Tuesday, 5th May 2026 in London

5th May in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Today, the zodiac sign Taurus celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality People born on May 5th blend Taurus stability with numerological leadership in intriguing ways. Outwardly calm and grounded, they carry a pioneering spirit that sets them apart from typical Taureans. These individuals pursue harmony while possessing courage to forge new directions.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their greatest strengths are reliability, patience, and strong practical sense. However, their stubbornness can become limiting, and they risk becoming entrenched in fixed patterns. The challenge lies in balancing flexibility with their natural desire for consistency and security.

Love In romantic matters, these natives display remarkable loyalty and sensuality guided by Venus. They seek deep emotional connection and physical intimacy but move cautiously into new relationships. Partners receive steadfast devotion and enduring affection.

Caree & Finance Professionally, those born this day thrive in positions combining responsibility with creative control. They possess natural aptitude for finance, craftsmanship, and artistic pursuits. Their entrepreneurial spirit, tempered by caution, often leads to sustainable material success.

Health These individuals benefit from consistent physical activity and enjoy sensual self-care practices like massage or yoga. Their balanced approach to health is advantageous, though they must guard against overindulgence. A life balancing pleasure and moderation ensures lasting vitality.

That night, the moon was in its waxing crescent phase.

Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).

Fun Facts About 5th May

Name Days in Your Language: Jodi, Jodie, Jody, Judie, Judith, Judy, Terrell, Tyrell, Tyrese, Tyron, Tyrone, Tyrrell, Tyson

Someone born on this day would be just 27 days old today — roughly 670 hours, 40,233 minutes, or 2,414,016 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 125. day of the year. In 2026, 5th May falls on a Tuesday.

There are 240 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 19 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 5th May

On this day, 141 notable people were born on 5th May — spanning from 1210 to 2004. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

05/05/2004

Jenna Davis, American actress and YouTuber

Jenna Davis is an American actress, Internet personality, and singer-songwriter. She is best known for voicing the titular character of the horror film M3GAN (2022) and its sequel, M3GAN 2.0 (2025). As a child actress, she had recurring roles on the Brat network and the Disney Channel series Raven's Home (2018–2019). Her voice work includes Treehouse Detectives (2018) and Vampirina (2018–2020).

Kirsty Muir, Scottish freestyle skier

Kirsty Muir is a Scottish freestyle skier representing Great Britain who competes in big air and slopestyle. She came second in the big air event at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, and won the slopestyle competition at the 2026 Winter X Games.

05/05/2003

Carlos Alcaraz, Spanish tennis player

Carlos Alcaraz Garfia is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2022 and 2025. Alcaraz has won 26 ATP Tour–level singles titles, including seven majors and eight ATP Masters 1000 titles. He is one of nine men to complete the career Grand Slam in singles.

05/05/1999

Nathan Chen, American figure skater

Nathan Wei Chen is an American figure skater. He is the 2022 Olympic champion in both the men's singles and team event, a three-time World champion, the 2017 Four Continents champion, a three-time Grand Prix Final champion, a ten-time Grand Prix medalist, the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist in the team event, and a six-time U.S. national champion (2017–22). At the junior level, Chen is the 2015–16 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, 2013–14 Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, 2014 World Junior bronze medalist, and a six-time Junior Grand Prix medalist. He became the youngest skater to win a U.S. Championship at the novice level in 2010, at age ten, a title he successfully defended the following season.

Justin Kluivert, Dutch footballer

Justin Dean Kluivert is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Premier League club Bournemouth and the Netherlands national team.

05/05/1998

Aryna Sabalenka, Belarusian tennis player

Aryna Siarhiejeŭna Sabalenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She is the current world No. 1 in women's singles by the WTA and is a former No. 1 in doubles. Sabalenka has won 24 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including four majors – two each at the Australian Open and the US Open – as well as 11 WTA 1000 events. She has also won six doubles titles, including the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open, both with Elise Mertens.

05/05/1997

Logan Gilbert, American baseball player

Logan Keith Gilbert is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2021 and was an All-Star in 2024.

Mitch Marner, Canadian hockey player

Mitchell Daniel Marner is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a right winger for the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected fourth overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2015 NHL entry draft.

05/05/1996

Christopher Eubanks, American tennis player

Christopher Eubanks is an American former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 29, achieved on 31 July 2023 and a best doubles ranking of No. 142, reached on 12 August 2024. His most notable result was reaching the quarterfinals at the 2023 Wimbledon.

Mayar Sherif, Egyptian tennis player

Mayar Sherif Ahmed Abdel-Aziz is an Egyptian professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA ranking of No. 31 in singles, making her the highest ranked Egyptian singles player, male or female, in the Open Era. She also has a career-high of No. 65 in doubles. Sherif has won one singles title on the WTA Tour and two titles in doubles. She has also won a record eight WTA 125 singles titles and two doubles titles on the WTA Challenger Tour along with eleven singles and six doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. She is the younger sister of Rana Sherif Ahmed.

05/05/1995

James Conner, American football player

James Earl Conner is an American professional football running back for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers. In 2014, he garnered AFCA first-team All-American honors and was awarded the ACC Player of the Year. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft.

05/05/1994

Celeste, British singer

Celeste Epiphany Waite, known by the mononym Celeste, is an English singer and songwriter. She began her career in 2014 providing vocals for electronic producers such as Avicii, Tieks and Real Lies, while also self-publishing music onto SoundCloud on the side. She made her solo debut via Lily Allen's vanity label Bank Holiday Records with the EP The Milk & the Honey (2017), and then released her second EP Lately (2019) after signing with Polydor Records in 2018.

05/05/1991

Raúl Jiménez, Mexican footballer

Raúl Alonso Jiménez Rodríguez is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Fulham and the Mexico national team.

05/05/1990

Tatiana Schlossberg, American journalist and author (died 2025)

Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg was an American environmental journalist and author. She worked as a science and climate reporter for The New York Times and wrote for several other publications, including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and Bloomberg News. Her book Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have was published by Grand Central Publishing in 2019.

05/05/1989

Agnes Knochenhauer, Swedish curler

Agnes Ellinor Knochenhauer is a Swedish curler from Stockholm. She currently plays second on Team Anna Hasselborg. With Hasselborg, Knochenhauer has won three Olympic medals, gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo and bronze at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She also won a silver medal at the 2014 Games in Sochi as alternate for the Margaretha Sigfridsson rink.

05/05/1988

Adele, English singer-songwriter

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins is an English singer and songwriter. Regarded as a British cultural icon, she is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting. Her accolades include 16 Grammy Awards, 12 Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

Mervyn Westfield, English cricketer

Mervyn Simon Westfield is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler who until September 2010 played for Essex. In January 2012, he became the first English cricketer to be convicted of spot-fixing, after admitting accepting £6,000 in exchange for bowling an over that was supposed to concede 12 runs.

05/05/1987

Graham Dorrans, Scottish footballer

Graham Dorrans is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Johnstone Burgh.

05/05/1985

Emanuele Giaccherini, Italian footballer

Emanuele Giaccherini is an Italian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

P. J. Tucker, American basketball player

Anthony Leon "P.J." Tucker Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. Regarded as a reliable perimeter defender all throughout his career, Tucker won an NBA championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. He played college basketball for the Texas Longhorns. Outside his NBA career, he was also the 2008 Israeli Basketball Premier League MVP, and Israeli Basketball Premier League Finals MVP and also won championships in the Israeli Super League in 2008 with Hapoel Holon, the German League and the German Cup in 2012 with Brose Bamberg.

