January 5 - Definition and Overview

January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 360 days remaining until the end of the year (361 in leap years).

Events

• 1463 - Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.
• 1477 - Battle of Nancy, Charles the Bold killed, Burgundy becomes part of France.
• 1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
• 1527 - Martyrdom of Felix Manz, a Swiss Anabaptist.
• 1554 - Great fire in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• 1675 - Battle of Colmar, French army beats Brandenburg.
• 1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
• 1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
• 1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
• 1854 - The San Francisco steamer sinks, 300 dead.
• 1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
• 1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
• 1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
• 1909 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
• 1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
• 1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
• 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
• 1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
• 1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• 1945 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
• 1948 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
• 1956 - Elvis Presley records "Heartbreak Hotel."
• 1957 - Major league baseballer Jackie Robinson retires.
• 1961 - Television: Mr. Ed debuts.
• 1964 - Pope Paul VI meets the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem, the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity leaders since 1439.
• 1968 - Alexander Dubček comes to power, "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
• 1970 - Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
• 1972 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
• 1973 - Netherlands recognizes East Germany.
• 1974 - An earthquake in Lima, Peru kills six, and damages 100s of houses.
• 1975 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
• 1976 - Cambodia is renamed Democratic Campuchea.
• 1980 - Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer.
• 1984 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
• 1987 - President of the United States Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.
• 1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands spilling 84,700 tonnes of oil.
• 1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
• 1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
• 1997 - Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.
• 2000 - The 1st day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit.
• 2002 - Charles Bishop, a 15-year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a Tampa, Florida building, evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack.

Births

• 1717 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (d. 1793)
• 1779 - Stephen Decatur, American naval officer (d. 1820)
• 1779 - Zebulon Pike, American explorer (d. 1813)
• 1811 - Cyrus Hamlin, educator, inventor, architect, Christian missionary
• 1855 - King Camp Gillette, American inventor (d. 1932)
• 1865 - Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer (d. 1920)
• 1876 - Konrad Adenauer, German chancellor 1949-1963 (d. 1967)
• 1880 - Nikolay Medtner, Russian composer (d. 1951)
• 1893 - Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian guru (d. 1952)
• 1900 - Yves Tanguy, French surrealist painter (d. 1955)
• 1902 - Stella Gibbons, English novelist (d. 1989)
• 1904 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
• 1909 - Stephen Kleene, American mathematician (d. 1994)
• 1910 - Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (d. 1949)
• 1910 - Hugh Brannum (Mister Greenjeans), actor (d. 1987)
• 1913 - Jean-Pierre Aumont, French actor (d. 2001)
• 1914 - George Reeves, American actor (d. 1959)
• 1915 - Arthur H. Robinson, Canadian-born American cartographer (d. 2004)
• 1920 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (d. 1995)
• 1921 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (d. 1990)
• 1923 - Sam Phillips, American country music producer (d. 2003)
• 1926 - Reverend Hosea Williams, religious leader, civil rights activist (d. 2000)
• 1928 - Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator, Democratic presidential nominee in 1984
• 1928 - Ali Bhutto, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1979)
• 1931 - Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)
• 1931 - Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
• 1931 - Robert Duvall, American actor and director
• 1932 - Umberto Eco, Italian philologist and writer
• 1932 - Raisa Gorbachev, wife of Mikhail Gorbachev (d. 1999)
• 1932 - Chuck Noll, American football coach
• 1938 - King Juan Carlos of Spain
• 1938 - Jim Otto, American football player
• 1940 - Michael O'Donoghue, writer (d. 1994)
• 1941 - Miyazaki Hayao, Japanese animated film maker
• 1941 - Grady Thomas, singer (P-Funk)
• 1942 - Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist
• 1942 - Charlie Rose, American talk show host
• 1946 - Diane Keaton, American actress
• 1948 - Ted Lange, American actor
• 1953 - George Tenet, former director of the CIA
• 1953 - Pamela Sue Martin, American actress
• 1954 - Alex English, basketball player
• 1961 - Suzy Amis, actress
• 1962 - Joe Monzo, American microtonal composer and tuning-theorist
• 1968 - Ricky Paull Goldin, soap opera actor
• 1969 - Marilyn Manson, American singer
• 1975 - Bradley Cooper, American actor
• 1982 - Janica Kostelic, Croatian alpine skier
• 1985 - Michael Cuccione, Canadian actor, singer (d. 2001)

Deaths

• 842 - Al-Mu'tasim, Abbasid caliph (b. 794)
• 1066 - Edward the Confessor, King of England
• 1387 - Pedro IV of Aragon (b. 1320)
• 1589 - Catherine de Medici, Queen of France (b. 1519)
• 1655 - Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)
• 1740 - Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (b. 1667)
• 1858 - Johann Radetzky, Austrian field marshal (b. 1769)
• 1891 - Emma Abbott, American opera singer (b. 1849)
• 1922 - Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer (b. 1874)
• 1929 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia
• 1933 - Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States (b. 1872)
• 1941 - Amy Johnson, English aviator (1903)
• 1943 - George Washington Carver, American educator, activist, botanist (1860)
• 1956 - Mistinguett, French singer (b. 1875)
• 1963 - Rogers Hornsby, American Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1896)
• 1970 - Max Born, German physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1954 (b. 1882)
• 1970 - Roberto Gerhard, composer
• 1970 - Jock Yablonski, president of the United Mine Workers
• 1971 - Douglas Shearer, Canadian pioneer motion-picture sound engineer (b. 1899)
• 1979 - Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
• 1981 - Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher, poet, and non-violent activist (b. 1901)
• 1982 - Harvey Lembeck, American actor
• 1982 - Hans Conried, American actor
• 1988 - Pete Maravich, American Basketball Hall of Famer (b. 1947)
• 1990 - Arthur Kennedy, American actor
• 1994 - Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill, Speaker of the House (b. 1912)
• 1996 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist (b. 1966)
• 1998 - Sonny Bono, American singer, actor, United States Representative (skiing accident) (b. 1935)
• 2001 - Nancy Parsons, American actress
• 2002 - Igor Cassini, gossip columnist ("Cholly Knickerbocker")
• 2003 - Roy Jenkins, British politician (b. 1920)
• 2003 - Jean Kerr, author
• 2004 - Tug McGraw, American baseball pitcher (b. 1944)

Holidays and observances

• The eleventh day of Christmas in Western Christianity, and the Twelfth Night of Christmas in Western Christianity.
• Catholicism - Feast day of St. John Neumann.
• Mungday (Discordianism)

January 4 - January 6 - December 5 - February 5 -- listing of all days