On this day: September 5

Events on September 5

• 1661 Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV's Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers. Wikipedia
• 1698 In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry. Wikipedia
• 1774 First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia. Wikipedia
• 1793 French Revolution: The French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror. Wikipedia
• 1877 American Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska. Wikipedia
• 1905 Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, United States, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war. Wikipedia
• 1905 Under the mediation of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of a treaty at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital. Wikipedia
• 1915 The Zimmerwald Conference, the first of three international socialist conferences forming the Zimmerwald movement, opened in Switzerland. Wikipedia
• 1932 The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger. Wikipedia
• 1938 Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are executed after surrendering during a failed coup. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, the first major Japanese defeat in land warfare during the Pacific War. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: American and Australian airborne forces landed at Nadzab as part of the New Guinea campaign against Japan. Wikipedia
• 1944 Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux. Wikipedia
• 1945 Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American who broadcast under the name Orphan Annie during World War II, is arrested in Yokohama by U.S. military authorities amid widespread speculation of her being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose. Wikipedia
• 1945 Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War. Wikipedia
• 1960 Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome. Wikipedia
• 1968 End of the Congress of Carrara, one of the major 20th century anarchist congresses. Wikipedia
• 1969 Mỹ Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai. Wikipedia
• 1972 Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and nine are murdered the following day. Wikipedia
• 1972 The Palestinian militant group Black September took hostage eleven Israeli athletes and coaches at the Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany; all of the hostages were killed less than 24 hours later. Wikipedia
• 1977 NASA launched the space probe Voyager 1, currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Wikipedia
• 1977 Voyager Program: NASA launches the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Wikipedia
• 1984 Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment. Wikipedia
• 1986 Pan Am Flight 73 from Mumbai, India with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport. Wikipedia
• 1996 Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people. Wikipedia

Born on September 5

• 1187 Louis VIII, king of France (died 1226) Wikipedia
• 1269 Agnes of Bohemia, Duchess of Austria (died 1296)[citation needed] Wikipedia
• 1568 Tommaso Campanella, Italian poet, philosopher, and theologian (died 1639) Wikipedia
• 1638 Louis XIV, king of France (died 1715) Wikipedia
• 1735 Johann Christian Bach, German-English viol player and composer (died 1782) Wikipedia
• 1772 Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, Iranian king (died 1834) Wikipedia
• 1774 Caspar David Friedrich, German painter and etcher (died 1840) Wikipedia
• 1817 Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian poet, author, and playwright (died 1875) Wikipedia
• 1888 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher and politician, 2nd President of India (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1905 Arthur Koestler, Hungarian-English journalist and author (died 1983) Wikipedia
• 1912 John Cage, American composer and theorist (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1919 Elisabeth Volkenrath, German SS officer and executed war criminal (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1929 Bob Newhart, American comedian and actor (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1939 George Lazenby, Australian actor, the second to play James Bond Wikipedia
• 1940 Raquel Welch, American actress and singer (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1942 Werner Herzog, German actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1946 Freddie Mercury, British singer and songwriter (died 1991) Wikipedia
• 1951 Michael Keaton, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1951 Paul Breitner, German footballer Wikipedia
• 1969 Leonardo Araújo, Brazilian footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1978 Chris Hipkins, New Zealand politician, 41st Prime Minister of New Zealand Wikipedia
• 2001 Bukayo Saka, English footballer Wikipedia

Died on September 5

• 1548 Catherine Parr, Queen Consort of England and sixth wife of Henry VIII (born c. 1512) Wikipedia
• 1803 Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author (born 1741) Wikipedia
• 1857 Auguste Comte, French sociologist and philosopher (born 1798) Wikipedia
• 1877 Crazy Horse, American tribal leader (born 1849) Wikipedia
• 1902 Rudolf Virchow, German anthropologist, pathologist, and biologist (born 1821) Wikipedia
• 1906 Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist and philosopher (born 1844) Wikipedia
• 1912 Arthur MacArthur, Jr., American LTG (Army), Medal of Honor recipient (born 1845) Wikipedia
• 1970 Jochen Rindt, German-Austrian race car driver (born 1942) Wikipedia
• 1986 Neerja Bhanot, Indian flight purser, known for her heroic actions on Pan Am Flight 73, during which she was killed (born 1963) Wikipedia
• 1997 Mother Teresa, Albanian-Indian nun, missionary, and saint, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 1997 Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor and director (born 1912) Wikipedia
• 2017 Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 2021 Sarah Harding, English singer, member of Girls Aloud (born 1981) Wikipedia
• 2024 Sérgio Mendes, Brazilian pianist and composer (born 1941) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Bertin Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Charbel (martyr) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Genebald Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gregorio Aglipay (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Mother Teresa Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ursicinus of Ravenna Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Zechariah and Elisabeth (Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: September 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Earliest date on which Jeûne genevois can fall, while September 11 is the latest; celebrated on Thursday after the first Sunday of September. (Canton of Geneva) Wikipedia
• International Day of Charity Wikipedia
• Teacher's Day (India) Wikipedia
• The flag-flying day for Denmark's deployed personnel (Denmark) Wikipedia
• First day of school in Vietnam Wikipedia

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