February 5th in History

62 - Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.


1778 - South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

1782 - Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.


1810 - Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins.

1818 - Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.

1885 - King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.


1917 - The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

1917 - The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, it forbade immigration from nearly all of south and south-east Asia.

1941 - World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.


1958 - A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1962 - French President Charles De Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.

1971 - Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission.


1994 - During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell slams into a down-town marketplace in Sarajevo.

1997 - The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.

2004 - Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion

Famous Birthdays

976 - Emperor Sanjō, of Japan

1589 - Esteban Manuel de Villegas, poet

1788 - Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1908 - Peg Entwistle, actress

1919 - Red Buttons, actor

1919 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece

1927 - Ruth Fertel, entrepreneur

1941 - David Selby, actor

1951 - Russell Grant, astrologer



1954 - Cliff Martinez, musician

1964 - Duff McKagan, musician

1972 - HRH Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark

1978 - Shawn Reaves, actor

1985 - Crystal Hunt, actress

1989 - Jeremy Sumpter, actor