05/05/1983

James Anyon, English cricketer

James Edward Anyon is a former cricketer who played for Sussex.

Henry Cavill, English actor

Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill is a British actor. He gained wide recognition for portraying Superman in the DC Extended Universe (2013–2023), beginning with the film Man of Steel (2013) and reprising the role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), in addition to a cameo appearance in Black Adam (2022) and The Flash (2023).

05/05/1982

Vanessa Bryant, American philanthropist and model

Vanessa Marie Bryant is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She was married to American professional basketball player Kobe Bryant.

Corey Parker, Australian rugby league footballer

Corey Parker is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL. A Queensland State of Origin and Australia international representative, Parker played in the lock, second-row and prop positions. Parker played his entire professional career at the Broncos club, with whom he won the 2006 NRL Premiership. He also fulfilled goal kicking duties for the Broncos.

05/05/1981

Craig David, English singer-songwriter, musician and producer

Craig Ashley David is an English singer. He rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single "Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, Born to Do It, was released in 2000, to great commercial success. He followed it up with eight more studio albums: Slicker Than Your Average (2002), The Story Goes... (2005), Trust Me (2007), Signed Sealed Delivered (2010), Following My Intuition (2016), The Time Is Now (2018), 22 (2022), and Commitment (2025). Over his career, David has collaborated with a diverse array of artists, including Sting, Tinchy Stryder, Big Narstie, Tiwa Savage and JoJo.

Danielle Fishel, American actress

Danielle Christine Fishel Karp is an American actress and director. Her career started in community theater, and she made her screen debut with guest roles on shows such as Full House (1992–1993) and Harry and the Hendersons (1993). Fishel's breakthrough came with the role of Topanga Lawrence on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World (1993–2000), which she later reprised in its successor, Girl Meets World (2014–2017), on Disney Channel. For the role, she received a YoungStar Award in 1998.

05/05/1980

Yossi Benayoun, Israeli footballer

Yossi Shai Benayoun is an Israeli former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his career in Israel and England and captained the Israel national team. Born in Dimona, he is sometimes nicknamed "The Diamond from Dimona" in Israel. As of 2023, he has been the sporting director of the Israel national team.

05/05/1977

Tiffany Roberts, American footballer

Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak is an American soccer coach, former defender, and Olympic gold medalist. She was also a member of the 1999 U.S. national team that won the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. She became the 16th player in U.S. history to play over 100 matches for her country and was a founding member of the WUSA, the first women's professional soccer league in the United States. She is currently head coach of the women's soccer team at the University of Central Florida.

05/05/1976

Dieter Brummer, Australian actor (died 2021)

Dieter Kirk Brummer was an Australian actor. He was best known for his roles in television soap operas, including playing Shane Parrish in Home and Away from 1992 to 1996 and Troy Miller in Neighbours from 2011 to 2012. He also starred in crime drama Underbelly: The Golden Mile, after having a smaller role in the previous series.

Juan Pablo Sorín, Argentinian footballer and sportscaster

Juan Pablo Sorín is an Argentine former footballer and current sports broadcaster, who played as a left-back or left midfielder. He had a successful club career in his native Argentina with River Plate, in Brazil with Cruzeiro, and with various teams in Europe, including Barcelona, Lazio, Paris Saint-Germain and Villarreal.

05/05/1975

Meb Keflezighi, American runner

Mebrahtom "Meb" Keflezighi is a retired American long distance runner. He is the 2004 Olympic silver medalist in the marathon and finished in fourth place in the 2012 Summer Olympics. He won the 2009 New York City Marathon on November 1, 2009, and the 2014 Boston Marathon on April 21, 2014, becoming the first American man to win each race since 1982 and 1983, respectively. Keflezighi is a graduate of UCLA, where he won four NCAA championships competing for the UCLA Bruins track and field team. He came in fourth in the 2014 New York City Marathon on November 2, 2014, eighth in the 2015 Boston Marathon on April 20, 2015, and second in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

05/05/1972

James Cracknell, English rower

James Edward Cracknell, is a British rowing and endurance athlete, double Olympic gold medalist and winner of six world championship titles. Cracknell was appointed OBE for "services to sport" in the 2005 New Year Honours List.

Žigmund Pálffy, Slovak ice hockey player

Žigmund Pálffy, nicknamed "Ziggy" in English and "Žigo" in Slovak, is a Slovak former professional ice hockey player.

Mikael Renberg, Swedish ice hockey player

Mikael Bo Renberg is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player, last playing for Skellefteå AIK in Elitserien. He spent ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and eight in the Swedish Elite League.

05/05/1971

Harold Miner, American basketball player

Harold David Miner is an American former professional basketball player and two-time champion of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Slam Dunk Contest. He attended college at the University of Southern California (USC) and was a star player on that school's men's basketball team. He left school in 1992 to pursue his professional career, and played in the NBA for the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. Despite comparisons to Michael Jordan, Miner's NBA career lasted only four years.

05/05/1967

Adam Hughes, American author and illustrator

Adam Hughes is an American comics artist and illustrator best known to American comic book readers for his renderings of pinup-style female characters, and his cover work on titles such as Wonder Woman and Catwoman. He is known as one of comics' foremost cheesecake artists, and one of the best known and most distinctive comic book cover artists. Throughout his career Hughes has provided illustration work for companies such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. Pictures, Playboy magazine, Joss Whedon's Mutant Enemy Productions, and Sideshow Collectibles. He is also a fixture at comics conventions where his commissioned sketches command long lines.

Charles Nagy, American baseball player

Charles Harrison Nagy is an American former Major League Baseball All-Star right-handed pitcher who played for 14 seasons in the major leagues from 1990 to 2003. He played for the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres. He served as the pitching coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2011 to 2013 and the Los Angeles Angels from 2016 to 2018.

Alexis Sinduhije, Burundian journalist and politician

Alexis Sinduhije is a Burundian journalist and politician. After founding Radio Publique Africaine during the Burundi Civil War, Sinduhije received a CPJ International Press Freedom Award and was named to the Time 100 list of most influential people. In 2007, he left journalism to run for president, but was arrested in 2008 on a charge of "insulting the president," Pierre Nkurunziza, drawing protests on his behalf from the U.S., U.K., and Amnesty International. He was found not guilty and released in 2009. The film Kamenge, Northern Quarters follows Sinduhije before, during, and after his incarceration.

05/05/1966

Shawn Drover, Canadian drummer

Shawn Drover is a Canadian drummer, best known for his work with the American heavy metal band Megadeth. He uses Sabian cymbals and Yamaha drums, Pro-mark drum sticks, Toca Percussion, Evans Drumheads and Extreme Isolation headphones.

Sergei Stanishev, Bulgarian politician, 46th Prime Minister of Bulgaria

Sergey Dmitrievich Stanishev is a Bulgarian politician who served Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2005 to 2009. A member of the Socialist Party, which he led from 2001 to 2014, he later served as Member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2024. Stanishev was also the President of the European Socialists from 2011 to 2022 and a Member of the National Assembly from 1997 to 2005 and from 2009 to 2014.

