What Happened This Day In History - May 5

Today in History
May 5

1494		Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria.
1814		British attack the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, New York.
1821		Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena.
1834		The first mainland railway line opens in Belgium.
1862		Union and Confederate forces clash at the Battle of Williamsburg, part of the Peninsula Campaign.Eyewitness to War
1862		Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeat troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.
1865		The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery.
1886		A bomb explodes on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago.
1912		Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing.
1916		U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic.
1917		Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earns a flying certificate with the French Air Service.
1920		Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Visetti are arrested for murder.
1935		American Jesse Owens sets the long jump record.
1942		General Joseph Stilwell learns that the Japanese have cut his railway out of China and is forced to lead his troops into India.
1945		Holland and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control.
1961		Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.
1968		U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen.
Born on May 5
1813		Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher.
1818		Karl Marx, German philosopher (The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital).
1830		John B. Stetson, American hat maker.
1861		Peter Cooper Hewitt, electrical engineer, inventor of the mercury-vapor lamp.
1883		Charles Albert "Chief" Bender, baseball player.
1890		Christopher Morley, writer (Kitty Foyle).
1899		Freeman F. Gosden, radio comedy writer and performer (Amos 'n' Andy).
1909		Carlos Baker, biographer.
1943		Michael Palin, actor and screenwriter (Monty Python's Flying Circus).