5 January

Events

• 1463 - Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.
• 1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
• 1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
• 1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
• 1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
• 1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
• 1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
• 1909 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
• 1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
• 1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
• 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
• 1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
• 1944 - The London Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• 1945 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
• 1948 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
• 1957 - Major league baseballer Jackie Robinson retires.
• 1961 - Television: Mr. Ed debuts.
• 1968 - "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
• 1970 - Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
• 1972 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
• 1975 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
• 1980 - Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer.
• 1984 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
• 1987 - President of the United States Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.
• 1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands spilling 84,700 tonnes of oil.
• 1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
• 1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
• 2000 - The 1st day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit
• 2002 - Charles Bishop, a 15-year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a Tampa, Florida building, evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack.

Births

• 1596 - Henry Lawes, composer, (d. 1662)
• 1717 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman, (d. 1793)
• 1779 - Stephen Decatur, American naval officer, (d. 1820)
• 1779 - Zebulon Pike, American explorer, (d. 1813)
• 1855 - King Camp Gillette, inventor, (d. 1932)
• 1876 - Konrad Adenauer, German chancellor 1949-1963, (d. 1967)
• 1880 - Nikolay Medtner, composer, (d. 1951)
• 1893 - Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian guru, (d. 1952)
• 1904 - Jeane Dixon, astrologer, (d. 1997)
• 1909 - Stephen Kleene, mathematician, (d. 1994)
• 1910 - Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete
• 1913 - Jean-Pierre Aumont, actor, (d. 2001)
• 1914 - George Reeves, actor, (d. 1959)
• 1920 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, pianist, (d. 1995)
• 1921 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, writer, (d. 1990)
• 1923 - Sam Phillips, country music producer, (d. 2003)
• 1926 - Maria Schell, actress
• 1928 - Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator, Democratic presidential nominee in 1984
• 1928 - Ali Bhutto, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, (d. 1979)
• 1931 - Alvin Ailey, choreographer, (d. 1989)
• 1931 - Alfred Brendel, pianist
• 1931 - Robert Duvall, actor and director
• 1932 - Umberto Eco, philologist and writer
• 1932 - Raisa Gorbachev, political consort, (d. 1999)
• 1938 - King Juan Carlos of Spain
• 1941 - Miyazaki Hayao, film maker
• 1941 - Grady Thomas, singer (P-Funk)
• 1942 - Maurizio Pollini, pianist
• 1942 - Charlie Rose, talk show host
• 1946 - Diane Keaton, actress
• 1953 - George Tenet, Director of the CIA
• 1961 - Suzy Amis, actress
• 1969 - Marilyn Manson, singer

Deaths

• 1589 - Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, (b. 1519)
• 1740 - Antonio Lotti, composer, (b. 1667)
• 1891 - Emma Abbott, american opera singer, (b. 1849)
• 1922 - Ernest Shackleton, explorer, (b. 1874)
• 1929 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia
• 1933 - Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, (b. 1872)
• 1941 - Amy Johnson, aviator, (1903)
• 1943 - George Washington Carver, educator, activist, botanist, (1860)
• 1956 - Mistinguett (Jeanne Bourgeois), French singer, (b. 1875)
• 1963 - Rogers Hornsby, Baseball Hall of Famer, (b. 1896)
• 1970 - Max Born, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1954, (b. 1882)
• 1970 - Roberto Gerhard, composer
• 1970 - Jock Yablonski, president of the United Mine Workers, is discovered dead with his family
• 1971 - Douglas Shearer, pioneer motion-picture sound engineer, (b. 1899)
• 1979 - Charles Mingus, musician, (b. 1922)
• 1981 - Lanza del Vasto, philosopher, poet and non-violent activist, (b. 1901)
• 1988 - Pete Maravich, Basketball Hall of Famer, (b. 1948)
• 1994 - Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill, Speaker of the House, (b. 1912)
• 1996 - Yahya Ayyash, terrorist, (b. 1966)
• 1998 - Sonny Bono, singer, actor, United States Representative, (b. 1935)
• 2002 - Igor Cassini, gossip columnist ("Cholly Knickerbocker")
• 2003 - Roy Jenkins, British politician, (b. 1920)
• 2004 - Tug McGraw, baseball pitcher, (b. 1944)

Holidays and observances

• The Twelfth Night of Christmas in Western Christianity.
• Catholicism - Feast day of St. John Neumann.

January 4 - January 6 - December 5 - February 5 -- listing of all days

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Referenced By