On this day: August 5

Events on August 5

• 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
• 1796 The Battle of Castiglione in Napoleon's first Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars results in a French victory. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: The German minelayer SS Königin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) off the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion. Wikipedia
• 1916 First World War: The British Empire's Sinai and Palestine campaign began with a victory at the Battle of Romani. Wikipedia
• 1916 World War I: Battle of Romani: Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula. Wikipedia
• 1939 The Thirteen Roses: Thirteen female members of the Unified Socialist Youth are executed by Francoist forces in Madrid, Spain. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: The Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp (Gęsiówka) in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners. Wikipedia
• 1949 In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6,000. Wikipedia
• 1949 In Montana, 12 smokejumper firefighters and a US Forest Service fire guard are killed in the Mann Gulch Fire. Wikipedia
• 1960 Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France. Wikipedia
• 1962 Apartheid: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990. Wikipedia
• 1962 American actress and model Marilyn Monroe was found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Wikipedia
• 1962 American actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead at her home from a drug overdose. Wikipedia
• 1963 Cold War: The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. 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
• 1969 The Lonesome Cowboys police raid occurs in Atlanta, Georgia, leading to the creation of the Georgia Gay Liberation Front. Wikipedia
• 1981 U.S. president Ronald Reagan fired the 11,345 striking members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization en masse. Wikipedia
• 1981 President Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work. 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
• 1984 A Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship crashes on approach to Zia International Airport, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing all 49 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1995 Yugoslav Wars: The city of Knin, Croatia, a significant Serb stronghold, is taken by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated in Croatia as Victory Day. Wikipedia
• 2003 A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150. Wikipedia
• 2011 NASA launched the Juno probe to Jupiter as part of the New Frontiers program. Wikipedia
• 2021 Australia's second most populous state Victoria enters its sixth COVID-19 lockdown, enacting stage four restrictions statewide in reaction to six new COVID-19 cases recorded that morning. Wikipedia

Born on August 5

• 79 BC Tullia, Roman daughter of Cicero (died 45 BC) Wikipedia
• 1397 Guillaume Du Fay, Belgian-Italian composer and theorist (died 1474) 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
• 1919 Rosalind Hicks, British literary guardian and the only child of author, Agatha Christie (died 2004) 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
• 2004 Gavi, Spanish footballer Wikipedia

Died on August 5

• 642 Eowa, king of Mercia Wikipedia
• 642 Oswald, king of Northumbria Wikipedia
• 877 Ubayd Allah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan, Abbasid vizier Wikipedia
• 1792 Frederick North, Lord North, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (born 1732) Wikipedia
• 1895 Friedrich Engels, German philosopher (born 1820) 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
• 2019 Toni Morrison, American author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Nobel laureate (born 1931). Wikipedia
• 2020 Hawa Abdi, Somali human rights activist and physician (born 1947) 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

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 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.