April 5 Events

1242 - During a battle on the ice of Chudskoye Lake, Russian forces rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
1614 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
1621 - The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth on a return trip to Great Britain.
1654 - The Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed.
1792 - U.S. President George Washington vetoes a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This was the first time the presidential veto had been used in the United States.
1804 - The first recorded meteorite falls in Possil, Scotland (High Possil Meteorite).
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Yorktown. The battle begins when Union forces under General George McClellan close in on the Confederate capital Richmond, Virginia.
1923 - Firestone Tire and Rubber Company starts production of balloon-tires.
1930 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mohandas Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak: An F5 tornado slams into the north side of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 233. It is the 4th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
1942 - Second World War: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
1945 - Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR allowing "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
1949 - Firesign Theater debuts on television.
1949 - A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, United States, kills 77 people.
1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for performing espionage for the Soviet Union.
1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
1956 - Fidel Castro declares himself at war with the President of Cuba.
1956 - In Sri Lanka, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna won the general elections in a lanslide and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike sworn in as the Prime Minister.
1957 - In India, Communists won the first elections in united Kerala and E. M. S. Namboodiripad sworn in as the first chief minister.
1969 - Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations are held in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the United States.
1971 - In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches insurrection against the United Front government of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
1972 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces invade Binh Long Province, launching a second front of the Nguyen Hue Offensive.
1973 - Pierre Messmer becomes Prime Minister of France.
1976 - In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen incident.
1986 - Bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin, Germany, kills three.
1991 - ASA Embraer EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, United States, killing all 23 aboard.
1992 - Several hundred-thousand abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
1992 - Siege of Sarajevo begins when Serb paramilitaries murder peace protestor Suada Dilberovic on the Skenderija Bridge.
1993 - The Child Support Act 1991, administered by the Child Support Agency, comes into effect in the United Kingdom.
1998 - In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
2005 - ABC News anchor Peter Jennings announces on World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer. It would be his last on-air appearance. Jennings died four months later on August 7.
2006 - Apple Computer officially announced the support of Windows XP for the Intel Mac with a program code-named "Boot Camp".
2006 - The first case of H5N1 avian flu was confirmed in the UK after tests on a dead swan found in Cellardyke, Fife.

April 5 Births

1288 - Emperor Go-Fushimi of Japan (d. 1336)
1472 - Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1510)
1479 - Guru Amar Das, third Sikh Guru (d. 1574)
1523 - Blaise de Vigenère, French diplomat and cryptographer (d. 1596)
1588 - Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (d. 1679)
1604 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1675)
1622 - Vincenzo Viviani, Italian mathematician and scientist (d. 1703)
1649 - Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (d. 1721)
1692 - Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress (d. 1730)
1732 - Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French artist (d. 1806)
1784 - Louis Spohr, German violinist and composer (d. 1859)
1816 - Samuel Freeman Miller, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1890)
1827 - Joseph Lister English surgeon (d. 1912)
1832 - Jules Ferry, French statesman (d. 1893)
1837 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (d. 1909)
1856 - Booker T. Washington, American educator (d. 1915)
1871 - Mirko Seljan, Croatian explorer
1875 - Mistinguett, French vaudeville performer (d. 1956)
1893 - Clas Thunberg, Finnish speed skater (d. 1973)
1900 - Spencer Tracy, American actor (d. 1967)
1901 - Melvyn Douglas, American actor (d. 1981)
1908 - Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
1908 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
1908 - Jagjivan Ram, Indian politician (d. 1986)
1909 - Albert R. Broccoli, American film producer (d. 1996)
1911 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
1912 - John Le Mesurier, British actor (d. 1983)
1916 - Gregory Peck, American actor (d. 2003)
1917 - Robert Bloch, American author (d. 1994)
1920 - Arthur Hailey, American writer (d. 2004)
1920 - Rafique Zakaria, Indian author and legal expert (d. 2005)
1922 - Christopher Hewett, British actor (d. 2001)
1922 - Gale Storm, American singer and actress
1923 - Michael Gazzo, American actor (d. 1995)
1923 - Nguyen Van Thieu, President of South Vietnam (d. 2001)
1926 - Roger Corman, American film director, producer, and writer
1929 - Ivar Giaever, Norwegian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 - Nigel Hawthorne, British actor (d. 2001)
1929 - Hugo Claus, Belgian writer
1933 - Larry Felser, American sports columnist and writer
1934 - Frank Gorshin, American actor (d. 2005)
1934 - Roman Herzog, German politician
1935 - Peter Grant, British rock manager, actor (Led Zeppelin,Bad Company) (d. 1995)
1937 - Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State (2000-2004)
1941 - Michael Moriarty, American actor and political activist
1942 - Peter Greenaway, Welsh film director
1943 - Max Gail, American actor
1944 - Pedro Rossello, former Governor of Puerto Rico
1945 - Tommy Smith, English footballer
1946 - Jane Asher, British actress, writer
1947 - Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 14th President of the Philippines
1948 - Dave Holland, British musician (Judas Priest)
1949 - Judith Resnik, astronaut (d. 1986)
1950 - Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer (ABBA)
1952 - Mitch Pileggi, American actor (The X-files)
1954 - Stan Ridgway, American musician (Wall of Voodoo)
1955 - Janice Long, English broadcaster
1961 - Lisa Zane, American actress
1962 - Lana Clarkson, American actress (d. 2003)
1964 - Christopher "Kid" Reid, American actor, rapper (Kid 'n Play)
1965 - Mike McCready, American musician (Pearl Jam)
1968 - Paula Cole, American musician
1973 - Pharrell Williams, American musician and producer (The Neptunes)
1976 - Fernando Morientes, Spanish footballer
1978 - Stephen Jackson, American basketball player
1978 - Franziska van Almsick, German swimmer