Josh Weinstein, American screenwriter and producer

Joshua Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral. He worked on several short-term media projects, including writing for the variety show Sunday Best, but was then unemployed for a long period.

05/05/1964

Jean-François Copé, French politician, French Minister of Budget

Jean-François Copé is a French politician serving as Mayor of Meaux since 1995 with an interruption from 2002 to 2005. He was Government Spokesman between 2002 and 2007, when assumed other tenures in the government—including Minister of the Budget—at the same time. He also served as the member of the National Assembly for the 6th constituency of Seine-et-Marne and president of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) group in the National Assembly. In November 2010 he became the party's secretary-general. In August 2012 he announced that he would run for the presidency of the UMP, facing the former Prime Minister François Fillon.

Heike Henkel, German high jumper

Heike Henkel is a German former athlete competing in high jump. She was Olympic, World and European champion. She won the high jump gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

05/05/1963

James LaBrie, Canadian singer-songwriter

Kevin James LaBrie is a Canadian singer, best known as the lead singer of the American progressive metal band Dream Theater, which he has been fronting since 1991.

05/05/1961

Marg Downey, Australian actress

Marg Downey is an Australian comedian and actress, best known for her roles in The D Generation, Fast Forward and Full Frontal

Hiroshi Hase, Japanese wrestler and politician

Hiroshi Hase is a Japanese politician and semi-retired professional wrestler who served as the governor of Ishikawa Prefecture from 2022 to 2026. As a professional wrestler, Hase primarily worked for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and also for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Stampede Wrestling. During his affiliation with AJPW, he also served as the chairman for the Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF), which is the governing body for all championships in the promotion. Among his numerous title wins, Hase held the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship once, making him a one-time world champion.

05/05/1960

Doug Hawkins, Australian footballer and sportscaster

Douglas James Hawkins is a former Australian rules footballer who represented Footscray and Fitzroy in the Australian Football League (AFL). He also enjoyed a brief career in media and ran for the Senate, as a member of Palmer United Party, in the 2013 Australian federal election.

05/05/1959

Bobby Ellsworth, American singer and bass player

Robert Ellsworth, best known as Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth, is an American singer who is the lead vocalist of New Jersey thrash metal band Overkill. He has been the vocalist of Overkill since its inception in 1980, and he and bassist D. D. Verni are the band's only constant members.

Ian McCulloch, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Ian Stephen McCulloch is an English singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the rock band Echo & the Bunnymen.

Brian Williams, American journalist

Brian Douglas Williams is an American journalist and television news anchor. He was a correspondent for NBC Nightly News starting in 1993, before his promotion to anchor and managing editor of the broadcast in December 2004.

05/05/1958

Robert DiPierdomenico, Australian footballer and sportscaster

Berto "Robert" DiPierdomenico is a retired Australian rules footballer who represented Hawthorn in the Australian Football League (AFL) from the 1970s to the 1990s. Popularly known by his nickname "Dipper", DiPierdomenico is one of the most successful Italian Australians to play Australian football, and his contribution to the game was recognised by selection in the VFL/AFL Italian Team of the Century.

Vanessa Downing, Australian actress

Vanessa Downing also known as Vanessa Ryan, is an Australian actress, theatre director, singer, voice artist, and lawyer.

05/05/1957

Richard E. Grant, Swazi-English actor, director, and screenwriter

Richard E. Grant is a Swazi-English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller's drama film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), winning various awards including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He also received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

05/05/1956

Steve Scott, American runner and coach

Steve Scott is an American former track athlete who competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 1988 Summer Olympics. Track & Field News ranked Scott #1 in the U.S. on ten occasions, and eleven times during his career he was ranked in the top ten in the world by T&FN. Scott is also regarded as the founder of speed golf in 1979.

05/05/1955

Jon Butcher, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and freelance multimedia producer

Jon Butcher is an American rock, blues songwriter, guitarist and freelance multimedia producer.

05/05/1952

Ed Lee, American politician and attorney, 43rd Mayor of San Francisco (died 2017)

Edwin Mah Lee was an American politician and attorney who served as the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco from 2011 until his death in 2017.

05/05/1950

Maggie MacNeal, Dutch singer

Maggie MacNeal is a Dutch singer. She was a member of Mouth & MacNeal, a pop duo from the Netherlands, who are best known for their million-selling recording of "How Do You Do" in 1972, which topped the Dutch chart and became a US top ten hit, and for representing the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, finishing third with the song "I See a Star", which went on to become a UK top ten hit. In 1980, she represented the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 1980, finishing fifth with the song Amsterdam.

05/05/1948

Bill Ward, English drummer and songwriter

William Thomas Ward is an English drummer. He is the original drummer of Black Sabbath, co-founding the pioneering heavy metal band in 1969 alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. He has released three solo albums, the most recent being Accountable Beasts in 2015.

05/05/1946

Jim Kelly, American actor, athlete, and martial artist (died 2013)

James Milton Kelly was an American athlete, martial artist actor, and professional tennis player. After winning several karate championships, he rose to fame in the early 1970s appearing in action films within the martial arts and blaxploitation genres. Kelly played opposite Bruce Lee in 1973's Enter the Dragon, and had lead roles in 1974's Black Belt Jones as the title character and Three the Hard Way as Mister Keyes.

05/05/1945

Kurt Loder, American journalist, author, and critic

Kurt Loder is an American entertainment critic, author, columnist and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor at Rolling Stone, during a tenure that Reason later called "legendary." He has contributed to articles in Reason, Esquire, Details, New York, and Time. He has also made cameos in several films and television series. He is best known for his role at MTV News beginning in the 1980s and for appearing in other MTV-related television specials. He has hosted the SiriusXM radio show True Stories since 2016.

05/05/1944

Bo Larsson, Swedish footballer (died 2023)

Bo-Göran "Bosse" Larsson was a Swedish professional footballer who played as a midfielder and striker. Best remembered for his time with Malmö FF, he also represented VfB Stuttgart and Trelleborgs FF during his career. A full international between 1964 and 1978, he won 70 caps for the Sweden national team and scored 17 goals. He also represented Sweden at the 1970, 1974 and 1978 FIFA World Cups.

John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor and screenwriter

John Rhys-Davies is a Welsh actor known for portraying Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Sallah in the Indiana Jones franchise. He has received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, with one win, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Roger Rees, Welsh-American actor and director (died 2015)

Roger Rees was a Welsh-American actor and director. He won an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for his performance as the lead in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He also received Obie Awards for his role in The End of the Day and as co-director of Peter and the Starcatcher. Rees was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in November 2015.

05/05/1943

Michael Palin, English actor and screenwriter

Sir Michael Edward Palin is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.

Ignacio Ramonet, Spanish journalist and author

Ignacio Ramonet Miguez is a Spanish academic, journalist, and writer who has been based in Paris for much of his career. After becoming first known for writing on film and media, he became editor-in-chief of Le Monde diplomatique, serving from 1991 until March 2008. Under his leadership, LMD established editorial independence in 1996 from Le Monde, with which it had been affiliated since 1954.

05/05/1942

Jean Corston, Baroness Corston, English lawyer and politician

Jean Ann Corston, Baroness Corston,, is a British politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol East from 1992 to 2005, during which time she served as Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 2001 to 2005.

