Independence
day
Netherlands
UN
Day
Vesak,
the Day of the Full Moon (A/RES/54/115)
World
Portuguese Language Day
Events
of the day
May
5 : World Hand Hygiene Day
As
part of the 5th May campaign this year,
the World Health Organisation are inviting
all healthcare facilities to participate
in their Global Survey Project by completing
the WHO online Self Assessment Framework
tool. The main objective of the Global Survey
Project is to gather a global picture of
progress regarding hand hygiene and to estimate
how much the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands
global campaign promotes actions taken by
healthcare facilities
553
– The Second Council of Constantinople begins.
1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance
to King John of England — part of a chain
of events leading to the signing of the
Magna Carta.
1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the
Mongol Empire.
1494 – Christopher Columbus lands on the
island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.
1640 – King Charles I of England dissolves
the Short Parliament.
1762 – Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty
of St. Petersburg.
1789 – In France, the Estates-General convenes
for the first time since 1614.
1809 – Mary Kies becomes the first woman
awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of
weaving straw with silk and thread.
1809 – The Swiss canton of Aargau denies
citizenship to Jews.
1811 – In the second day of fighting at
the Peninsular War Battle of Fuentes de
Onoro the French army, under Marshall Massena,
drive in the Duke of Wellington's overextended
right flank, but French frontal assaults
fail to take the town of Fuentes de Onoro
and the Anglo-Portuguese army holds the
field at the end of the day.
1821 – Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile
on the island of Saint Helena in the South
Atlantic Ocean.
1835 – In Belgium, the first railway in
continental Europe opens between Brussels
and Mechelen.
1860 – 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.
1862 – Cinco de Mayo: troops led by Ignacio
Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle
of Puebla in Mexico.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of
the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County,
Virginia.
1865 – In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of
Cincinnati, Ohio), the first train robbery
in the United States takes place.
1866 – Memorial Day first celebrated in
United States at Waterloo, New York.
1877 – Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his
band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment
by the United States Army under Colonel
Nelson Miles.
1886 – The Bay View Tragedy: A militia fires
into a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, killing seven.
1891 – 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.
1904 – 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.
1905 – 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.
1920 – Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery
and murder.
1925 – Scopes Trial: serving of an arrest
warrant on John T. Scopes for teaching evolution
in violation of the Butler Act.
1925 – The government of South Africa declares
Afrikaans an official language.
1934 – The first Three Stooges short, Woman
Haters, is released.
1936 – Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
1940 – World War II: Norwegian refugees
form a government-in-exile in London
1940 – World War II: Norwegian Campaign
– Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and
Vinjesvingen capitulate to the Nazis after
all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway
had laid down their arms.
1941 – Emperor Haile Selassie returns to
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the country commemorates
the date as Liberation Day or Patriots'
Victory Day.
1944 – German troops execute 216 civilians
in the village of Kleisoura in Greece
1945 – World War II: Canadian and UK troops
liberate the Netherlands and Denmark from
Nazi occupation when Wehrmacht troops capitulate.
1945 – World War II: The Prague Uprising
begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance
to free the city from Nazi occupation.
1946 – 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.
1949 – The Treaty of London establishes
the Council of Europe in Strasbourg as the
first European institution working for European
integration.
1950 – Bhumibol Adulyadej crowns himself
King Rama IX of Thailand.
1955 – West Germany gains full sovereignty.
1961 – The Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone
3 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American
to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital
flight.
1964 – The Council of Europe declares May
5 as Europe Day.
1972 – Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into
Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing
all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest
single-aircraft disaster in Italy.
1973 – Secretariat (horse) wins the 1973
Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, a still standing
record.
1980 – Operation Nimrod: The British Special
Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in
London after a six-day siege.
1981 – Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh
prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking,
aged 27.
1987 – Iran-Contra affair: start of Congressional
televised hearings in the United States
of America
1991 – A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant
section of Washington, D.C. after police
shoot a Salvadoran man.
1994 – The signing of the Bishkek Protocol
between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively
freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay
is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism,
a punishment that many in the United States
deemed to be excessive for a teenager committing
a non-violent crime. However, significant
numbers of Americans were also in favor
of it.
2006 – The government of Sudan signs an
accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.
2007 – All 114 aboard Kenya Airways Flight
507 die when the pilots lose control of
the plane and it crashes in Douala, Cameroon.
2010 – Mass protests in Greece erupt in
response to austerity measures imposed by
the government as a result of the Greek
debt crisis.
Holidays
and observances
Children's
Day (Japan)
Children's Day (South Korea)
Cinco de Mayo (Mexico and the United States)
Christian Feast Day:
Angelus of Jerusalem
Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice
Hilary of Arles
Jutta of Kulmsee
May 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constitution Day (Kyrgyzstan)
Coronation Day, commemorates the coronation
of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 1950. (Thailand)
Europe Day (Council of Europe)
Feast of al-Khadr or St. George (Palestinian)
Indian Arrival Day (Guyana)
International Midwives' Day (International)
Liberation Day (Denmark)
Liberation Day (The Netherlands)
Lusophone Culture Day (Community of Portuguese-speaking
countries)
Martyrs' Day (Albania)
Patriots' Victory Day (Ethiopia)
Senior Citizens Day (Palau)
For details, contact Datacentre
