- 1960 - Indonesian President Sukarno dismissed the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaced with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members.
- 1963 - American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.
- 1963 - Aeroflot Flight 191 crashes while landing at Aşgabat International Airport, killing 12.
- 1965 - March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against the British colonial presence.
- 1966 - BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707 aircraft, breaks apart in mid-air due to clear-air turbulence and crashes into Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 124 people on board.
- 1967 - Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 crashes near Marseilles, Ohio, killing 38.
- 1968 - Air France Flight 212 crashes into La Grande Soufrière, killing all 63 aboard.
- 1970 - The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
- 1973 - An Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 collide in mid-air with a Spantax Convair 990 Coronado over Nantes, France, killing all 68 people aboard the DC-9, including music manager Michael Jeffery.
- 1974 - Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.
- 1978 - The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
- 1979 - Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.
- 1981 - The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 1 million units around the world.
- 1982 - Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus.
- 1991 - Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109 crashes in Venezuela, killing 45.
- 1993 - Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301 crashes at Skopje International Airport in Petrovec, North Macedonia, killing 83.
- 2001 - In Mina, Saudi Arabia, 35 pilgrims are killed in a stampede on the Jamaraat Bridge during the Hajj.
- 2002 - An earthquake in Mindanao, Philippines, kills 15 people and injures more than 100.
- 2003 - In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed in the Haifa bus 37 suicide bombing.
- 2011 - An Antonov An-148 crashes in Russia's Alexeyevsky District, Belgorod Oblast during a test flight, killing all seven aboard.
- 2012 - Tropical Storm Irina kills over 75 as it passes through Madagascar.
- 2012 - Two people are killed and six more are injured in a shooting at a hair salon in Bucharest, Romania.
- 2018 - Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces pause the Deir ez-Zor campaign due to the Turkish-led invasion of Afrin.
- 2021 - Pope Francis begins a historical visit to Iraq amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 2021 - Twenty people are killed and 30 injured in a suicide car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia.
- 2023 - The 2023 Estonian parliamentary election is held, with two centre-right liberal parties gaining an absolute majority for the first time.
- 2023 - A group of four prisoners escape from the Nouakchott Civil Prison, before being caught the next day.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1133 - Henry II of England
- 1224 - Saint Kinga of Poland
- 1324 - David II of Scotland
- 1326 - Louis I of Hungary
- 1340 - Cansignorio della Scala, Lord of Verona
- 1451 - William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, English Earl
- 1512 - Gerardus Mercator, Flemish mathematician, cartographer, and philosopher
- 1523 - Rodrigo de Castro Osorio, Spanish cardinal
- 1527 - Ulrich, Duke of Mecklenburg
- 1539 - Christoph Pezel, German theologian
- 1563 - John Coke, English civil servant and politician
- 1575 - William Oughtred, English minister and mathematician
- 1585 - John George I, Elector of Saxony
- 1585 - Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg
1601–1900
- 1637 - Jan van der Heyden, Dutch painter and engineer
- 1658 - Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer and politician, 3rd Colonial Governor of Louisiana
- 1693 - Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian and scholar
- 1696 - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter
- 1703 - Vasily Trediakovsky, Russian poet and playwright
- 1713 - Edward Cornwallis, English general and politician, Governor of Gibraltar
- 1713 - Frederick Cornwallis, English archbishop
- 1723 - Princess Mary of Great Britain
- 1733 - Vincenzo Galeotti, Italian-Danish dancer and choreographer
- 1739 - Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge, American colonel and physician
- 1748 - Jonas Carlsson Dryander, Swedish botanist and biologist
- 1748 - William Shield, English violinist and composer
- 1750 - Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison, French scholar and academic
- 1751 - Jan Křtitel Kuchař, Czech organist, composer, and educator
- 1774 - Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse, Danish organist and composer
- 1779 - Benjamin Gompertz, English mathematician and statistician
- 1785 - Carlo Odescalchi, Italian cardinal
- 1794 - Jacques Babinet, French physicist, mathematician, and astronomer
- 1794 - Robert Cooper Grier, American lawyer and jurist
- 1800 - Georg Friedrich Daumer, German poet and philosopher
- 1814 - Wilhelm von Giesebrecht, German historian and academic
- 1815 - John Wentworth, American journalist and politician, 19th Mayor of Chicago
- 1817 - Austen Henry Layard, English archaeologist, academic, and politician, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
- 1830 - Étienne-Jules Marey, French physiologist and chronophotographer
- 1830 - Charles Wyville Thomson, Scottish historian and zoologist
- 1834 - Félix de Blochausen, Luxembourgian politician, 6th Prime Minister of Luxembourg
- 1834 - Marietta Piccolomini, Italian soprano
- 1853 - Howard Pyle, American author and illustrator
- 1862 - Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player and theoretician
- 1867 - Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 14th Premier of Quebec
- 1869 - Michael von Faulhaber, German cardinal
- 1870 - Frank Norris, American journalist and author
- 1870 - Evgeny Paton, French-Ukrainian engineer
- 1871 - Rosa Luxemburg, Polish-Russian economist and philosopher
- 1871 - Konstantinos Pallis, Greek general and politician, Minister Governor-General of Macedonia
- 1873 - Olav Bjaaland, Norwegian skier and explorer
- 1874 - Henry Travers, English-American actor
- 1875 - Harry Lawson, Australian politician, 27th Premier of Victoria
- 1876 - Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote, English lawyer and politician, 8th Lord Chief Justice of England
- 1876 - Elisabeth Moore, American tennis player
- 1879 - William Beveridge, English economist and academic
- 1879 - Andres Larka, Estonian general and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of War
- 1880 - Sergei Natanovich Bernstein, Russian mathematician and academic
- 1882 - Dora Marsden, English author and activist
- 1883 - Pauline Sperry, American mathematician
- 1885 - Marius Barbeau, Canadian ethnographer and academic
- 1886 - Dong Biwu, Chinese judge and politician, Chairman of the People's Republic of China
- 1886 - Freddie Welsh, Welsh boxer
- 1887 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian guitarist and composer
- 1894 - Henry Daniell, English-American actor
- 1898 - Zhou Enlai, Chinese politician, 1st Premier of the People's Republic of China
- 1898 - Misao Okawa, Japanese super-centenarian
- 1900 - Lilli Jahn, Jewish German doctor
- 1900 - Johanna Langefeld, German guard and supervisor of three Nazi concentration camps