05 May History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1494    -    Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria.
  • 1814    -    British attack the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, New York.
  • 1821    -    Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena.
  • 1834    -    The first mainland railway line opens in Belgium.
  • 1862    -    Union and Confederate forces clash at the Battle of Williamsburg, part of the Peninsula Campaign.Eyewitness to War
ADVERTISEMENTS
  • 1862    -    Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeat troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.
  • 1865    -    The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery.
  • 1886    -    A bomb explodes on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago.
  • 1912    -    Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing.
  • 1916    -    U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic.
  • 1917    -    Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earns a flying certificate with the French Air Service.
ADVERTISEMENTS
  • 1920    -    Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Visetti are arrested for murder.
  • 1935    -    American Jesse Owens sets the long jump record.
  • 1942    -    General Joseph Stilwell learns that the Japanese have cut his railway out of China and is forced to lead his troops into India.
  • 1945    -    Holland and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control.
  • 1961    -    Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.
  • 1968    -    U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen.
ADVERTISEMENTS

  • 05 May Birthdays

  • 1813    -    Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher.
  • 1818    -    Karl Marx, German philosopher (The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital).
  • 1830    -    John B. Stetson, American hat maker.
  • 1861    -    Peter Cooper Hewitt, electrical engineer, inventor of the mercury-vapor lamp.
  • 1883    -    Charles Albert "Chief" Bender, baseball player.
  • 1890    -    Christopher Morley, writer (Kitty Foyle).
  • 1899    -    Freeman F. Gosden, radio comedy writer and performer (Amos 'n' Andy).
  • 1908    -    Rex Harrison, actor (My Fair Lady).
  • 1909    -    Carlos Baker, biographer.
  • 1943    -    Michael Palin, actor and screenwriter (Monty Python's Flying Circus).