March 5

1223 BC Ancient civilizations often recorded celestial events, including eclipses, in various forms, such as cuneiform tablets. A Syrian clay tablet, in the Ugaritic language, recorded a solar eclipse which occurred on March 5, 1223 BC.

By I, Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia Commons

1133 King Henry II of England was born in France at Le Mans on March 5, 1133 as the eldest child of Geoffrey the Fair, Count of Anjou, and the Empress Matilda, the eldest daughter of Henry I, King of England and Duke of Normandy. Henry grew up in Anjou in northern France, where he was educated by Peter of Saintes, a noted grammarian of the day.

1324 Robert the Bruce's son David II of Scotland was born on March 5, 1324. He was one of the worst rulers in the history of the British Isles. David ruined his country with his extravagant spending and futile raids into England before offering the succession of Scotland to Edward III.  The arrangement was repudiated by the Scottish Parliament.

1616 Nicolaus Copernicus' revolutionary book On the Revolutionary of Heavenly Bodies, published in 1543, established his theory that the Earth revolves round the Sun rather than the the Earth being at the center of the universe. Little attention was paid to Copernicus' system until Galileo a century later discovered evidence to support it. On March 5, 1616, the work was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Roman Catholic Church.

Heliocentric model of the Solar System in Copernicus' manuscript

1743 In early 1743 the minister and colonial historian Thomas Prince Sr. worriedly surveyed the religious landscape. Concerned that the Great Awakening was fading, Prince and his son started the evangelical magazine, The Christian History. His intention was to publish a journal that would flesh out the details of the revival that had been spreading through the American colonies. The first religious periodical, The Christian History, was first printed on March 5, 1743.

1770 British soldiers shot five men in Kings Street, Boston on March 5, 1770, when attacked by a mob throwing snowballs, stones and sticks at them. Known as the Boston Massacre, the event is remembered as a key event in helping to galvanize the colonial public to the Patriot cause.

1815 Around 1770 German physician and astrologist Franz Mesmer took up an idea that a power existed, which he referred to as "animal magnetism" and a person became ill when their "animal magnetism" was out of balance. Mesmer claimed to use it as a medical treatment to heal certain nervous ailments. Hounded out of Vienna on charges of practicing magic, Mesmer moved to Paris where he made his name curing diseases at seances. He died on March 5, 1815.

1858 Geronimo was the son of Tablishim and Juana of the Bedonkohe band of the Apache. On March 5, 1858, while he was away on a trading expedition, Geronimo's camp near Janos was attacked by 400 Mexican soldiers led by Colonel Jose Maria Carrasco. Among those killed were Geronimo's wife, Alope, children, and mother. The incident sparked a life-long hatred in him of the white man.

Geronimo kneeling with rifle, 1887

1870 William "Buffalo Bill" Cody was active in the concordant bodies of Freemasonry, being initiated in Platte Valley Lodge No. 32, North Platte, Nebraska, on March 5, 1870. He received his 32nd degree in Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1894.

1872 American George Westinghouse, patented the compressed-air brake on March 5, 1872.  Before Westinghouse's invention, there was no easy way to quickly stop the extremely heavy freight trains that transported goods over land. Brakemen scrambled over the tops of moving cars to activate hand brakes on each one. The system was unreliable, resulting in frequent derailments, and many brakemen were killed or maimed after falling from trains. The air brake solved all of those problems.

Control handle and valve for a Westinghouse Air Brake

1922 At the age of 62, Annie Oakley broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She smashed 98 out of 100 clay targets thrown at 16 yards while at a match at the Pinehurst Gun Club in North Carolina on March 5, 1922. She hit the first fifty, missed the 51st, then the 67th.

1923 The state flag of Washington features the state seal, which depicts a portrait of George Washington, the first President of the United States and the state's namesake. The seal is set against a dark green background, which is intended to represent the state's forests. The flag was officially adopted by the Washington State Legislature on March 5, 1923, after a competition was held to design a new state flag. The winning design, submitted by a woman named Pauline Bowen, was chosen from over 1,500 entries.

1933 Federal elections were held in Germany on March 5, 1933, five weeks after the Nazi seizure of power . The Nazi party received 43.9% of the popular vote and 288 seats in the Reichstag out of a total of 647 seats. It was their best ever result. All German political parties — except the Nazi Party — were outlawed four months later.

1943 The Gloster Meteor was the first operational jet fighter used by the Allies during World War II. It was designed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Gloster Aircraft Company, and its first successful flight took place on March 5, 1943. The plane was powered by two jet engines and was capable of reaching speeds of up to 600 miles per hour. The Gloster Meteor saw limited use during World War II, but it played an important role in the development of jet aircraft technology.

1946 Winston Churchill delivered his "Sinews of Peace" speech to a crowd of 40,000 people at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, USA on March 5, 1946. During his address he introduced the world to the notion of an ‘ Iron Curtain’ dividing the Soviet Union and the West. ("From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent").

1953 Four days after collapsing at an all-night dinner, Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953 at the age of 73. He was buried four days later. Officially, the cause of death was listed as a cerebral hemorrhage. As Joseph Stalin lay dying, he suddenly sat up in bed, clenched his fist towards heaven and fell back on his pillow before expiring. His last gesture on the Earth was to clench his fist towards God.

1963 The Hula Hoop was a sensation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with millions of Americans buying and twirling the colorful plastic hoops around their waists. On March 5, 1963, the Hula Hoop was officially patented by Arthur "Spud" Melin, one of the co-founders of Wham-O, the company that popularized the toy. 

1971 Led Zeppelin played their most famous song, "Stairway to Heaven" for the first time in Belfast on March 5, 1971 - Northern Ireland was a war zone at the time and there was rioting in nearby streets. John Paul Jones said in an audio documentary that when they played it, the audience was not that impressed. They wanted to hear something they knew - like "Whole Lotta Love."

2000 Inés Ramírez Pérez, a pregnant Mexican woman from the state of Oaxaca, was experiencing delivery complications. At midnight on March 5, 2000, she drank three glasses of hard liquor and then gave herself a Caesarean section with a kitchen knife. The mother and child both lived. She had no medical training for the self-birth.

2001 The world record for cockroaches eaten is 36 in a minute by retired English rat catcher Ken Edwards on the set of The Big Breakfast in England on March 5, 2001. This record has stood the test of time, with no one successfully dethroning Mr. Edwards since.

2009 Taylor Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, March 5, 2009 episode "Turn, Turn, Turn" as Haley Jones. She made her movie acting debut the following year in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, where she played Felicia.

2009 Rihanna was dating fellow singer Chris Brown when he assaulted her the night before the Grammy Awards in 2009. On March 5, 2009, Brown was charged with assault and for making criminal threats. He was ordered to stay fifty yards (46 meters) away from Rihanna, unless at public events, which then would be reduced to ten yards (nine meters).

2015 The most snow ever to fall in one day was at Capracotta, a small town in Italy, on March 5, 2015 — 256 cm (8.34 feet) of snow fell in about 18 hours. However, while local weather stations reported the 8.4 feet of snow, it wasn't officially recognized by the WMO due to possible inconsistencies. Therefore, Silver Lake, Colorado, with its 6.3 feet (75.8 inches) of snow on April 14-15, 1921 remains the official record holder.