On this day in History - Apr. 5

• 2348 BC -According to tradition, Noah's ark grounded on Mt. Ararat on this date.
• 0828 - Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinopel (806-15), dies at about 77.
• 1242 - During a battle on the ice of Chudskoye Lake, Russian forcesunder Prince Alexander Nevsky rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
• 1258 - Julian of Cornillon / Liege, dies. Flemish visionary / saint.
• 1419 - Saint Vincent Ferrer Eagle in Apocalypse VIII, 13, dies.
• 1472 - Bianca Maria Sforza, was born. Daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan and wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor .
• 1479 - Guru Amar Das, was born ( † 1574). Third Sikh Guru.
• 1588 - Thomas Hobbes was born († 1679). English philosopher and political theorist is best known for his publications on individual security and the social contract.
• 1614 - In Virginia Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
• 1617 - Alonso Lobo dies. Spanish composer.
• 1621 - The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth on a return trip to Great Britain.
• 1626 - Jan van Kessel was born in Antwerpen († 1679). Flemish painter.
• 1649 - Elihu Yale was born. Philanthropist. Founder of American Yale University.
• 1654 - Signing of the Treaty of Westminster ends the First Anglo-Dutch War.
• 1692 - Adrienne Lecouvreur was born († 1730). French actress.
• 1697 - King Charles XI of Sweden (1660-97), dies (b. 1655).
• 1732 - Jean-Honore Fragonard was born ( † 1806). French painter.
• 1739 - French emperor Karel VI sign secret treaty.
• 1772 - O almirante holandês Jacob Roggeveen descobre Rapa Nui, a Ilha de Páscoa.
• 1792 - U.S. President George Washington vetos a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto has been used in the United States.
• 1794 - George Jacques Danton (1759-1794) é guilhotinado, por se opor à política terrorista do governo jacobino francês. Acusado por Robespierre e Saint-Just de Indulgente e traidor à revolução, a sua condenação pelo tribunal revolucionário é um mero expediente legalista, sendo mesmo proibido de se defender.
• 1806 - Isaac Quintard patents apple cider .
• 1816 - Samuel Freeman Miller, was born († 1890). U.S. Supreme Court justice.
• 1818 - Chile's independence movement, led by José de San Martín and Bernardo O'Higgins, won a decisive victory over Spain in the Battle of Maipú /Batalla de Maipú: el Ejército Libertador de San Martín vence definitivamente a los realistas.
• 1821 - A Inquisição é abolida em Portugal.
• 1827 - Nace Joseph Lister, cirujano británico que con el descubrimiento de los antisépticos en 1865 contribuyó a reducir en gran medida el número de muertes por infecciones contraídas en el quirófano.
• 1827 - Joseph Lister was born († 1912) . Surgeon.
• 1837 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, was born († 1909). Poet.
• 1840 - Morre o militar argentino Mariano Necochea.
• 1843 - A rainha inglesa Vitória proclama Hong Kong uma colônia britânica.
• 1851 - Inauguração da primeira linha férrea da América do Sul, entre Lima e o porto de El Callao.
• 1856 - Booker T. Washington was born (d. 1915). American Educator.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Yorktown - The battle begins when Union forces under General George McClellan close in on the Confederate capital Richmond, Virginia.
• 1866 - Nascimento em Santos - SP, Brasil de Vicente de Carvalho (Vicente Augusto de Carvalho), advogado, jornalista, político, magistrado, poeta, contista e membro da Academia Brasileira de Letras.
• 1871 - Mirko Seljan, was born. Explorer from Croatia.
• 1875 - Mistinguett, was born († 1956). French vaudeville performer.
• 1879 - Guerra del Pacífico: Chile le declara la guerra al Perú, que se había solidarizado con Bolivia.
• 1898 - Clinical psychologist Morton Prince first hypnotized "Sally Beauchamp," a patient of his. He later claimed to have found three separate personalities in her. This was one of the first attempts to document a case of the alleged existence of multiple personality syndrome.
