April 5
Events
Pre-1600
- 823 - Lothair I is crowned King of Italy by Pope Paschal I.
- 919 - The second Fatimid invasion of Egypt begins, when the Fatimid heir-apparent, al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, sets out from Raqqada at the head of his army.
- 1242 - During the Battle on the Ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
- 1536 - Charles V makes a Royal Entry into Rome, demolishing a swath of the city to re-enact a Roman triumph.
- 1566 - Two hundred Dutch noblemen, led by Hendrick van Brederode, force themselves into the presence of Margaret of Parma and present the Petition of Compromise, denouncing the Spanish Inquisition in the Seventeen Provinces.
1601–1900
- 1614 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
- 1621 - The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England.
- 1792 - United States President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.
- 1795 - Peace of Basel between France and Prussia is made.
- 1818 - In the Battle of Maipú, Chile's independence movement, led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín, win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead.
- 1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Yorktown begins.
- 1879 - Bolivia declares war on Chile, and Chile declares war on Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.
1901–present
- 1902 - A stand box collapses at Ibrox Park in Glasgow, Scotland, which led to the deaths of 25 and injuries to more than 500 supporters during an international association football match between Scotland and England.
- 1910 - The Transandine Railway connecting Chile and Argentina is inaugurated.
- 1922 - The American Birth Control League, forerunner of Planned Parenthood, is incorporated.
- 1932 - Dominion of Newfoundland: Ten thousand rioters seize the Colonial Building leading to the end of self-government.
- 1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs two executive orders: 6101 to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps, and 6102 "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens.
- 1933 - Andorran Revolution: The Young Andorrans occupy the Casa de la Vall and force the government to hold democratic elections with universal male suffrage.
- 1936 - Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado kills 233 in Tupelo, Mississippi.
- 1938 - Spanish Civil War: Two days after the Nationalist army occupied the Catalan city of Lleida, dictator Francisco Franco decrees the abolition of the Generalitat, the self-government granted by the Republic, and the official status of the Catalan language.
- 1942 - World War II: Adolf Hitler issues Fuhrer Directive No. 41 summarizing Case Blue, including the German Sixth Army's planned assault on Stalingrad.
- 1942 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy launches a carrier-based air attack on Colombo, Ceylon during the Indian Ocean raid. Port and civilian facilities are damaged and the Royal Navy cruisers and are sunk southwest of the island.
- 1943 - World War II: United States Army Air Forces bomber aircraft accidentally cause more than 900 civilian deaths, including 209 children, and 1,300 wounded among the civilian population of the Belgian town of Mortsel. Their target was the Erla factory from the residential area hit.
- 1945 - Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito signs an agreement with the Soviet Union to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory".
- 1946 - Soviet troops end their year-long occupation of the Danish island of Bornholm.
- 1946 - A Fleet Air Arm Vickers Wellington crashes into a residential area in Rabat, Malta during a training exercise, killing all 4 crew members and 16 civilians on the ground.
- 1949 - A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States.
- 1951 - Cold War: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.
- 1956 - Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro declares himself at war with Cuban President Fulgencio Batista.
- 1958 - Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada is destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time.
- 1966 - During the Buddhist Uprising, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ personally attempts to lead the capture of the restive city of Đà Nẵng before backing down.
- 1971 - In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches a revolt against the United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
- 1974 - Carrie, the first novel by American author Stephen King, is published for the first time with a print run of 30,000 copies.
- 1976 - In China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen Incident.
- 1977 - The US Supreme Court rules that congressional legislation that diminished the size of the Sioux people's reservation thereby destroyed the tribe's jurisdictional authority over the area in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip.
- 1983 – The People's Armed Police is officially founded
- 1991 - An ASA EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, killing all 23 aboard including Sen. John Tower and astronaut Sonny Carter.
- 1991 - The Space shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-37 to deploy the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
- 1992 - Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru, dissolves the Peruvian congress by military force.
- 1992 - Peace protesters Suada Dilberovic and Olga Sučić are killed on the Vrbanja Bridge in Sarajevo, becoming the first casualties of the Bosnian War.
- 1998 - In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world.
