February 5

Historic Events

2020

United States President Donald Trump is acquitted by the United States Senate in his first impeachment trial. ›

2020

Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193 overshoots the runway at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport and crashes, killing three people and injuring 179. ›

2019

Pope Francis becomes the first Pope in history to visit and perform papal mass in the Arabian Peninsula during his visit to Abu Dhabi. ›

2016

New Zealand politician Steven Joyce is hit by a flung rubber dildo in a Waitangi Day protest. ›

2016

Cybercriminals initiate the Bangladesh Bank robbery, using the SWIFT network to fraudulently transfer $101 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York account of Bangladesh Bank. ›

2008

A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States kills 57. ›

2004

Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion. ›

2000

Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya. ›

1997

The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families. ›

1994

Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. ›

1994

Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo. ›

1988

Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. ›

1985

Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage, meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years. ›

1981

Operation Soap: The Metropolitan Toronto Police Force raids four gay bathhouses in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, arresting just under 300, triggering mass protest and rallies. ›

1975

Riots break out in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship. ›

1971

Astronauts land on the Moon in the Apollo 14 mission. ›

1967

Cultural Revolution: The Shanghai People's Commune is formally proclaimed, with Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao being appointed as its leaders. ›

1963

The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law. ›

1962

French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence. ›

1958

Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic. ›

1958

A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. ›

1945

World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila. ›

1941

World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea. ›

1933

Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. ›

1924

The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal. ›

1919

Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists. ›

1918

Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military. ›

1918

SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk. ›

1917

The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. ›

1917

The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. ›

1913

Greek military aviators Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane. ›

1913

Claudio Monteverdi's last opera L'incoronazione di Poppea was performed theatrically for the first time in more than 250 years. ›

1907

Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic. ›

1905

In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, initially with four basic specialties. ›

1901

J. P. Morgan incorporates U.S. Steel in the state of New Jersey, although the company would not start doing business until February 25 and the assets of Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company, Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company, and William Henry Moore's National Steel Company were not acquired until April 1. ›

1885

King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession. ›

1869

The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia. ›

1859

Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Moldavia, is also elected as prince of Wallachia, joining the two principalities as a personal union called the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered in the birth of the modern Romanian state. ›

1852

The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public. ›

1818

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. ›

1810

Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins. ›

1783

In Calabria, a sequence of strong earthquakes begins. ›

1597

A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society. ›

1576

Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion. ›

1265

Pope Clement IV is elected as the 183rd Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. ›

756

An Lushan proclaims himself Emperor of China, founding the short-lived state of Yan. ›

62

An earthquake with an estimated intensity between IX or X on the Mercalli scale occurs in Pompeii, Italy. ›

2 BC

Caesar Augustus is granted the title pater patriae by the Roman Senate. ›