1588 The philosopher Thomas Hobbes was born on April 5, 1588 in Westport, Wiltshire, England. Hobbes said he was born prematurely when his mother heard of the coming Spanish Armada, writing later: "My mother gave birth to twins: myself and fear." He is best known today for his 1651 work on political philosophy, Leviathan. Hobbes started it when he was the mathematical tutor to the exiled Prince Charles in Paris.
1603 After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, James VI of Scotland was proclaimed king of England. On April 5, 1603 James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years (a promise he did not keep). Local lords received him with lavish hospitality along the route and James was amazed by the wealth of his new land and subjects. When he entered London just over a month later, he was mobbed by a crowd of spectators.
1614 Native American princess Pocahontas was captured by the English and held at Henricus, in modern-day Chesterfield County. During her stay there, Pocahontas met John Rolfe, a pious settler who had successfully cultivated a new strain of tobacco in Virginia and spent much of his time tending to his crop. Pocahontas married John Rolfe on April 5, 1614 in Jamestown, Virginia. The wedding initiated a period of friendly relations between Indians and colonists.
1621 After arriving at the Pilgrim Fathers' destination of Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts on December 21, 1620, the Mayflower lay in New Plymouth harbor through the winter of 1620–1. On April 5, 1621 with its empty hold ballasted with stones from the Plymouth Harbor shore, the ship set sail for its return.
1649 Elihu Yale was born in Boston on April 5, 1649. A successful merchant, Yale was the President of the East India Company settlement in Fort St. George, at Madras, India. A benefactor of the Collegiate School, he donated books and goods worth $2,500 to the Collegiate School in New Haven. The Collegiate School was re-named Yale University after him in 1718.
1811 In 1780 newspaper editor and Anglican layman Robert Raikes founded the first Sunday School.
By April 5, 1811, the day of Raikes' death, around half a million children in England and Wales were attending Sunday school providing basic lessons in literacy alongside religious instruction. Twenty years later Sunday schools in Great Britain were attended weekly by 1,250,000 children, or about 25 per cent of the eligible population.
1827 Joseph Lister, the 'Father of Antiseptic Surgery' was born on April 5, 1827. He came from a prosperous Quaker home in West Ham, Essex, England. His father, Joseph Jackson Lister, was a very successful wine merchant and amateur scientist. Joseph Jackson Lister’s design of a microscope lens which did not distort colors opened the way for the microscope to be used as a serious scientific tool.
1842 When Robert Peel re-introduced Income tax on incomes over £150 in 1842, it was portrayed as a temporary measure but it has been with the British taxpayer ever since. It is still technically a temporary tax, which expires each year on April 5, so that Parliament has to reapply it with an annual Finance Act.
1879 After achieving independence in 1824, Peru kept a low military profile until the 1870s, when its raw and maritime resources had been depleted, and it embarked on a railroad-building program that helped but also bankrupted the country. On April 5, 1879, Peru entered the War of the Pacific against Chile over the nitrate fields of the Atacama Desert. By 1883, Peru had been defeated and the country had lost three provinces.
1883 The first measurable quantity of liquid oxygen was produced by Polish professors Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków on April 5, 1883.
Liquid oxygen is strongly paramagnetic; it can be suspended between the poles of a powerful horseshoe magnet.
1906 An eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy on April 5, 1906 killed over 100 people and ejected the most lava ever recorded from a Vesuvian eruption. It ended plans for Italy to hold the Olympics in 1908, which were moved to London.
1908 Bette Davis was born at 55 Cedar Street, Lowell, Massachusetts on April 5, 1908. She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis, but was known from early childhood as "Betty," In 1926 Davis saw a production of The Wild Duck, with well known Broadway actress Peg Entwistle, which inspired her to seriously pursue acting. One of her classmates at John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School in New York was Lucille Ball.
1908 King Edward VII was holidaying in Biarritz, when H. H. Asquith succeeded Henry Campbell-Bannerman as UK's Prime Minister on April 5, 1908. His majesty refused to return to London, citing health grounds and Asquith was forced to travel to Biarritz for the official "kissing of hands" of the Monarch. This was the only time a British Prime Minister has formally taken office on foreign soil.
1909 Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, the legendary film producer who brought James Bond to the big screen, was born on April 5, 1909. He was born in the neighborhood of Queens, in New York City, to Italian immigrants. He was raised on the family vegetable farm and claims his uncle brought the first broccoli seeds to the US in 1870.