Tammy Wynette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1998)

Tammy Wynette was an American country music singer and songwriter, considered among the genre's most influential and successful artists. Along with Loretta Lynn, Wynette helped bring a woman's perspective to the male-dominated country music field that helped other women find representation in the genre. Her characteristic vocal delivery has been acclaimed by critics, journalists and writers for conveying unique emotion. Twenty of her singles topped the US country chart during her career. Her signature song "Stand by Your Man" received both acclaim and criticism for its portrayal of women's loyalty to their husbands.

05/05/1940

Lance Henriksen, American actor

Lance Henriksen is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction, action and horror genre productions, including Bishop in the Alien film franchise and Frank Black in the television series Millennium (1996–99) and The X-Files (1999).

05/05/1939

Ray Gosling, English journalist, author, and activist (died 2013)

Raymond Arthur Gosling was an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and gay rights activist.

Bill Watts, American professional wrestler and promoter

William F. Watts Jr., better known under the ring name Bill Watts, is a retired American professional wrestler, promoter and former American football player. Watts garnered fame under his "Cowboy" gimmick in his wrestling career, and then as a promoter in the Mid-South United States, which grew to become the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). Watts also worked under the ring name Doctor Scarlett which was sometimes stylised as Dr. Scarlett.

05/05/1938

Michael Murphy, American actor

Michael George Murphy is an American film, television and stage actor. He often plays unethical or morally ambiguous characters in positions of authority, including executives, politicians, law enforcement agents, lawyers, judges, academics, doctors and clerics. He is also known for his frequent collaborations with director Robert Altman, having appeared in twelve productions directed by Altman in a period spanning from 1963 to 2004, including his leading titular role in the HBO cable miniseries Tanner '88.

05/05/1937

Beryl Burton, English racing cyclist (died 1996)

Beryl Burton OBE was an English racing cyclist who dominated the women's sport, winning more than 90 domestic championships and seven world titles, and setting numerous national records. In 1967, she set a world record for the 12-hour time-trial which exceeded the men's record for two years.

Delia Derbyshire, English musician, arranger and composer (died 2001)

Delia Ann Derbyshire was an English musician and composer of electronic music. She worked with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop during the 1960s, including an electronic arrangement of the theme music to the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. She has been referred to as "the unsung heroine of British electronic music", having influenced musicians including Aphex Twin, the Chemical Brothers and Paul Hartnoll of Orbital.

05/05/1936

Sandy Baron, American actor and comedian (died 2001)

Sandy Baron was an American actor and comedian who performed on stage, in films, and on television. He is best known for his recurring role of Jack Klompus on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld.

05/05/1935

Eddie Linden, Scottish poet and magazine editor (died 2023)

Edward Sean Linden was a Scottish-Irish poet, literary magazine editor, and political activist. From 1969 to 2002, he published and edited the poetry magazine Aquarius, which The Irish Post said made him "one of the leading figures on the international poetry scene". The journal was significant in the growth of British, Irish, and international poets and has been described as Linden's "crowning gift to literature—the nurturing and developing of poetic talent".

Bernard Pivot, French journalist, talk show host, and producer (died 2024)

Bernard Pivot was a French journalist, interviewer and host of cultural television programmes. He was chairman of the Académie Goncourt from 2014 to 2020.

05/05/1934

Henri Konan Bédié, Ivorian politician, 2nd President of Côte d'Ivoire (died 2023)

Aimé Henri Konan Bédié was an Ivorian politician. He was President of Côte d'Ivoire from 1993 to 1999, and formerly President of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast – African Democratic Rally (PDCI–RDA). Prior to becoming president, he was a member and president of the National Assembly of Ivory Coast. He unsuccessfully sought another term as president in the 2020 presidential election.

Victor Garland, Australian accountant and politician, 26th Australian Minister for Veterans' Affairs (died 2022)

Sir Ransley Victor Garland KBE, usually known as Vic Garland, was an Australian politician and diplomat. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1969 to 1981, representing the Liberal Party, and served as a minister in the McMahon and Fraser governments. He later served as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1983.

05/05/1933

Collie Smith, Jamaican cricketer (died 1959)

O'Neil Gordon "Collie" Smith was a West Indian international cricketer.

05/05/1932

Stan Goldberg, American illustrator (died 2014)

Stan Goldberg was an American comic book artist, best known for his work with Archie Comics and as a Marvel Comics colorist who in the 1960s helped design the original color schemes of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and other major characters. He was inducted into the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame in 2011.

05/05/1929

Ilene Woods, American actress (died 2010)

Jacqueline Ruth Woods, better known as Ilene Woods, was an American actress and singer. Woods was best known as the original voice of the title character of Walt Disney animated film Cinderella, for which she was named a Disney Legend in 2003.

05/05/1927

Pat Carroll, American actress (died 2022)

Patricia Ann Carroll was an American actress and comedian. She is best known for providing the voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid. She made guest appearances in many popular television series including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverne & Shirley, and ER; she also had a regular role on The Danny Thomas Show as Bunny Halper. Carroll was an Emmy, Drama Desk, and Grammy Award winner, as well as a Tony Award nominee.

05/05/1925

Leo Ryan, American soldier, educator, and politician (died 1978)

Leo Joseph Ryan Jr. was an American politician and teacher. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented California's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 until his assassination in the Jonestown massacre in 1978. Before that, he served in the California State Assembly, representing the state's 27th district.

05/05/1923

William C. Campbell, American golfer (died 2013)

William Cammack Campbell, often known as Bill Campbell or William C. Campbell, became one of the most distinguished amateur golfers in golf history. Campbell was two-time President of the United States Golf Association (USGA) and one time Captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. He was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990.

Cathleen Synge Morawetz, Canadian mathematician (died 2017)

Cathleen Synge Morawetz was a Canadian mathematician who spent much of her career in the United States. Morawetz's research was mainly in the study of the partial differential equations governing fluid flow, particularly those of mixed type occurring in transonic flow. She was professor emerita at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at the New York University, where she had also served as director from 1984 to 1988. She was president of the American Mathematical Society from 1995 to 1996. She was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1998.

05/05/1922

Irene Gut Opdyke, Polish nurse and humanitarian (died 2003)

Irene Gut Opdyke was a Polish nurse who gained international recognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II. She was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for risking her life to save 12 Jews.

05/05/1921

Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999)

Arthur Leonard Schawlow was an American physicist who, along with Charles Townes, developed the theoretical basis for laser science. His central insight was the use of two mirrors as the resonant cavity to take maser action from microwaves to visible wavelengths. He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn for his work using lasers to determine atomic energy levels with great precision.

05/05/1919

Georgios Papadopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1999)

Georgios Papadopoulos was a Greek military officer and dictator who led a coup d'etat in Greece in 1967 and became the country's Prime Minister from 1967 to 1973. He also was the President of Greece under the junta in 1973, following a referendum. However, after causing a massacre by deploying military riflemen and a tank brigade to attack non-violent protestors to suppress the Athens Polytechnic uprising, he was, in turn, overthrown by hardliner Dimitrios Ioannidis, in a string of events that would culminate in the fall of the regime in 1974. His and the dictatorship's legacy, as well as its methods he constructed and effects on Greek economy and society as a whole, are still fiercely debated.

