May 5 in history — What Happened Today in History

Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.

The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day.

Project Mercury: Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight.

The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect.

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.

World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation.

World War II: A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army kills six people near Bly, Oregon.

World War II: Battle of Castle Itter, one of only two battles in that war in which American and German troops fought cooperatively.

Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots' Victory Day.

World War II: Norwegian campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.

March of the Iron Will: Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The 1930 Bago earthquake, the first of two major earthquakes in southern Burma, kills as many as 7,000 in Yangon and Bago.

US authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.

The first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda is published.

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.

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.

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.

The Peruvian Academy of Language is founded.

Workers marching for the eight-hour day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are shot at by Wisconsin National Guardsmen in what becomes known as the Bay View Massacre.

American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.

American Civil War: The Confederate government is declared dissolved at Washington, Georgia.

American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County.

Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.

The first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen.

Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The first edition of The Manchester Guardian, now The Guardian, is published.

Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.

James Conner, American football player

Celeste, British singer

Laura Stacey, Canadian ice hockey player

Rickard Rakell, Swedish ice hockey player

Raúl Jiménez, Mexican footballer

Tatiana Schlossberg, American journalist and author (died 2025)

Darcy Kuemper, Canadian ice hockey player

Agnes Knochenhauer, Swedish curler

Adele, English singer-songwriter

Mervyn Westfield, English cricketer

Graham Dorrans, Scottish footballer

Emanuele Giaccherini, Italian footballer

P. J. Tucker, American basketball player

Surendranath, Indian cricketer (born 1937)

Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (born 1916)

Aatos Erkko, Finnish journalist and publisher (born 1932)

George Knobel, Dutch footballer, coach, and manager (born 1922)

Roy Padayachie, South African lawyer and politician, South African Minister of Communications (born 1950)

Claude Choules, English-Australian soldier (born 1901)

Yosef Merimovich, Israeli footballer and manager (born 1924)

Dana Wynter, British actress (born 1931)

Giulietta Simionato, Italian soprano (born 1910)

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Nigerian academic and politician, 13th President of Nigeria (born 1951)

Irv Robbins, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded Baskin-Robbins (born 1917)

Jerry Wallace, American singer and guitarist (born 1928)

Theodore Harold Maiman, American-Canadian physicist and engineer, created the laser (born 1927)