1603 After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, James VI of Scotland was proclaimed king of England. On April 5, 1603 James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years (a promise he did not keep). Local lords received him with lavish hospitality along the route and James was amazed by the wealth of his new land and subjects. When he entered London just over a month later, he was mobbed by a crowd of spectators.
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| Portrait after John de Critz, c. 1606 |
1614 Native American princess Pocahontas was captured by the English and held at Henricus, in modern-day Chesterfield County. During her stay there, Pocahontas met John Rolfe, a pious settler who had successfully cultivated a new strain of tobacco in Virginia and spent much of his time tending to his crop. Pocahontas married John Rolfe on April 5, 1614 in Jamestown, Virginia. The wedding initiated a period of friendly relations between Indians and colonists.
1621 After arriving at the Pilgrim Fathers' destination of Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts on December 21, 1620, the Mayflower lay in New Plymouth harbor through the winter of 1620–1. On April 5, 1621 with its empty hold ballasted with stones from the Plymouth Harbor shore, the ship set sail for its return.
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| Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882) |
1649 Elihu Yale was born in Boston on April 5, 1649. A successful merchant, Yale was the President of the East India Company settlement in Fort St. George, at Madras, India. A benefactor of the Collegiate School, he donated books and goods worth $2,500 to the Collegiate School in New Haven. The Collegiate School was re-named Yale University after him in 1718.
1811 In 1780 newspaper editor and Anglican layman Robert Raikes founded the first Sunday School.
By April 5, 1811, the day of Raikes' death, around half a million children in England and Wales were attending Sunday school providing basic lessons in literacy alongside religious instruction. Twenty years later Sunday schools in Great Britain were attended weekly by 1,250,000 children, or about 25 per cent of the eligible population.
1827 Joseph Lister, the 'Father of Antiseptic Surgery' was born on April 5, 1827. He came from a prosperous Quaker home in West Ham, Essex, England. His father, Joseph Jackson Lister, was a very successful wine merchant and amateur scientist. Joseph Jackson Lister’s design of a microscope lens which did not distort colors opened the way for the microscope to be used as a serious scientific tool.
1842 When Robert Peel re-introduced Income tax on incomes over £150 in 1842, it was portrayed as a temporary measure but it has been with the British taxpayer ever since. It is still technically a temporary tax, which expires each year on April 5, so that Parliament has to reapply it with an annual Finance Act.
1879 After achieving independence in 1824, Peru kept a low military profile until the 1870s, when its raw and maritime resources had been depleted, and it embarked on a railroad-building program that helped but also bankrupted the country. On April 5, 1879, Peru entered the War of the Pacific against Chile over the nitrate fields of the Atacama Desert. By 1883, Peru had been defeated and the country had lost three provinces.
1883 The first measurable quantity of liquid oxygen was produced by Polish professors Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków on April 5, 1883.
Liquid oxygen is strongly paramagnetic; it can be suspended between the poles of a powerful horseshoe magnet.
 |
| Liquid oxygen (pale blue liquid) in a beaker. |
1906 An eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy on April 5, 1906 killed over 100 people and ejected the most lava ever recorded from a Vesuvian eruption. It ended plans for Italy to hold the Olympics in 1908, which were moved to London.
1908 Bette Davis was born at 55 Cedar Street, Lowell, Massachusetts on April 5, 1908. She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis, but was known from early childhood as "Betty," In 1926 Davis saw a production of The Wild Duck, with well known Broadway actress Peg Entwistle, which inspired her to seriously pursue acting. One of her classmates at John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School in New York was Lucille Ball.
1908 King Edward VII was holidaying in Biarritz, when H. H. Asquith succeeded Henry Campbell-Bannerman as UK's Prime Minister on April 5, 1908. His majesty refused to return to London, citing health grounds and Asquith was forced to travel to Biarritz for the official "kissing of hands" of the Monarch. This was the only time a British Prime Minister has formally taken office on foreign soil.
1909 Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, the legendary film producer who brought James Bond to the big screen, was born on April 5, 1909. He was born in the neighborhood of Queens, in New York City, to Italian immigrants. He was raised on the family vegetable farm and claims his uncle brought the first broccoli seeds to the US in 1870.
1910 "The French Kiss Ban of 1910," claims that the French government banned kissing on train platforms on April 5, 1910, citing it as a cause of delays in train departures. The origins of this myth can be traced back to a humorous April Fool article published in Le Figaro on April 1, 1910, which claimed that the government was planning to ban kissing in public as a way to improve efficiency and punctuality in public transport.
