On this day: September 5

Events on September 5

• 917 Liu Yan declared himself emperor, establishing the state of Southern Han at his capital of Panyu (present-day Guangzhou) in southern China. Wikipedia
• 1367 Swa Saw Ke became the ruler of the Kingdom of Ava in Upper Myanmar. 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 In response to the British Parliament's enactment of the so-called Intolerable Acts, representatives from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies convened the First Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. Wikipedia
• 1781 American Revolutionary War: French naval forces handed Britain a major strategic defeat at the Battle of the Chesapeake. Wikipedia
• 1816 Facing rising discontent in France, Louis XVIII was forced to dissolve the Chambre introuvable, the legislature dominated by Ultra-royalists. 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
• 1882 A group of London schoolboys led by Bobby Buckle founded Hotspur Football Club to continue to play sports during the winter months. Wikipedia
• 1882 The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City. Wikipedia
• 1887 A fire that killed 186 people broke out at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, England. 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
• 1915 The Casablanca Fair opened in the French protectorate in Morocco. Wikipedia
• 1926 Forty-eight people died in a fire in a makeshift cinema in Dromcolliher, Ireland. 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
• 1964 Hurricane Cleo dissipated after causing 156 deaths, mainly in Haiti, and causing roughly US$187 million in damages across the Caribbean and southeastern United States. Wikipedia
• 1970 During the practice session of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza Circuit, Jochen Rindt was killed and subsequently became motor racing's only posthumous world champion. 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
• 1975 Squeaky Fromme, a devotee of Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate U.S. president Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California. 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
• 1984 Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment. Wikipedia
• 2005 Mandala Airlines Flight 091 crashed shortly after take-off in Indonesia due to pilot error, killing 100 out of the 117 people on board along with 49 more on the ground. Wikipedia
• 2020 California wildfires: A pyrotechnic device at a gender reveal party ignited the El Dorado Fire, burning for 71 days and killing one firefighter. Wikipedia
• 2022 Liz Truss is declared the winner of the UK Conservative Party leadership election, beating Rishi Sunak. Wikipedia

Born on September 5

• 1187 Louis VIII, king of France (died 1226) 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
• 1791 Giacomo Meyerbeer, German pianist and composer (died 1864) Wikipedia
• 1817 Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian poet, author, and playwright (died 1875) Wikipedia
• 1847 Jesse James, American outlaw (died 1882) 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
• 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
• 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
• 1992 Fritz Leiber, American author and poet (born 1910) 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
• 2016 Phyllis Schlafly, American lawyer, writer, and political activist (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 2017 Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate (born 1920) 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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “September 5” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/September 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 “September 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 September 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.