What are the important events that happened on May 5? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 5: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 5 is the 125th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 240 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is April 22, 2025 – a Monday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 1,746,403,200 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectaicosapentagon’ day.
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Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 288 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,518 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 5 Historical Events
- 1494 –Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.
- 1821 –Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
- 1866 –Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.
- 1877 –Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.
- 1920 –Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.
- 1941 –Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots’ Victory Day.
- 1955 –West Germany gains full sovereignty.
- 1972 –Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.
- 1994 –American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism, a punishment that many in the United States deemed to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime. However, significant numbers of Americans were also in favor of it.
- 2007 –All 114 aboard Kenya Airways Flight 507 die when the pilots lose control of the plane and it crashes in Douala, Cameroon.
Who were born on May 5?
- 867 –Uda, Emperor of Japan (d. 931)
- 1546 –Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English politician (d. 1623)
- 1899 –Freeman Gosden, American radio comedian (Amos-Amos ‘n’Andy) (d. 1982)
- 1954 –Dave Spector, American television personality and commentator
- 1961 –Hiroshi Hase, Japanese professional wrestler and politician
- 1970 –LaPhonso Ellis, American basketball player
- 1972 –Brad Bombardir, Canadian ice-hockey player
- 1980 –Yossi Benayoun, Israeli footballer
- 1982 –Jay Bothroyd, English footballer
- 1982 –Randall Gay, American football player
Who died on May 5?
- 1219 –King Leo II of Armenia (b. 1150)
- 1525 –Frederick III of Saxony (b. 1463)
- 1671 –Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, English politician (b. 1602)
- 1808 –Pierre Jean George Cabanis, French physiologist (b. 1757)
- 1892 –August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist (b. 1818)
- 1941 –Natalija Obrenović, Queen of Serbia (b. 1859)
- 1965 –Nikos Gounaris, Greek tenor (b. 1915)
- 2000 –Bill Musselman, American basketball head coach (b. 1940)
- 2004 –Ritsuko Okazaki, Japanese singer-songwriter (b. 1959)
- 2005 –Elisabeth Fraser, American television, film, and stage actress (b. 1920)
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