- 1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
- 2007 - The cruise ship MS Sea Diamond strikes a volcanic reef near Nea Kameni and sinks the next day. Two passengers were never recovered and are presumed dead.
- 2009 - North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 satellite. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.
- 2010 - Up to 50 people are killed and another 100 injured in two militant suicide bombings and attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan: the first on an Awami National Party rally in Timergara; the second on the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar.
- 2010 - Twenty-nine coal miners are killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.
- 2010 - Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-131 to resupply the International Space Station.
- 2018 - Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid a slaughterhouse in Tennessee, detaining nearly 100 undocumented Hispanic workers in one of the largest workplace raids in the history of the United States.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1170 - Isabella of Hainault
- 1219 - Wonjong of Goryeo, 24th ruler of Goryeo
- 1279 - Al-Nuwayri, Egyptian Muslim historian
- 1288 - Emperor Go-Fushimi of Japan
- 1315 - James III of Majorca
- 1365 - William II, Duke of Bavaria
- 1472 - Bianca Maria Sforza, Italian wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1521 - Francesco Laparelli, Italian architect
- 1523 - Blaise de Vigenère, French cryptographer and diplomat
- 1533 - Giulio della Rovere, Italian Catholic Cardinal
- 1539 - George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
- 1549 - Princess Elizabeth of Sweden
- 1568 - Pope Urban VIII
- 1588 - Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher
- 1591 - Frederick Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg
- 1595 - John Wilson, English composer and educator
1601–1900
- 1604 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine
- 1616 - Frederick, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken
- 1622 - Vincenzo Viviani, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist
- 1649 - Elihu Yale, American-English merchant and philanthropist
- 1656 - Nikita Demidov, Russian industrialist
- 1664 - Élisabeth Thérèse de Lorraine, French noblewoman and Princess of Epinoy
- 1674 - Margravine Elisabeth Sophie of Brandenburg
- 1691 - Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
- 1692 - Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress
- 1719 - Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish field marshal and politician, Lord Marshal of Sweden
- 1726 - Benjamin Harrison V, American politician, planter and merchant
- 1727 - Pasquale Anfossi, Italian violinist and composer
- 1729 - Frederick Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
- 1730 - Jean Baptiste Seroux d'Agincourt, French archaeologist and historian
- 1732 - Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French painter and etcher
- 1735 - Franziskus Herzan von Harras, Czech Roman Catholic cardinal
- 1739 - Philemon Dickinson, American lawyer and politician
- 1752 - Sébastien Érard, French instrument maker
- 1761 - Sybil Ludington, American figure of the American Revolutionary War
- 1769 - Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet, English admiral
- 1773 - José María Coppinger, governor of Spanish East Florida
- 1773 - Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
- 1774 - David Gillespie, American politician and surveyor
- 1777 - Marie Jules César Savigny, French zoologist
- 1782 - Wincenty Krasiński, Polish nobleman
- 1784 - Louis Spohr, German violinist, composer, and conductor
- 1788 - Franz Pforr, German painter
- 1793 - Casimir Delavigne, French poet and dramatist
- 1793 - Felix de Muelenaere, Belgian politician
- 1795 - Henry Havelock, British general
- 1799 - Jacques Denys Choisy, Swiss clergyman and botanist
- 1801 - Félix Dujardin, French biologist
- 1801 - Vincenzo Gioberti, Italian philosopher, publicist and politician
- 1804 - Matthias Jakob Schleiden, German botanist
- 1809 - Karl Felix Halm, German scholar and critic
- 1810 - Sir Henry Rawlinson, British East India Company army officer and politician
- 1811 - Jules Dupré, French painter
- 1814 - Felix Lichnowsky, Czech soldier and politician
- 1822 - Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye, Belgian economist
- 1827 - Joseph Lister, English surgeon and academic
- 1832 - Jules Ferry, French lawyer and politician, 44th Prime Minister of France
- 1834 - Prentice Mulford, American humorist and author
- 1834 - Wilhelm Olbers Focke, German medical doctor and botanist
- 1834 - Frank R. Stockton, American writer and humorist
- 1835 - Vítězslav Hálek, Czech poet, writer, journalist, dramatist and theatre critic.