05/05/1916

Zail Singh, Indian politician, 7th President of India (died 1994)

Giani Zail Singh was an Indian politician who served as President of India from 1982 to 1987 and chief minister of Punjab in the 1970s. He was the first Sikh to become president.

05/05/1915

Alice Faye, American actress and singer (died 1998)

Alice Faye was an American actress and singer. A musical star of 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, Faye starred in such films as On the Avenue (1937) and Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938). She is often associated with the Academy Award–winning standard "You'll Never Know", which she introduced in the 1943 musical film Hello, Frisco, Hello.

05/05/1914

Tyrone Power, American actor (died 1958)

Tyrone Edmund Power III was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include Jesse James, The Mark of Zorro, Marie Antoinette, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan, Prince of Foxes, Witness for the Prosecution, The Black Rose, and Captain from Castile. Power's own favorite film among those in which he starred was Nightmare Alley.

05/05/1913

Duane Carter, American race car driver (died 1993)

Duane Claude Carter was an American racecar driver. He raced midget cars, sprint cars, and IndyCars. Carter was born in Fresno, California, and he died in Indianapolis, Indiana. His son Pancho raced in Indy cars, along with Johnny Parsons.

05/05/1911

Andor Lilienthal, Russian-Hungarian chess player (died 2010)

Andor Arnoldovich Lilienthal was a Hungarian and Soviet chess player. In his long career, he played against ten male and female world champions, beating Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, and Vera Menchik.

Pritilata Waddedar, Indian educator and activist (died 1932)

Pritilata Waddedar was a Bengali revolutionary nationalist from Chittagong who was influential in the Indian independence movement. She is often praised as "Bengal's first woman martyr".

05/05/1910

Leo Lionni, American author and illustrator (died 1999)

Leo Lionni was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Born in the Netherlands, he moved to Italy and lived there before moving to the United States in 1939, where he worked as an art director for several advertising agencies, and then for Fortune magazine. He returned to Italy in 1962 and started writing and illustrating children's books. In 1962, his book Inch by Inch was awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.

05/05/1907

Daryna Dmytrivna Polotniuk, Bukovinian (Ukrainian) journalist and author (died 1982)

Daryna Polotniuk, better known by her pen name Iryna Vilde, was a Ukrainian and Soviet writer and correspondent. Vilde's works are now considered classics of Ukrainian literature.

05/05/1905

Floyd Gottfredson, American author and illustrator (died 1986)

Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was an American cartoonist best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse comic strip, which he worked on from 1930 until his retirement in 1975. His contribution to Mickey Mouse comics is comparable to Carl Barks's on the Donald Duck comics. 17 years after his death, his memory was honored with the Disney Legends award in 2003 and induction into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.

05/05/1903

James Beard, American chef and author (died 1985)

James Andrews Beard was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, Oregon, and lectured widely. He emphasized American cooking, prepared with fresh and wholesome American ingredients, to a country just becoming aware of its own culinary heritage. Beard taught and mentored generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. He published more than twenty books, and his memory is honored by his foundation's annual James Beard Awards.

05/05/1901

Janne Mustonen, Finnish politician (died 1964)

Johannes Aadolfinpoika Mustonen was a Finnish politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Communist Party of Finland and the Finnish People's Democratic League, he represented Oulu Province between April 1945 and February 1962 and between December 1963 and May 1964. Prior to being elected, he was imprisoned for eight years for political reasons.

05/05/1900

Helen Redfield, American geneticist (died 1988)

Helen Redfield, was an American geneticist. Redfield graduated from Rice University in 1920, followed by earning her Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1921. While at Rice, she worked in the mathematics department. She joined the faculty of Stanford University in 1925 and that same year she became a National Research Fellow at Columbia University. In 1926 she married Jack Schultz, the couple had two children. Redfield retained her maiden name upon her marriage. In 1929 she worked as a teaching fellow at New York University. Ten years later she worked as a geneticist in the Kerckhoff Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Starting in 1942, during World War II, she worked as a lab scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory during the summer. From 1951 until 1961 she served as a research associate at the Institute for Cancer Research.

05/05/1898

Elsie Eaves, American engineer (died 1983)

Elsie Eaves was a pioneering American female engineer. She was the first female associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the first female member of the American Association of Cost Engineers.

Blind Willie McTell, American Piedmont blues singer and guitar player (died 1959)

Blind Willie McTell was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played in a fluid, syncopated finger picking guitar style common among many East Coast, Piedmont blues players. Like his Atlanta contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also adept at slide guitar, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. He sang in a smooth and often laid-back tenor which differed greatly from the harsher voices of many Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton. He performed in various musical styles including blues, ragtime, religious music, and hokum and recorded more than 120 titles during fourteen recording sessions.

05/05/1892

Dorothy Garrod, British archaeologist (died 1968)

Dorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod, CBE, FBA was an English archaeologist who specialised in the Palaeolithic period. She held the position of Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1939 to 1952, and was the first woman to hold a chair at either Oxford or Cambridge.

05/05/1890

Christopher Morley, American journalist and author (died 1957)

Christopher Darlington Morley was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He also produced stage productions for a few years and gave college lectures.

05/05/1889

Herbie Taylor, South African cricketer and soldier (died 1973)

Herbert Wilfred Taylor was a South African cricketer who played 42 Test matches for his country including 18 as captain of the side. Specifically a batsman, he was an expert on the matting pitches which were prevalent in South Africa at the time and scored six of his seven centuries at home. His batting was also noted for quick footwork and exceptional 'backplay'. He became the first South African to pass 2,500 Test runs and was selected one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 1925. In domestic cricket, he played for Natal, Transvaal and Western Province.

05/05/1884

Chief Bender, American baseball player and coach (died 1954)

Charles Albert "Chief" Bender was a Native American professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball during the 1900s and 1910s. In 1911, Bender tied a record by pitching three complete games in a single World Series. He finished his career with a 212–127 win–loss record for a .625 winning percentage and a career 2.46 earned run average (ERA).

05/05/1883

Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, English general and politician, 43rd Governor-General of India (died 1950)

Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell was a senior officer of the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign and the First World War, during which he was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres. In the Second World War, he served initially as Commander-in-Chief Middle East, in which role he led British forces to victory over the Italian Army in Eritrea-Abyssinia, western Egypt and eastern Libya during Operation Compass in December 1940, only to be defeated by Erwin Rommel's Panzer Army Africa in the Western Desert in April 1941. He served as Commander-in-Chief, India, from July 1941 until June 1943 and then served as Viceroy of India until his retirement in February 1947.

Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler, American mathematician (died 1966)

Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler was an American mathematician. She is best known for early work on linear algebra in infinite dimensions, which has later become a part of functional analysis.

05/05/1882

Sylvia Pankhurst, English women's suffrage movement leader and socialist activist (died 1960)

Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst was an English feminist and socialist activist and writer. Following encounters with women-led labour activism in the United States, she worked to organise working-class women in London's East End. This, together with her refusal in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with the government, caused her to break with the suffragette leadership of her mother and sister, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. Pankhurst welcomed the Russian Revolution and conferred in Moscow with Lenin. But as an advocate of workers' control, she rejected the Leninist party line and criticised the Bolshevik regime.