• 1900 - Attempted assassination of Prince of Wales in Brussels, fails.
• 1900 - Spencer (Bonaventure) Tracy, was born († 10 Jun 1967) . Academy Award-winning actor. [ Captains Courageous [1937], Boys Town [1938]; San Francisco, Stanley and Livingstone, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1941], Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Adam’s Rib, Father of the Bride [1950], Pat and Mike, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Mountain, The Old Man and the Sea, How the West Was Won, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner].
• 1901 - Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg) was born († 04 Aug 1981). Academy Award-winning actor: [supporting] Hud [1963], [supporting] Being There [1979]; The Vampire Bat, Captains Courageous, Ninotchka, Three Hearts for Julia, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, The Americanization of Emily, I Never Sang for My Father, The Candidate, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, The Changeling, Ghost Story).
• 1902 - Soccer match riot between Scotland & England kills 25 .
• 1903 - Pedro Ivo dies. Portuguese writer.
• 1908 - Bette (Ruth Elizabeth) Davis was born († 06 Oct 1989). Academy Award-winning actress : [Dangerous [1935], Jezebel [1938]; Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes, Now, Voyager, Mr. Skeffington, All About Eve, The Star, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?].
• 1908 - Jagjivan Rampolitical was born († 6 Jul 1986) Indian leader.
• 1908 - Herbert von Karajan was born ( † 1989). Austrian conductor.
• 1911 - Jussi Björling was born († 1960). Swedish tenor.
• 1912 - John Le Mesurier was born († 1983). British actor.
• 1912 - Nace en Santa Fe, el pianista y compositor Carlos Guastavino.
• 1916 - (Eldred) Gregory Peck, was born ( † 12 Jun 2003). Academy Award-winning actor [ To Kill a Mockingbird [1962]; The Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, Duel in the Sun, Gentleman’s Agreement, Twelve O’Clock High, David and Bathsheba, Captain Horatio Hornblower, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Roman Holiday, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Moby Dick [1956], The Guns of Navarone, Marooned, MacArthur, The Boys from Brazil, Moby Dick [TV 1998]; Jean Hersholt Humanitarian (Academy) Award (1968)].
• 1917 - Os Estados Unidos declaram guerra à Alemanha e entram na Primeira Guerra Mundial.
• 1918 - Primera Guerra Mundial: finaliza la segunda batalla del río Somme, en Francia.
• 1918 - Paul Vidal de la Blanche, French geographer, dies at 73 .
• 1920 - Arthur Hailey, was born († 2004). Writer : Airport, The Final Diagnosis.
• 1922 - Gale Storm, was born. Singer, actress .
• 1923 - Nguyen Van Thieu, was born ( † 2001). South Vietnamese president.
• 1923 - Ernest Mandel was born. Belgian philosopher/economist .
• 1923 - Morreu o inglês Lord Carnarvon, descobridor do Túmulo de Tutankamon .
• 1923 - Firestone Tire and Rubber Company starts production of balloon-tires.
• 1924 - Mart Kempers was born (†1993). Dutch graphic artist/sculptor .
• 1928 - Roberto J. Payró, dies (b. 1867). Argentine writer and jornalist.
• 1929 - Nigel Hawthorne, was born († 2001). British actor.
• 1930 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mohandas Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
• 1933 - Se funda el Instituto Sanmartiniano en Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• 1933 - Larry Felser, was born. Sports columnist, writer.
• 1935 - Croatian Farmers Party wins Yugoslavian election.
• 1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak: A F5 tornado slams into the north side of Tupelo, Mississippi killing 233. It is the 4th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
• 1937 - Colin Powell was born. US Secretary of State; military leader: four-star general, Chairman U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989-1993] .
• 1939 - Octávio de Matos nasce no Porto, Portugal. Actor de teatro e cinema [cinema: A Cruz de Ferro (1968); Parque das Ilusões, O (1963) ].