- 1837 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic
- 1839 - Robert Smalls, African-American ship's pilot, sea captain, and politician
- 1840 - Ghazaros Aghayan, Armenian historian and linguist
- 1842 - Hans Hildebrand, Swedish archaeologist
- 1845 - Friedrich Sigmund Merkel, German anatomist and histopathologist
- 1845 - Jules Cambon, French diplomat
- 1846 - Sigmund Exner, Austrian physiologist
- 1846 - Henry Wellesley, British peer and politician
- 1848 - Thure de Thulstrup, American illustrator
- 1848 - Ulrich Wille, Swiss army general
- 1850 - Enrico Mazzanti, Italian engineer and cartoonist
- 1852 - Émile Billard, French sailor
- 1852 - Walter W. Winans, American marksman and sculptor
- 1852 - Franz Eckert, German composer and musician
- 1856 - Booker T. Washington, African-American educator, essayist and historian
- 1857 - Alexander of Battenberg
- 1858 - Washington Atlee Burpee, Canadian businessman, founded Burpee Seeds
- 1859 - Reinhold Seeberg, German theologian
- 1860 - Harry S. Barlow, British tennis player
- 1862 - Louis Ganne, French conductor
- 1862 - Leo Stern, English cellist
- 1863 - Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine
- 1867 - Ernest Lewis, British tennis player
- 1869 - Sergey Chaplygin, Russian physicist, mathematician, and engineer
- 1869 - Albert Roussel, French composer
- 1870 - Motobu Chōki, Japanese karateka
- 1871 - Stanisław Grabski, Polish economist and politician
- 1872 - Samuel Cate Prescott, American microbiologist and chemist
- 1873 - Joseph Rheden, Austrian astronomer
- 1874 - Emmanuel Célestin Suhard, French Cardinal of the Catholic Church
- 1874 - Manuel María Ponce Brousset, President of Peru
- 1878 - Albert Champion, French cyclist
- 1878 - Georg Misch, German philosopher
- 1878 - Paul Weinstein, German high jumper
- 1879 - Arthur Berriedale Keith, Scottish lawyer
- 1879 - Nikolaus zu Dohna-Schlodien, German naval officer and author
- 1880 - Eric Carlberg, Swedish Army officer, diplomat, shooter, fencer and modern pentathlete
- 1880 - Vilhelm Carlberg, Swedish Army officer and shooter
- 1882 - Song Jiaoren, Chinese revolutionary
- 1882 - Natalia Sedova, 2nd wife of Leon Trotsky
- 1883 - Walter Huston, Canadian-American actor and singer
- 1884 - Ion Inculeț, Bessarabian academic and politician, President of Moldova
- 1885 - Dimitrie Cuclin, Romanian composer
- 1886 - Gotthelf Bergsträsser, German linguist
- 1886 - Frederick Lindemann, British physicist
- 1886 - Gustavo Jiménez, Peruvian colonel and politician, 73rd President of Peru
- 1887 - William Cowhig, British gymnast
- 1889 - Vicente Ferreira Pastinha, Brazilian martial artist
- 1890 - Karl Kirk, Danish gymnast
- 1890 - William Moore, British track and field athlete
- 1891 - Arnold Jackson, English runner, soldier, and lawyer
- 1891 - Laura Vicuña, Chilean nun
- 1892 - Raymond Bonney, American ice hockey player
- 1893 - Frithjof Andersen, Norwegian wrestler
- 1893 - Clas Thunberg, Finnish speed skater
- 1894 - Lawrence Dale Bell, American industrialist and founder of Bell Aircraft Corporation
- 1894 - Hans Hüttig, German SS officer
- 1894 - Carl Rudolf Florin, Swedish botanist
- 1895 - Mike O'Dowd, American boxer
- 1896 - Einar Lundborg, Swedish aviator
- 1897 - Hans Schuberth, German politician
- 1898 - Solange d'Ayen, French noblewoman, Duchess of Ayen and journalist
- 1899 - Alfred Blalock, American surgeon and academic
- 1900 - Herbert Bayer, Austrian-American graphic designer, painter, and photographer
- 1900 - Roman Steinberg, Estonian wrestler
- 1900 - Spencer Tracy, American actor