05/05/1874

Thomas Bavin, New Zealand-Australian politician, 24th Premier of New South Wales (died 1941)

Sir Thomas Rainsford Bavin, was an Australian lawyer and politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1927 to 1930. He was born in New Zealand and arrived in Australia at the age of 15, where he studied law and became a barrister. He served as personal secretary to Australia's first two prime ministers, Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin. Bavin was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1917. He served two terms as Attorney General of New South Wales before leading the Nationalist Party to victory at the 1927 state election, in a coalition with the Country Party. His predecessor Jack Lang and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) defeated his government after a single term at the 1930 state election.

05/05/1873

Leon Czolgosz, American assassin of William McKinley (died 1901)

Leon Frank Czolgosz was an American wireworker and anarchist who assassinated United States president William McKinley in 1901. Czolgosz had lost his job during the economic Panic of 1893 and turned to anarchism. He regarded McKinley as a symbol of oppression and believed that it was his duty as an anarchist to assassinate him. Czolgosz shot McKinley in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, and was immediately arrested. McKinley died on September 14 after his wound became infected. A month later, Czolgosz was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to death. He was executed by the electric chair on October 29.

05/05/1869

Fabián de la Rosa, Filipino painter and educator (died 1937)

Don Fabián de la Rosa y Cueto was a Filipino painter. He was the uncle and mentor to the Philippines' national artist in painting, Fernando Amorsolo, and to his brother Pablo. He is regarded as a "master of genre" in Philippine art.

Hans Pfitzner, German composer and conductor (died 1949)

Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer, conductor and polemicist who was a self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina (1917), very loosely based on the life of the sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and his Missa Papae Marcelli.

05/05/1866

Thomas B. Thrige, Danish businessman (died 1938)

Thomas Barfoed Thrige was a Danish entrepreneur, industrialist and businessman. In 1894, he started the company Thomas B. Thrige, a manufacturer of electric motors, now known as T-T Electric. The power station of his factory in Odense is now the Thriges Kraftcentral museum run by Odense City Museums.

05/05/1865

Helen Maud Merrill, American litterateur and poet (died 1943)

Helen Maud Merrill was an American litterateur and poet from Maine. Her first published poem was in the Waterville Sentinel, in 1882. During the decade of 1882–1892, Merrill contributed numerous poems to the St. Nicholas Magazine, Portland Transcript, the Gospel Banner and other journals. She also engaged in editorial work.

05/05/1864

Nellie Bly, American journalist and author (died 1922)

Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and for an exposé in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. She ushered in the era of stunt girl reporting and helped advance a new kind of immersion journalism.

05/05/1859

Charles B. Hanford, American Shakespearean actor (died 1926)

Charles Barnum Hanford was an American stage actor, known as one of the most popular American Shakespearean actors of his time. After an early career working with leading actors such as Edwin Booth, Thomas W. Keene, and Julia Marlowe, he established his own company and appeared often opposite his wife, the actress Marie Drofnah.

05/05/1858

John L. Leal, American physician (died 1914)

John Laing Leal was an American physician and water treatment expert who, in 1908, was responsible for conceiving and implementing the first disinfection of a U.S. drinking water supply using chlorine. He was one of the principal expert witnesses at two trials which examined the quality of the water supply in Jersey City, New Jersey, and which evaluated the safety and utility of chlorine for production of "pure and wholesome" drinking water. The second trial verdict approved the use of chlorine to disinfect drinking water which led to an explosion of its use in water supplies across the U.S.

05/05/1846

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1916)

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz, also known by the pseudonym Litwos, was a Polish epic writer. He is remembered for his historical novels, such as the Trilogy series and especially for his internationally known best-seller Quo Vadis (1895–1896).

05/05/1843

William George Beers, Canadian dentist and patriot (died 1900)

William George Beers was a Canadian dentist who founded Canada's first dental journal and served as the founding dean of the Dental College of the Province of Quebec. In addition, he is referred to as the "father of modern lacrosse" for his work establishing the first set of playing rules for the game.

05/05/1834

Viktor Hartmann, Russian painter and architect (died 1873)

Viktor Aleksandrovich Hartmann or Gartman was a Russian architect and painter. He was associated with the Abramtsevo Colony, purchased and preserved beginning in 1870 by Savva Mamontov, and the Russian Revival.

05/05/1833

Ferdinand von Richthofen, German geographer and academic (died 1905)

Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen, better known in English as Baron von Richthofen, was a German traveller, geographer, and scientist. He is noted for coining the terms "Seidenstraße" and "Seidenstraßen" = "Silk Road(s)" or "Silk Route(s)" in 1877. He also standardized the practices of chorography and chorology.

05/05/1832

Hubert Howe Bancroft, American ethnologist and historian (died 1918)

Hubert Howe Bancroft was an American historian and ethnologist who wrote, published, and collected works concerning the Western United States, Texas, California, Alaska, Mexico, Central America, and British Columbia.

05/05/1830

John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company (died 1906)

John Batterson Stetson was an American hat maker who invented the cowboy hat in the 1860s. He founded the John B. Stetson Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1865, and it became one of the largest hat manufacturers in the world. The company's hats are now commonly referred to simply as Stetsons.

05/05/1826

Eugénie de Montijo, French wife of Napoleon III (died 1920)

Eugénie de Montijo was Empress of the French from her marriage to Napoleon III on 30 January 1853 until he was overthrown on 4 September 1870. From 28 July to 4 September 1870, she was the de facto head of state of France.

05/05/1818

Karl Marx, German philosopher, sociologist, and journalist (died 1883)

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, social and political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He developed the theory of historical materialism, analyzing class struggle under capitalism and predicting the system's overthrow by the proletariat in favour of communism. Marx co-authored The Communist Manifesto (1848) with his lifelong friend Friedrich Engels, and undertook a critique of classical political economy in his magnum opus, Das Kapital (1867–1894). Marx's ideas and their subsequent development, collectively known as Marxism, have had enormous influence and have influenced revolutions and uprisings in many countries.

05/05/1813

Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher and author (died 1855)

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish Lutheran theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christianity, morality, ethics, psychology, love, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", highlighting the importance of authenticity, personal choice and commitment, and the duty to love. Kierkegaard prioritized concrete human reality over abstract thinking.

05/05/1800

Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (died 1864)

Louis Christophe François Hachette was a French publisher who established a Paris publishing house designed to produce books and other material to improve the system of school instruction. Publications were initially focused on the classics and subsequently expanded to include books and magazines of all types. The firm is currently part of a global publishing house.

05/05/1764

Robert Craufurd, Scottish general and politician (died 1812)

Major-General Robert Craufurd was a British Army officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. After a military career which took him from India to the Netherlands, in 1810 in the Peninsular War he was given command of the Light Division, composed of the elite foot soldiers in the army at the time, under the Duke of Wellington. Craufurd was a strict disciplinarian and somewhat prone to violent mood swings which earned him the nickname "Black Bob". He was mortally wounded storming the lesser breach in the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo on 19 January 1812 and died four days later.

05/05/1749

Jean-Frédéric Edelmann, French pianist and composer (died 1794)

Jean-Frédéric Edelmann was a French classical composer. He was born in Strasbourg to a Protestant family of Alsatian descent. After studying law and music, he moved to Paris in 1774 where he played and taught the piano. It is possible that Edelmann worked for some time in London. During the French Revolution he was appointed administrator of the Bas-Rhin. In late May 1794 he was arrested after a false accusation of treason. Sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 17 July 1794, he was executed the same day by guillotine in Place de la Barrière du Trône together with his brother Louis, other two Strasbourg citizens, and the sixteen Carmelite nuns of Compiègne. His work was praised by Haydn and Mozart.

