On this day: March 5

Events on March 5

• 1616 Nicolaus Copernicus's book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published. Wikipedia
• 1766 Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans. Wikipedia
• 1770 American Revolution: British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston, killing five people. Wikipedia
• 1824 First Anglo-Burmese War: The British officially declare war on Burma. Wikipedia
• 1860 Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia. Wikipedia
• 1912 Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines. Wikipedia
• 1933 Adolf 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. Wikipedia
• 1940 Six 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. Wikipedia
• 1942 World 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. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: The Gloster Meteor, the Allies' only operational jet aircraft, made its maiden flight. Wikipedia
• 1946 Cold War: Winston Churchill delivers his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College, Missouri. Wikipedia
• 1953 Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier. Wikipedia
• 1960 Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph Guerrillero Heroico of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. Wikipedia
• 1965 March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against the British colonial presence. Wikipedia
• 1966 BOAC Flight 911 disintegrated and crashed near Mount Fuji shortly after departure from Tokyo International Airport, killing all 113 passengers and 11 crew members on board. Wikipedia
• 1966 BOAC 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. Wikipedia
• 1973 An 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. Wikipedia
• 1974 Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal. Wikipedia
• 1978 The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Wikipedia
• 1982 Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus. Wikipedia
• 2001 In Mina, Saudi Arabia, 35 pilgrims are killed in a stampede on the Jamaraat Bridge during the Hajj. Wikipedia
• 2003 In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed in the Haifa bus 37 suicide bombing. Wikipedia
• 2012 Tropical Storm Irina kills over 75 as it passes through Madagascar. Wikipedia
• 2012 Two people are killed and six more are injured in a shooting at a hair salon in Bucharest, Romania. Wikipedia
• 2021 Pope Francis begins a historic visit to Iraq amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Wikipedia
• 2021 Twenty people are killed and 30 injured in a suicide car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia. Wikipedia

Born on March 5

• 1133 Henry II of England (died 1189) Wikipedia
• 1324 David II of Scotland (died 1371) Wikipedia
• 1326 Louis I of Hungary (died 1382) Wikipedia
• 1512 Gerardus Mercator, Flemish mathematician, cartographer, and philosopher (died 1594) Wikipedia
• 1696 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (died 1770) Wikipedia
• 1862 Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player and theoretician (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1871 Rosa Luxemburg, Polish-Russian economist and philosopher (died 1919) Wikipedia
• 1898 Zhou Enlai, Chinese politician, 1st Premier of the People's Republic of China (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1908 Rex Harrison, English actor (died 1990) Wikipedia
• 1918 James Tobin, American economist and academic (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1922 Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1934 Daniel Kahneman, Israeli-American economist and psychologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1937 Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian general and politician, 5th President of Nigeria Wikipedia
• 1938 Lynn Margulis, American biologist and academic (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1942 Felipe González, Spanish lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain Wikipedia
• 1949 Bernard Arnault, French businessman, philanthropist, and art collector Wikipedia
• 1954 João Lourenço, Angolan politician, 3rd President of Angola Wikipedia
• 1964 Gerald Vanenburg, Dutch footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1970 Aleksandar Vučić, Serbian president Wikipedia
• 1974 Eva Mendes, American model and actress Wikipedia
• 1993 Harry Maguire, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1999 Madison Beer, American singer-songwriter Wikipedia

Died on March 5

• 254 Pope Lucius I Wikipedia
• 824 Suppo I, Frankish nobleman Wikipedia
• 1417 Manuel III Megas Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond (born 1364) Wikipedia
• 1827 Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician and astronomer (born 1749) Wikipedia
• 1827 Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and academic (born 1745) Wikipedia
• 1893 Hippolyte Taine, French historian and critic (born 1828) Wikipedia
• 1895 Nikolai Leskov, Russian author, playwright, and journalist (born 1831) Wikipedia
• 1945 Lena Baker, African American held captive post slavery-era (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1953 Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator and politician of Georgian descent, 2nd leader of the Soviet Union (born 1878) Wikipedia
• 1953 Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1891) Wikipedia
• 1966 Anna Akhmatova, Ukrainian-Russian poet, author, and translator (born 1889) Wikipedia
• 1967 Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian political scientist and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Iran (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1982 John Belushi, American actor (born 1949) Wikipedia
• 2013 Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan colonel and politician, President of Venezuela (born 1954) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Ciarán of Saigir Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Joseph of the Cross Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Piran Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Thietmar of Minden Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Learn from Lei Feng Day (China) Wikipedia
• St Piran's Day (Cornwall) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “March 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.