March 5 - Events

Events

• 363 – Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a campaign which would bring about his own death.
• 1046 – Naser Khosrow 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.
• 1616 – Nicolaus Copernicus's book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is banned by the Catholic Church
• 1766 – Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
• 1770 – Boston Massacre: Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, and a boy, are killed by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence) five years later. At a subsequent trial the soldiers are defended by John Adams.
• 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.
• 1836 – Samuel Colt makes the first production-model revolver, the .34-caliber.
• 1850 – The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the Isle 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 première performance at La Scala.
• 1872 – George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
• 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 – Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.
• 1931 – The British Viceroy of India, Governor-General Edward Frederick Lindley Wood and Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) sign an agreement envisaging the release of political prisoners and allowing salt to be freely used by the poorest members of the population.
• 1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions.
• 1933 – Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections. This later allows the Nazis to pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.
• 1940 – Members of Soviet politburo sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, known also as the Katyn massacre.
• 1943 – First flight of Gloster Meteor jet aircraft in the United Kingdom.
• 1944 – World War II: The Red Army begins the Uman–Botoşani Offensive in western Ukrainian SSR.
• 1946 – Winston Churchill uses the phrase "Iron Curtain" in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri.
• 1946 – Hungarian Communists and Social Democrats co-found the Left Bloc.
• 1960 – Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
• 1965 – March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against British colonial presence.
• 1966 – BOAC Flight 911 crashes on Mount Fuji, Japan, killing 124.
• 1970 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
• 1974 – Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.
• 1975 – First meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club
• 1977 – Formula One driver Tom Pryce dies after colliding with a track marshal at the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami.
• 1978 – The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
• 1979 – Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.
• 1979 – America's Voyager 1 spacecraft has its closest approach to Jupiter, 172,000 miles.
• 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 1.5 million units around the world.
• 1982 – Soviet probes Venera 14 landed on Venus.
• 1984 – 6,000 miners in the United Kingdom begin their strike at Cortonwood Colliery.
• 1988 – The Constitution of Turks and Caicos Islands is restored and revised.
• 1999 – Paul Okalik is elected first Premier of Nunavut.
• 2003 – In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed by a Hamas suicide bomb in the Haifa bus 37 massacre.