05/05/1747

Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1792)

Leopold II was the penultimate Holy Roman Emperor, as well as King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Queen Maria Carolina, Duchess Maria Amalia of Parma, and Emperor Joseph II. Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism like his brother Joseph II. He granted the Academy of Georgofili his protection. Unusually for his time, he opposed the death penalty and torture and abolished it in Tuscany on 30 November 1786 during his rule there, making it the first nation in modern history to do so. This act has been commemorated since 2000 by a regional custom known as the Feast of Tuscany, held every 30 November. Despite his brief reign, he is highly regarded. The historian Paul W. Schroeder called him "one of the most shrewd and sensible monarchs ever to wear a crown".

05/05/1684

Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné, French wife of Adrien Maurice de Noailles (died 1739)

Baroness Françoise Charlotte Amable d'Aubigné-Maintenon, Duchess of Noailles was a French aristocrat, the wife of Adrien Maurice de Noailles, 3rd Duke of Noailles. She was the niece of Françoise d'Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon, and her heiress.

05/05/1582

John Frederick, Duke of Württemberg (died 1628)

John Frederick of Württemberg was the Duke of Württemberg from 4 February 1608 until his death on 18 July 1628 whilst en route to Heidenheim.

05/05/1542

Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire (died 1623)

Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter KG, known as Lord Burghley from 1598 to 1605, was an English politician, courtier and soldier.

05/05/1530

Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, French nobleman (died 1574)

Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery, Lord of Lorges and Ducey, was a French nobleman of Scottish extraction and captain of the Scots Guard of King Henry II of France. He is remembered for mortally injuring Henry II in a jousting accident and subsequently converting to Protestantism, the faith that the Scots Guard sought to suppress. He later became a leader of the Huguenots and was executed for his actions in the French Wars of Religion. In French-language contexts, his name is spelled Montgommery.

05/05/1504

Stanislaus Hosius, Polish cardinal (died 1579)

Stanislaus Hosius was a Polish Roman Catholic cardinal. From 1551 he was the Prince-Bishop of the Bishopric of Warmia in Royal Prussia, and from 1558, he served as the papal legate to the Holy Roman Emperor's Imperial Court in Vienna, Austria. From 1566 he was also the papal legate to Poland.

05/05/1479

Guru Amar Das, Indian 3rd Sikh Guru (died 1574)

Guru Amar Das, sometimes spelled as Guru Amardas, was the third guru of Sikhism and became Sikh Guru on 26 March 1552 at age 73.

05/05/1352

Rupert of Germany, Count Palatine of the Rhine (died 1410)

Rupert of the Palatinate, a member of the House of Wittelsbach, was Elector Palatine from 1398 and King of the Romans from 1400 until his death.

05/05/1310

Preczlaw of Pogarell, Cardinal and Bishop of Wrocław (died 1376)

Przecław of Pogorzela was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop of Wrocław and Duke of Nysa from 1342–1376.

05/05/1282

Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena (died 1348)

Don Juan Manuel was a Spanish medieval writer, nephew of Alfonso X of Castile, son of Manuel of Castile and Beatrice of Savoy. He inherited from his father the great Lordship of Villena, receiving the titles of Lord, Duke and lastly Prince of Villena. He married three times, choosing his wives for political and economic convenience, and worked to match his children with partners associated with royalty. Juan Manuel became one of the richest and most powerful men of his time, coining his own currency as the kings did. During his life, he was criticised for choosing literature as his vocation, an activity thought inferior for a nobleman of such prestige.

05/05/1210

Afonso III of Portugal (died 1279)

Afonso III, called the Boulonnais, was King of Portugal and the first to use the title King of Portugal and the Algarve, from 1249. He was the second son of King Afonso II of Portugal and Urraca of Castile; he succeeded his brother, King Sancho II of Portugal, who died on 4 January 1248.

Lives Remembered on 5th May

On 5th May, 95 remarkable people passed away — from 465 to 2026. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

05/05/2026

Chris Phelan, Irish-Australian rugby league player (born 1955)

Chris Phelan was an Irish-born Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s. He was a state representative versatile forward for Queensland and a two-time New South Wales Rugby League premiership-winner with the Parramatta Eels.

05/05/2024

Jeannie Epper, American stuntwoman and actress (born 1941)

Jean Luann Epper was an American stuntwoman and actress. She performed stunts in over 100 feature films and television series and is perhaps best known as Lynda Carter's stunt double on the 1970s television series Wonder Woman. She was featured in Amanda Micheli's 2004 documentary Double Dare, along with New Zealand stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell. Entertainment Weekly noted that many consider her "the greatest stuntwoman who's ever lived."

Bernard Hill, English actor (born 1944)

Bernard Hill was an English actor. He was known for his versatile performances in both television and film, and his career spanned over fifty years.

César Luis Menotti, Argentine footballer and manager (born 1938)

César Luis Menotti, known as El Flaco ("Slim"), was an Argentine football player and manager who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as the head coach of the Argentina national team.

05/05/2020

Millie Small, Jamaican singer-songwriter (born 1947)

Millicent Dolly May Small CD was a Jamaican singer who is best known for her international hit "My Boy Lollipop" (1964). The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million copies worldwide. It was also the first major hit for Island Records and helped to achieve the label its mainstream success. She was the Caribbean's first international recording star and its most successful female performer.

05/05/2017

Binyamin Elon, Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician (born 1954)

Rabbi Binyamin "Benny" Elon was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Moledet and the National Union between 1996 and 2009. A ninth-generation Jerusalemite, Elon lived in Beit El, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, for over twenty years, and was married to author and journalist Emuna Elon. They had six children. His father, Menachem Elon, was the former Deputy Chief Justice of Israel. His brother, disgraced Rabbi Mordechai Elon, has been a prominent controversial figure in the Religious Zionist Movement.

Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, Mauritanian politician (born 1953)

Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall was a Mauritanian political and military figure. Following a coup d'état in August 2005, he served as the transitional military leader of Mauritania until 19 April 2007, when he relinquished power to an elected government.

05/05/2015

Jobst Brandt, American cyclist, engineer, and author (born 1935)

Jobst Brandt was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, bicycle enthusiast, educator, and author.

Hans Jansen, Dutch linguist, academic, and politician (born 1942)

Johannes Juliaan Gijsbert "Hans" Jansen was a Dutch politician, scholar of contemporary Islam and author.

05/05/2014

Michael Otedola, Nigerian journalist and politician, 9th Governor of Lagos State (born 1926)

Michael Agbolade Otedola KSS was a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Lagos State during the Nigerian Third Republic.

05/05/2013

Sarah Kirsch, German poet and author (born 1935)

Sarah Kirsch was a German poet.

Robert Ressler, American FBI agent and author (born 1937)

Robert Kenneth Ressler was an American FBI agent and author. He played a significant role in the psychological profiling of violent offenders in the 1970s and is often credited with coining the term "serial killer", though the term is a direct translation of the German term Serienmörder coined in 1930 by Berlin investigator Ernst Gennat. After retiring from the FBI, he authored a number of books on serial murders, and often gave lectures on criminology.

