History Events on February 05

An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declares himself emperor and establishes the state of Yan.

#An_Lushan

Moldavia and Wallachia formally unite to create the Romanian United Principalities.

#United_Principalities_of_Moldavia_and_Wallachia

In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, started with four basic specialties.

#General_Hospital_of_Mexico

Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.

#Chedli_Klibi

South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

#South_Carolina

The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law.

#European_Court_of_Justice

SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

#SS_Tuscania_(1914)

Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission.

#Apollo_14

HMS Blenheim (1761) and HMS Java disappear off the coast of Rodrigues.

#HMS_Blenheim_(1761)

Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins.

#Peninsular_War

Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.

#Stephen_W._Thompson

Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Moldavia, is also elected as prince of Wallachia, joining the two principalities as a personal union called the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state.

#Alexandru_Ioan_Cuza

The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.

#Banking_in_Switzerland

The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

#Constitution_of_Mexico

King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.

#Leopold_II_of_Belgium

Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.

#Royal_Netherlands_Navy

Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

#Manuel_Noriega

World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.

#World_War_II

Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.

#Gamal_Abdel_Nasser

In Calabria, a sequence of strong earthquakes begins.

#Calabria

University of Wisconsin-Madison's first class meets at Madison Female Academy.

#University_of_Wisconsin-Madison

World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

#Douglas_MacArthur

Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.

#Markale_massacres

Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.

#Hellenic_Air_Force

Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.

#Leo_Baekeland

Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.

#Henry_IV_of_France

The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.

#Hermitage_Museum

Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.

#Charlie_Chaplin

Riots break in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship.

#Lima

A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States kills 57.

#2008_Super_Tuesday_tornado_outbreak

Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain.

#Francisco_Franco

Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.

Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.

Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.

A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.

The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.

Spanish defeat British forces and capture Menorca.

Charles Stuart, the son of King Charles I, is declared King Charles II of England and Scotland by the Scottish Parliament.

A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.

Idris I reaches Volubilis and founds the Idrisid dynasty, ceding Morocco from the Abbasid caliphate and founding the first Moroccan state.

Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.