1916 Gregory Peck was born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, San Diego, California, the son of Gregory Pearl Peck, a New York-born chemist and pharmacist, and his Missouri-born wife Bernice Mary "Bunny" (née Ayres). He strongly disliked his first name of Eldred, a name his mother insisted on giving him because she felt it was distinct and would distinguish him with its uniqueness. Peck dropped the Eldred after graduating from university.
1933 The first operation to remove a lung was performed at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis on April 5, 1933. Chief of surgery Evarts A. Graham, MD, performed the procedure on James Lee Gilmore, MD, a 49-year-old obstetrician from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The operation was successful and after Dr. James Gilmore was released from Barnes Hospital, he and Dr. Evarts Graham became friends, frequently corresponding and occasionally visiting each other.
1936 Elvis Presley was born in the Mississippi city of Tupelo. As a one-year-old in Tupelo on April 5, 1936, Elvis and his family survived a tornado that was ranked as the fourth deadliest in United States history. It took 216 lives.
1952 Scottish terrier Fala was Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's dog during their time in the White House. One of the most famous presidential pets, Fala's antics were widely covered in the media and often referenced by the Roosevelts. He died on April 5, 1952. A statue of Fala beside Roosevelt is featured in Washington, D.C.'s Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the only presidential pet so honored.
1955 Sir Winston Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 during his second spell of Prime Minister, which was covered up. He was advised to retire by a consultant neurologist after an earlier stroke four years previously but he kept working, as his personal physician believed it was his duty to help to keep him in politics for as long as possible. He resigned as Prime Minister due to ill-health aged 80 on April 5, 1955. Anthony Eden succeeded him.
1976 American billionaire Howard Hughes died on April 5, 1976 of kidney failure on board an aircraft en route from his penthouse at the Acapulco Fairmont Princess Hotel in Mexico to the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. Hughes' reclusive activities made him almost unrecognizable when he passed away. His hair, beard, fingernails, and toenails were long—his tall 6 ft 4 in frame weighed barely 90 pounds, and the FBI had to use fingerprints to conclusively identify the body.
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| Peck (right) with his father c. 1930 |
1933 The first operation to remove a lung was performed at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis on April 5, 1933. Chief of surgery Evarts A. Graham, MD, performed the procedure on James Lee Gilmore, MD, a 49-year-old obstetrician from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The operation was successful and after Dr. James Gilmore was released from Barnes Hospital, he and Dr. Evarts Graham became friends, frequently corresponding and occasionally visiting each other.
1936 Elvis Presley was born in the Mississippi city of Tupelo. As a one-year-old in Tupelo on April 5, 1936, Elvis and his family survived a tornado that was ranked as the fourth deadliest in United States history. It took 216 lives.
1952 Scottish terrier Fala was Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's dog during their time in the White House. One of the most famous presidential pets, Fala's antics were widely covered in the media and often referenced by the Roosevelts. He died on April 5, 1952. A statue of Fala beside Roosevelt is featured in Washington, D.C.'s Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the only presidential pet so honored.
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| Eleanor Roosevelt and Fala |
1955 Sir Winston Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 during his second spell of Prime Minister, which was covered up. He was advised to retire by a consultant neurologist after an earlier stroke four years previously but he kept working, as his personal physician believed it was his duty to help to keep him in politics for as long as possible. He resigned as Prime Minister due to ill-health aged 80 on April 5, 1955. Anthony Eden succeeded him.
1976 American billionaire Howard Hughes died on April 5, 1976 of kidney failure on board an aircraft en route from his penthouse at the Acapulco Fairmont Princess Hotel in Mexico to the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. Hughes' reclusive activities made him almost unrecognizable when he passed away. His hair, beard, fingernails, and toenails were long—his tall 6 ft 4 in frame weighed barely 90 pounds, and the FBI had to use fingerprints to conclusively identify the body.
1992 Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, passed away on April 5, 1992, in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the age of 74. Walton was notoriously frugal; he was worth around 8.6 billion when he died on April 5, 1992, but still insisted on having $5 haircuts (leaving no tip).
1994 Kurt Cobain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 5, 1994. His body was found three days later in his Seattle home by an electrician sent to install motion detectors and a new alarm system. A suicide note was found near Cobain's body written in red ink. It was addressed to his childhood imaginary friend Boddah. Kurt Cobain's hometown, Aberdeen, placed a sign that read "Welcome to Aberdeen: Come As You Are" as a tribute.
1998 The 3,911-meter (12,831-feet) Akashi Kaikyo Bridge opened to traffic on April 5, 1998. Linking Awaji Island with Honshū on the Japanese mainland, the bridge cost about $3.8 billion. The wires that make up its steel cables would circle the world seven times if separated and laid end to end.
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