History Events on May 05

Giuseppe Garibaldi sets sail from Genoa, leading the expedition of the Thousand to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and giving birth to the Kingdom of Italy.

#Giuseppe_Garibaldi

Eleven people are missing after a Chinese cargo ship collides with a Marshall Islands registered container ship off the coast of Hong Kong.

#2014_Po_Toi_Island_ship_collision

American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County.

#American_Civil_War

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

#International_Military_Tribunal_for_the_Far_East

Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight.

#Alan_Shepard

World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath becomes effective, encompassing all German armed forces opposing the 21st Army Group in northwestern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

#German_surrender_at_Lüneburg_Heath

Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.

#Pitcher

The Swiss canton of Aargau allows citizenship to Jews.

#Cantons_of_Switzerland

Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

#Kublai_Khan

World War II: Dönitz gives Löhr permission to seek an armistice with the Western Allies to preserve a communist free Austria and recognising first, from a German standpoint, the separation of Austria from Germany undoing the Anschluss.

#Karl_Dönitz

King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.

#Charles_I_of_England

Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

#Napoleon

The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

#Bishkek_Protocol

A Russian jet plane burst into flames while attempting an emergency landing at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow killing at least 41 people.

#Aeroflot_Flight_1492

Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots' Victory Day.

#Haile_Selassie

American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

#American_Indian_Wars

American Civil War: The Confederate government was declared dissolved at Washington, Georgia.

#Conclusion_of_the_American_Civil_War

American Civil War: The Confederate District of the Gulf surrenders about 4,000 men at Citronelle, Alabama.

#Conclusion_of_the_American_Civil_War

Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.

#Sacco_and_Vanzetti

Scopes Trial: Serving of an arrest warrant on John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.

#Scopes_Trial

Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.

#Russia

In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.

#France

Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek government-debt crisis.

#Anti-austerity_movement_in_Greece

Bhumibol Adulyadej is crowned as King of Thailand.

#Bhumibol_Adulyadej

Iran-Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America

#Iran-Contra_affair

The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day.

#Council_of_Europe

The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.

#Sudan

The Bay View massacre: A militia fires into a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, killing seven.

#Bay_View_massacre

Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.

#Alitalia_Flight_112

World War II: Norwegian refugees form a government-in-exile in London.

#World_War_II

In the second day of fighting at the Peninsular War Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro the French army, under Marshall André Masséna, drive in the Duke of Wellington's overextended right flank, but French frontal assaults fail to take the town of Fuentes de Oñoro and the Anglo-Portuguese army holds the field at the end of the day.

#Peninsular_War

Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the Scots, proclaimed in Edinburgh.

#Cromwell's_Act_of_Grace

Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.

#John,_King_of_England

The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

#Carnegie_Hall

Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashes after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Douala, Cameroon, killing all 114 aboard, making it the deadliest aircraft disaster in Cameroon.

#Kenya_Airways_Flight_507

The first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen.

#History_of_rail_transport_in_Belgium

The Second Council of Constantinople begins.

#553

World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation.

#Prague_uprising

Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.

#Christopher_Columbus

Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.

#Cinco_de_Mayo

Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.

#Memorial_Day

Ronald Reagan visits the military cemetery at Bitburg and the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he makes a speech.

#Ronald_Reagan

Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

#March_of_the_Iron_Will

Twenty-two people die after two boats carrying refugees collide in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece.

American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism.

Armand Césari Stadium disaster in Bastia (Corsica): 18 people are killed and 2,300 are injured when one of the terraces collapses before a football match between SC Bastia and Olympique de Marseille.

A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man.

Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27.

Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.

Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, an as-yet unbeaten record.

The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect.

World War II: Battle of Castle Itter, the only battle in which American and German troops fought cooperatively.

World War II: Six people are killed when a Japanese fire balloon explodes near Bly, Oregon. They are the only Americans killed in the contiguous US during the war.

World War II: Norwegian Campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is first published.

Pravda, the "voice" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg.

The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.

Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.