• 1942 - Peter Greenaway, was born. Film director.
• 1943 - Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is arrested in Berlin because of his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler.
• 1944 - Durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, a Hungria inicia a deportação de sua população judaica para os campos de extermínio nazistas.
• 1945 - Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR allowing "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
• 1946 - Jane Asher was born. Actress: ( Dreamchild, Masque of the Red Death, The Prince and the Pauper, Brideshead Revisited ).
• 1947 - Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was born. 14th president of the Philippines.
• 1949 - Fireside Theatre debuts on television.
• 1949 - A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, United States, kills 77 people.
• 1950 - Nine are convicted of trying to overthrow the government in Czechoslovakia.
• 1950 - Agnetha Fältskog, was born. Leading voice of ABBA .
• 1951 - Son condenados a muerte en EE.UU. Julius y Ethel Rosenberg por realizar espionajes a favor de la Unión Soviética.
• 1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for performing espionage for the Soviet Union.
• 1951 -Um tribunal americano condena à morte o casal Rosenberg, acusado de espionagem em favor da URSS.
• 1954 - Elvis Presley records his debut single, "That's All Right"
• 1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
• 1956 - In Sri Lanka, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna won the general elections in a lanslide and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike sworn in as the Prime Minister.
• 1957 - In India, Communists won the first elections in united Kerala and E. M. S. Namboodiripad sworn in as the first chief minister.
• 1963 - Jimmy Osmond was born . Singer (Donny & Marie Show) .
• 1964 - General Douglas MacArthur, dies (b. 1880). US Army .
• 1965 - 37th Academy Awards at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Los Angeles- "My Fair Lady" won The Best Picture Award and more seven : Best Director (George Cukor), Best Actor (Rex Harrison); Best Cinematography/Color (Harry Stradling); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration/Color (Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton, George James Hopkins); Best Costume Design/Color (Cecil Beaton); Best Sound (George Groves-Warner Bros. Studio Sound Dept.); and Best Music/Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment (André Previn). Julie Andrews was awarded an Oscar for Best Actress for her title role; Cotton Warburton won for Best Film Editing; Peter Ellenshaw, Hamilton Luske, Eustace Lycett for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects and Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman won for Best Music/Song (Chim Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins) and for Best Music/Score-Substantially Original. The two remaining crowd-pleaser awards went to Peter Ustinov in Topkapi for Best Supporting Actor and to Lila Kedrova in Alexis Zorbas for Best Supporting Actress. The host for this gala ceremony was Bob Hope.
• 1967 - Hermann Joseph Muller, dies (b. 1890). Geneticist.
• 1969 - Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations are held in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the United States.
• 1969 - Pope Paul VI abolished the galero (red hat) and red shoes and buckles customarily worn by Roman Catholic cardinals.
• 1970 - Alfred Henry Sturtevant, dies (b. 1891). Geneticist.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces invade Binh Long Province, launching a second front of the Nguyen Hue Offensive.
• 1973 - Pierre Messmer becomes Prime Minister of France .
• 1973 - Pioneer 11 launched to Jupiter.
• 1973 - Pharrell Williams, was born. Musician and producer (The Neptunes) .
• 1975 - Chiang Kai-shek, dies (b. 1887). Kuomintang leader.
• 1975 - Morre aos 87 anos o líder nacionalista chinês Chiang Kai-Shek.
• 1975 - Soyuz 18A launch aborted short of orbit; cosmonauts return safely .
• 1976 - In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement led to the Tiananmen incident.
• 1976 - Howard Hughes dies (b. 1905) . Aviation pioneer, film director, excentric.
• 1977 - Os ministros da CEE, reunidos no Luxemburgo, aprovam o pedido de adesão de Portugal.
• 1978 - Brandon Backe, was born. Houston Astros starting pitcher.
