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This day in history

This day in history: 5 March

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day273 · 93

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Key facts

420 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 5 March.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2023: A group of four prisoners escape from the Nouakchott Civil Prison, before being caught the next day.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Ciarán of Saigir

Christian feast day: John Joseph of the Cross

Christian feast day: March 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Piran

Christian feast day: Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea

Christian feast day: Thietmar of Minden

Learn from Lei Feng Day (China)

St Piran's Day (Cornwall)

Events

2023A group of four prisoners escape from the Nouakchott Civil Prison, before being caught the next day.

2023The 2023 Estonian parliamentary election is held, with two centre-right liberal parties gaining an absolute majority for the first time.

2021Pope Francis begins a historic visit to Iraq amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021Twenty people are killed and 30 injured in a suicide car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia.

2018Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pause the Deir ez-Zor campaign due to the Turkish-led invasion of Afrin.

2012Tropical Storm Irina kills over 75 as it passes through Madagascar.

2012Two people are killed and six more are injured in a shooting at a hair salon in Bucharest, Romania.

2011An Antonov An-148 crashes in Russia's Alexeyevsky District, Belgorod Oblast during a test flight, killing all seven aboard.

2003In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed in the Haifa bus 37 suicide bombing.

2002An earthquake in Mindanao, Philippines, kills 15 people and injures more than 100.

2001In Mina, Saudi Arabia, 35 pilgrims are killed in a stampede on the Jamaraat Bridge during the Hajj.

1993Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301 crashes at Skopje International Airport in Petrovec, North Macedonia, killing 83.

1991Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109 crashes in Venezuela, killing 45.

1982Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus.

1981The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 11⁄2 million units around the world.

1979Soviet 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.

1978The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

1974Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.

1973An Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 collides 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.

1970The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.

1968Air France Flight 212 crashes into La Grande Soufrière, killing all 63 aboard.

1967Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 crashes near Marseilles, Ohio, killing 38.

1966BOAC 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.

1965March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against the British colonial presence.

1963Aeroflot Flight 191 crashes while landing at Aşgabat International Airport, killing 12.

1963American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.

1960Indonesian President Sukarno dismisses the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaces it with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members.

1957Sutton Wick air crash: A Blackburn Beverley of 53 Squadron, Royal Air Forces, crashes into the village of Sutton Wick, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), killing most of the crew and passengers and two local residents.

1953Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier.

1946Cold War: Winston Churchill delivers his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College, Missouri.

1944World War II: The Red Army begins the Uman–Botoșani offensive in the western Ukrainian SSR.

1943World 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

1942World 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.

1940Six 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.

1939Spanish 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.

1933Adolf 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.

1931The British Raj: Gandhi–Irwin Pact is signed.

1912Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.

1906Moro Rebellion: United States Army troops bring overwhelming force against the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors.

1872George Westinghouse patents the air brake.

Born on this day

2007Roman Griffin Davis, English actor

2000Doug Edert, American basketball player

1999Justin Fields, American football player

1999Madison Beer, American singer-songwriter

1999Yeri, South Korean singer and actress

1998Bo Bichette, American baseball player

1997Milena Venega, Cuban rower

1996Emmanuel Mudiay, Congolese-American basketball player

1996Taylor Hill, American model

1994Daria Saville, Russian-Australian tennis player

1994MJ, South Korean singer and actor

1993Ahmed Hassan, Egyptian footballer

1993El Hadji Ba, French footballer

1993Fred, Brazilian footballer

1993Harry Maguire, English footballer

1993Joshua Coyne, American violinist and composer

1993Kyle Schwarber, American baseball player

1992Sam Bankman-Fried, American businessman and fraudster

1991Daniil Trifonov, Russian pianist and composer

1991Ramiro Funes Mori, Argentine footballer

1990Alex Smithies, English footballer

1990Danny Drinkwater, English footballer

1990Mason Plumlee, American basketball player

1989Jake Lloyd, American actor

1989Sterling Knight, American actor, singer, and dancer

1988Jovana Brakočević, Serbian volleyball player

1988Liassine Cadamuro-Bentaïba, Algerian footballer

1987Anna Chakvetadze, Russian tennis player

1987Chris Cohen, English footballer

1986Alexandre Barthe, French footballer

1986Corey Brewer, American basketball player and coach

1986Matty Fryatt, English footballer

1986Shikabala, Egyptian footballer

1985Brad Mills, American baseball player

1985David Marshall, Scottish footballer

1985Kenichi Matsuyama, Japanese actor

1984Branko Cvetković, Serbian basketball player

1984Guillaume Hoarau, French footballer

1983Édgar Dueñas, Mexican footballer

1982Dan Carter, New Zealand rugby player

Died on this day

2017Kurt Moll, German opera singer (born 1938)

2016Al Wistert, American football player and coach (born 1920)

2016Hassan Al-Turabi, Sudanese activist and politician (born 1932)

2016Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer and engineer (born 1941)

2015Edward Egan, American cardinal and former Archbishop of New York (born 1932)

2015Vlada Divljan, Serbian singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1958)

2014Ailsa McKay, Scottish economist and academic (born 1963)

2014Geoff Edwards, American actor and game show host (born 1931)

2014Leopoldo María Panero, Spanish poet and translator (born 1948)

2014Ola L. Mize, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1931)

2013Duane Gish, American biochemist and academic (born 1921)

2013Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan colonel and politician, President of Venezuela (born 1954)

2013Paul Bearer, American wrestler and manager (born 1954)

2012Paul Haines, New Zealand-Australian author (born 1970)

2012Philip Madoc, Welsh-English actor (born 1934)

2012William O. Wooldridge, American sergeant (born 1922)

2011Manolis Rasoulis, Greek singer-songwriter (born 1945)

2010Charles B. Pierce, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1938)

2010Richard Stapley, British actor and writer (born 1923)

2008Joseph Weizenbaum, German computer scientist and author (born 1923)

2005David Sheppard, English cricketer and bishop (born 1929)

2000Lolo Ferrari, French dancer, actress and singer (born 1963)

1999Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (born 1922)

1997Jean Dréville, French director and screenwriter (born 1906)

1997Samm Sinclair Baker, American writer (born 1909)

1996Whit Bissell, American character actor (born 1909)

1995Vivian Stanshall, English singer-songwriter and musician (born 1943)

1990Gary Merrill, American actor and director (born 1915)

1988Alberto Olmedo, Argentine comedian and actor (born 1933)

1984Tito Gobbi, Italian operatic baritone (born 1913)

Quote of the day

“No man is free who is not master of himself.”

Epictetus

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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