On this day: August 5

Events on August 5

• 25 Liu Xiu proclaimed himself the monarch of the Han dynasty as Emperor Guangwu. Wikipedia
• 1100 Henry I was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey. Wikipedia
• 1460 The Kingdom of Scotland captures Roxburgh, one of the last English strongholds in Scotland, following a siege. Wikipedia
• 1506 Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania achieved one of the greatest Lithuanian victories against the Tatars at the Battle of Kletsk. Wikipedia
• 1600 Scottish nobleman John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, was killed during what was most likely a failed attempt to kidnap King James VI. Wikipedia
• 1689 Beaver Wars: Aggravated by increased French incursions into their territory, a large force of Mohawk warriors substantially destroyed the settlement of Lachine in present-day Quebec. Wikipedia
• 1716 Austro-Turkish War: The Ottoman army were defeated in their attempt to capture the Habsburg-controlled Petrovaradin Fortress despite having twice the number of soldiers. Wikipedia
• 1772 Russia, Prussia and Habsburg Austria began the First Partition of Poland, with the primary motive to restore the regional balance of power in Eastern Europe. Wikipedia
• 1816 Sir John Barrow, secretary at the Admiralty, rejected a proposal to use Francis Ronalds's electrical telegraph, deeming it "wholly unnecessary". Wikipedia
• 1888 Bertha Benz made the first long-distance automobile trip, driving 106 km (66 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, in a Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Wikipedia
• 1914 In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed. Wikipedia
• 1916 First World War: The British Empire's Sinai and Palestine campaign began with a victory at the Battle of Romani. Wikipedia
• 1926 Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping. Wikipedia
• 1949 An earthquake registering 6.4 Ms struck near Ambato, Ecuador, killing 5,050 people. Wikipedia
• 1962 American actress and model Marilyn Monroe was found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Wikipedia
• 1962 Apartheid: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990. Wikipedia
• 1965 The Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 begins as Pakistani soldiers cross the Line of Control dressed as locals. Wikipedia
• 1969 Police raided a screening of the film Lonesome Cowboys in Atlanta, Georgia, leading to the creation of a Gay Liberation Front in that city. Wikipedia
• 1973 Due to an athletics scandal, the National Collegiate Athletic Association applied the death penalty to the basketball program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Wikipedia
• 1981 U.S. president Ronald Reagan fired the 11,345 striking members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization en masse. Wikipedia
• 1984 A Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft crashed while attempting to land in Dhaka, killing 49 people in the deadliest aviation accident in Bangladeshi history. Wikipedia
• 1993 Wizards of the Coast released Magic: The Gathering, the first trading card game. Wikipedia
• 2011 NASA launched the Juno probe to Jupiter as part of the New Frontiers program. Wikipedia
• 2012 Radio Network House, damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, becomes the first building to be demolished by implosion in New Zealand. Wikipedia
• 2012 An American white supremacist carried out a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people and wounding four others. Wikipedia
• 2015 United States Environmental Protection Agency personnel accidentally caused a spillage of 3 million gallons (11 million litres) of mine waste water and tailings trapped inside the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. Wikipedia

Born on August 5

• 1397 Guillaume Du Fay, Belgian-Italian composer and theorist (died 1474) Wikipedia
• 1461 Alexander Jagiellon, Polish king (died 1506) Wikipedia
• 1681 Vitus Bering, Danish-born Russian explorer (died 1741) Wikipedia
• 1802 Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician and theorist (died 1829) Wikipedia
• 1813 Ivar Aasen, Norwegian poet and linguist (died 1896) Wikipedia
• 1827 Deodoro da Fonseca, Brazilian field marshal and politician, 1st President of Brazil (died 1892) Wikipedia
• 1844 Ilya Repin, Russian painter and sculptor (died 1930) Wikipedia
• 1850 Guy de Maupassant, French short story writer, novelist, and poet (died 1893) Wikipedia
• 1862 Joseph Merrick, English man with severe deformities (died 1890) Wikipedia
• 1905 Wassily Leontief, German-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999) Wikipedia
• 1906 John Huston, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1987) Wikipedia
• 1908 Harold Holt, Australian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1930 Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut, first man to walk on the Moon (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1963 Mark Strong, English actor Wikipedia
• 1966 James Gunn, American filmmaker Wikipedia
• 1968 Marine Le Pen, French lawyer and politician Wikipedia
• 1971 Valdis Dombrovskis, Latvian academic and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Latvia Wikipedia
• 1974 Kajol, Indian film actress Wikipedia
• 1980 Wayne Bridge, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1985 Salomon Kalou, Ivorian footballer Wikipedia
• 1995 Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Danish footballer Wikipedia
• 2004 Gavi, Spanish footballer Wikipedia

Died on August 5

• 882 Louis III, Frankish king (born 863) Wikipedia
• 1729 Thomas Newcomen, English engineer, invented the eponymous Newcomen atmospheric engine (born 1664) Wikipedia
• 1792 Frederick North, Lord North, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (born 1732) Wikipedia
• 1895 Friedrich Engels, German philosopher (born 1820) Wikipedia
• 1901 Victoria, German Empress and Princess Royal of the United Kingdom (born 1840) Wikipedia
• 1946 Wilhelm Marx, German lawyer and politician, 17th Chancellor of Germany (born 1863) Wikipedia
• 1955 Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress and singer (born 1909) Wikipedia
• 1957 Heinrich Otto Wieland, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877) Wikipedia
• 1984 Richard Burton, Welsh actor (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 1991 Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and businessman, founded Honda (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1998 Todor Zhivkov, Bulgarian commander and politician, 36th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 2000 Alec Guinness, English actor (born 1914) Wikipedia
• 2012 Chavela Vargas, Costa Rican-Mexican singer-songwriter and actress (born 1919) Wikipedia
• 2019 Toni Morrison, American author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Nobel laureate (born 1931). Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Abel of Reims Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Addai Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Afra Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cassian of Autun Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major (Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Emygdius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Margaret the Barefooted Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Memnius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nonna of Nazianzus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Oswald of Northumbria Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: August 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Burkina Faso) Wikipedia
• July Mass Uprising Day (Bangladesh) Wikipedia
• Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian defenders (Croatia) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “August 5” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/August 5” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “August 5” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for August 5 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.