March 5 in history — What Happened Today in History

Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109 crashes in Venezuela, killing 45.

Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus.

The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 11⁄2 million units around the world.

Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.

The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.

An Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 collides in mid-air with a Spantax Convair 990 Coronado over Nantes, France, killing all 68 people aboard the DC-9, including music manager Michael Jeffery.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.

Air France Flight 212 crashes into La Grande Soufrière, killing all 63 aboard.

Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 crashes near Marseilles, Ohio, killing 38.

BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707 aircraft, breaks apart in mid-air due to clear-air turbulence and crashes into Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 124 people on board.

March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against the British colonial presence.

American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.

Aeroflot Flight 191 crashes while landing at Aşgabat International Airport, killing 12.

Indonesian President Sukarno dismisses the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaces it with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members.

Sutton Wick air crash: A Blackburn Beverley of 53 Squadron, Royal Air Forces, crashes into the village of Sutton Wick, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), killing most of the crew and passengers and two local residents.

Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier.

Cold War: Winston Churchill delivers his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College, Missouri.

World War II: The Red Army begins the Uman–Botoșani offensive in the western Ukrainian SSR.

World War II: General strike and protest march in Athens against rumours of forced mobilization of Greek workers for work in Germany, resulting in clashes with the Axis occupation forces and collaborationist police. The decree is withdrawn on the next day.

World War II: Japanese forces capture Batavia, capital of Dutch East Indies, which is left undefended after the withdrawal of the KNIL garrison and Australian Blackforce battalion to Buitenzorg and Bandung.

Six high-ranking members of the Soviet politburo, including Joseph Stalin, sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, in what will become known as the Katyn massacre.

Spanish Civil War: The National Defence Council seizes control of the republican government in a coup d'etat, with the intention of negotiating an end to the war.

Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections, which allows the Nazis to later pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.

The British Raj: Gandhi–Irwin Pact is signed.

Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.

Moro Rebellion: United States Army troops bring overwhelming force against the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors.

George Westinghouse patents the air brake.

Joshua Coyne, American violinist and composer

Fred, Brazilian footballer

Ahmed Hassan, Egyptian footballer

Harry Maguire, English footballer

Kyle Schwarber, American baseball player

Sam Bankman-Fried, American businessman and fraudster

Ramiro Funes Mori, Argentine footballer

Daniil Trifonov, Russian pianist and composer

Danny Drinkwater, English footballer

Mason Plumlee, American basketball player

Alex Smithies, English footballer

Sterling Knight, American actor, singer, and dancer

Jake Lloyd, American actor

Duane Gish, American biochemist and academic (born 1921)

Paul Haines, New Zealand-Australian author (born 1970)

Philip Madoc, Welsh-English actor (born 1934)

William O. Wooldridge, American sergeant (born 1922)

Manolis Rasoulis, Greek singer-songwriter (born 1945)

Charles B. Pierce, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1938)

Richard Stapley, British actor and writer (born 1923)

Joseph Weizenbaum, German computer scientist and author (born 1923)

David Sheppard, English cricketer and bishop (born 1929)

Lolo Ferrari, French dancer, actress and singer (born 1963)

Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (born 1922)

Samm Sinclair Baker, American writer (born 1909)

Jean Dréville, French director and screenwriter (born 1906)