• 1978 - Stephen Jackson, was born. Professional basketball player.
• 1981 - The Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev goes to Czechoslovakia to discuss Polish crisis .
• 1982 - A British Naval Task Force leaves for the Falkland Islands, which have been invaded by Argentina.
• 1982 - Abe Fortas dies (b. 1910). U.S. Supreme Court associate justice.
• 1984 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpassed Wilt Chamberlain as the all-time leading scorer in the National Basketball Association.
• 1987 - Portugal: o primeiro governo de Cavaco Silva, minoritário, cai, devido à aprovação de uma moção de censura proposta pelo PRD. A Assembleia da República é dissolvida em 28 de Abril e as eleições marcadas para 19 de Julho. O PSD obterá a primeira maioria absoluta após o 25 de Abril.
• 1987 - The Fox Broadcasting Company makes its prime time television debut with Married…with Children.
• 1988 - Jacob Grant dies. King of The Cardboard Box .
• 1988 - Hijackers free 25 hostages. Hijackers who have taken control of a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet free 25 passengers.
• 1989 - O movimiento sindicalista polaco "Solidaridad" legaliza-se e assim pode apresentar-se às eleições gerais.
• 1991 - ASA Embraer EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia killing all 23 aboard.
• 1991 - John Tower, dies (b. 1925). Senator from Texas.
• 1991 - Sonny Carter, dies (b. 1947). Astronaut .
• 1991 - Davis Love, Sr., dies. Golfer.
• 1992 - Several hundred-thousand abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
• 1992 - O presidente do Peru, Alberto Fujimori, lidera um Golpe de Estado no país. Ele dissolve o Congresso, prende oponentes políticos e suspende artigos da Constituição peruana.
• 1992 - Thailand General Suchinda Kraprayoon installed as president .
• 1992 - Samuel H Reshevsky, Polish /US chess grandmaster, dies at 80 .
• 1993 - Republican Guard kills 64 in Chad .
• 1993 - The Child Support Act 1991, administered by the Child Support Agency, comes into effect in the United Kingdom.
• 1993 - O governo brasileiro em leilão na Bolsa de Valores do Rio de Janeiro privatiza a CSN (Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional) por US$ 1,05 bilhão. O controle acionário da companhia foi comprado pelo consórcio formado por Docenave (subsidiária da Vale do Rio Doce), Bamerindus, Vicunha, trading Emesa e os empregados da siderúrgica.
• 1994 - Kurt Cobain dies (suicide) (b. 1967). American grunge rocker Kurt Cobain, leader of the band Nirvana.
• 1997 - Allen Ginsberg dies. Beat poet.
• 1998 - In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu and costing cost about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
• 1999 -As Nações Unidas suspendem as sanções contra a Líbia após Moammar Gadhafi ter rendido dois suspeitos (agentes da inteligência do país) para serem julgados pelo atentado de 1988 da Pan Am.
• 1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
• 1999 - In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard. ]
• 2000 - Mori Yoshiro of the Liberal-Democratic Party became prime minister of Japan, replacing Obuchi Keizo, who had suffered a stroke earlier in the month and subsequently died.
• 2000 - Lee Petty dies. 3-time NASCAR Grand champion .
• 2001 - Driver jailed for immigrant deaths A Dutch lorry driver has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for his part in the deaths of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants.
• 2002 - Layne Staley dies (b. 1967). Rock musician.
• 2003 - For the first time, US forces enter cross the city limits of Baghdad, Iraq when they make a brief foray into a suburb of Baghdad.
• 2004 - Paul Bremer declares militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to be an outlaw and an Iraqi judge issues an arrest warrant for him.
• 2004 -Heiner Zieschang dies (b. 1936). German mathematician.
• 2005 - Saul Bellow dies (b. 1915). Canadian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 2005 - Dale Messick dies (b. 1906). American comic strip artist.
• 2005 - Debralee Scott dies (b. 1953). American actress.