April 5 Deaths

582 - Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople
1168 - Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester (b. 1104)
1419 - Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (b. 1350)
1605 - Adam Loftus, English Protestant archbishop in Ireland
1617 - Alonso Lobo, Spanish composer
1676 - John Winthrop, the Younger, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1606)
1693 - Anne, Duchess of Montpensier, French writer (b. 1627)
1695 - George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, English writer and statesman (b. 1633)
1697 - King Charles XI of Sweden (b. 1655)
1717 - Jean Jouvenet, French painter (b. 1647)
1735 - William Derham, English minister and writer (b. 1657)
1735 - Samuel Wesley, English poet and religious leader (b. 1662)
1765 - Edward Young, English poet (b. 1683)
1794 - Georges Danton, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1759)
1923 - George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English financier of Egyptian excavations (b. 1866)
1928 - Roy Kilner, English cricketer (b. 1890)
1964 - General Douglas MacArthur, U.S. general (b. 1880)
1967 - Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1890)
1967 - Mischa Elman, Ukrainian-born violinist (b. 1891)
1970 - Alfred Henry Sturtevant, American geneticist (b. 1891)
1972 - Brian Donlevy, American actor (b. 1901)
1975 - Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese nationalist leader (b. 1887)
1976 - Howard Hughes, American aviation pioneer, film director, and eccentric (b. 1905)
1976 - Wilder Penfield, Canadian surgeon (b. 1891)
1982 - Abe Fortas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1910)
1983 - Danny Rapp, American musician (Danny & the Juniors) (b. 1941)
1991 - John Tower, U.S. Senator from Texas (b. 1925)
1991 - Sonny Carter, astronaut (b. 1947)
1992 - Molly Picon, French actress (b. 1898)
1992 - Sam Walton, American retailer (b. 1918)
1994 - Kurt Cobain, American musician (b. 1967)
1997 - Allen Ginsberg, American poet (b. 1926)
1998 - Cozy Powell, British musician (b. 1947)
2000 - Lee Petty, American race car driver (b. 1914)
2001 - Brother Theodore, German-born comedian (b. 1906)
2002 - Layne Staley, American musician (Alice in Chains) (b. 1967)
2004 - Heiner Zieschang, German mathematician (b. 1936)
2005 - Saul Bellow, Canadian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
2005 - Dale Messick, American comic strip artist (b. 1906)
2005 - Debralee Scott, American actress (b. 1953)
2006 - Gene Pitney, American singer (b. 1941)

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