05/05/2012

Surendranath, Indian cricketer (born 1937)

Surendra Nath was an Indian cricketer who played in eleven Test matches between 1958 and 1961. He was primarily a medium-pace swing bowler, who enjoyed a particularly successful tour of England in 1959.

Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (born 1916)

Carl Johan Arthur, Prince Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, was the fourth son and fifth and youngest child of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught.

Aatos Erkko, Finnish journalist and publisher (born 1932)

Aatos Juho Michel Erkko was a Finnish newspaper editor, newspaper publisher, and the main owner of the Sanoma Corporation and the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, of which he was also the editor in chief.

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

George Knobel was a Dutch football manager.

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

Radhakrishna Lutchmana "Roy" Padayachie was a South African politician and activist. He was a cabinet minister between November 2010 and his death in May 2012. At the same time he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly between April 2004 and May 2012.

05/05/2011

Claude Choules, English-Australian soldier (born 1901)

Claude Stanley Choules was a British-born military serviceman from Pershore, Worcestershire, who at the time of his death was the oldest combat veteran of the First World War. He served with the Royal Navy from 1915 until 1926. After having emigrated to Australia he served with the Royal Australian Navy, from 1926 until 1956, as a chief petty officer and was a naturalised Australian citizen. He was the last surviving military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919 and the last surviving veteran to have served in both world wars. At the time of his death, he was the third-oldest verified military veteran in the world and the oldest known living man in Australia. He was the seventh-oldest living man in the world. Choules became the oldest man born in the United Kingdom following the death of Stanley Lucas on 21 June 2010. Choules died at the age of 110 years and 63 days. He had been the oldest British-born man; following his death, that honour went to the Reverend Reginald Dean. In December 2011, the landing ship HMAS Choules was named after him, only the second Royal Australian Navy vessel named after a sailor.

Yosef Merimovich, Israeli footballer and manager (born 1924)

Yosef "Yosale" Merimovich was a football player and manager. A one-club man, he played as a forward for Maccabi Tel Aviv between 1947 and 1958, winning six championships and six cups. Born in Cyprus, he represented the Israel national team at international level. He went on to coach both Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Israel national team on multiple occasions.

Dana Wynter, British actress (born 1931)

Dana Wynter was a German-born British actress who was raised in the United Kingdom and southern Africa. She appeared in film and television for more than 40 years, beginning in the 1950s. One of her best-known film performances was in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). A tall, dark, elegant beauty, she played both victim and villain. Her characters both in film and on television sometimes faced horrific dangers, which they often did not survive, but she also played scheming, manipulative women on television mysteries and crime procedural dramas.

05/05/2010

Giulietta Simionato, Italian soprano (born 1910)

Giulietta Simionato was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned the period from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966.

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

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2007 until his death in May 2010. He won the Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 2007.

05/05/2008

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

Irvine "Irv" Isaac Robbins was a Canadian-born American businessman. He co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1945 with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin.

Jerry Wallace, American singer and guitarist (born 1928)

Jerry Leon Wallace was an American country and pop singer. Between 1958 and 1964, Wallace charted nine hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the No. 8 "Primrose Lane" that was later used as the theme song for the television series The Smith Family. He made his debut on the country music charts in 1965, entering it thirty-five times between then and 1980. In that timespan, Wallace charted within the country Top Ten four times. His only number one song was "If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry," a song which gained popularity after it was used in an episode of the 1970s TV series Night Gallery.

05/05/2007

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

Theodore Harold Maiman was an American engineer and physicist who is widely credited with the invention of the laser. Maiman's laser led to the subsequent development of many other types of lasers. The laser was successfully fired on May 16, 1960. In a July 7, 1960, press conference in Manhattan, Maiman and his employer, Hughes Aircraft Company, announced the laser to the world. Maiman was granted a patent for his invention, and he received many awards and honors for his work. His experiences in developing the first laser and subsequent related events are recounted in his book, The Laser Odyssey, later being republished in 2018 under a new title, The Laser Inventor: Memoirs of Theodore H. Maiman.

05/05/2006

Naushad Ali, Indian composer and producer (born 1919)

Naushad Ali was an Indian composer for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is respectfully remembered as "Moseeqar-e-Azam" in the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the use of classical music in films.

Atıf Yılmaz, Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1925)

Atıf Yılmaz Batıbeki was a renowned Turkish film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was very much a legend in the film industry of Turkey with 119 movies directed. He also wrote screenplays for 53 movies and produced 28 movies from 1951 right up till his death in 2006. He was active in almost every period of the Turkish film industry.

05/05/2003

Sam Bockarie, Sierra Leonean commander (born 1964)

Samuel Sam Bockarie, widely known as Mosquito, was a Sierra Leonean politician and army commander who served as a leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Bockarie was infamous during the Sierra Leone Civil War for his brutal tactics, which included amputation, mutilation, and rape. He earned the nickname "Mosquito" for his ability to attack when his enemies were off-guard, mainly during the night. In the book Merchant of Death, the author states the nickname came from Bockarie's claims that he would "suck the life out of his enemies." During his service in the RUF, he befriended future Liberian president Charles Taylor, and RUF commander Foday Sankoh. When Sankoh was imprisoned from March 1997 until April 1999, Bockarie served as commander of the RUF in his place.

Walter Sisulu, South African activist and politician (born 1912)

Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), he was Accused No.2 in the Rivonia Trial and was incarcerated on Robben Island where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment for his anti-Apartheid revolutionary activism. He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was also on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

05/05/2002

Hugo Banzer, Bolivian general and politician, 62nd President of Bolivia (born 1926)

Hugo Banzer Suárez was a Bolivian politician and military officer who served as the 51st president of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from 1971 to 1978 as a military dictator; and then again from 1997 to 2001, as a democratically elected president.

Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American engineer, founded Klipsch Audio Technologies (born 1904)

Paul Wilbur Klipsch was an American engineer and high fidelity audio pioneer, known for developing a high-efficiency folded horn loudspeaker. Unsatisfied with the sound quality of phonographs and early speaker systems, Klipsch used scientific principles to develop a corner horn speaker that sounded more lifelike than its predecessors.

George Sidney, American director and producer (born 1916)

George Sidney was an American film director and producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His work includes cult classics Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and Viva Las Vegas (1964). With an extensive background in acting, stage direction, film editing, and music, Sidney created many of post-war Hollywood's big budget musicals, such as Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Show Boat (1951), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Jupiter's Darling (1955), and Pal Joey (1957). He was also a president of the Screen Directors Guild for 16 years.

Louis C. Wyman, American lawyer and politician (born 1917)

Louis Crosby Wyman was an American politician and lawyer. He was a United States representative and a U.S. senator from New Hampshire. He was a member of the Republican Party.

05/05/2001

Morris Graves, American painter and educator (born 1910)

Morris Cole Graves was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysticism, used the muted tones of the Northwest environment, Asian aesthetics and philosophy, and a personal iconography of birds, flowers, chalices, and other images to explore the nature of consciousness.

Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, created CliffsNotes (born 1918)

Clifton K. Hillegass was the creator and publisher of CliffsNotes.

05/05/2000

Gino Bartali, Italian cyclist (born 1914)

Gino Bartali,, nicknamed Gino the Pious and Ginettaccio, was a champion road cyclist. He was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice, in 1936 and 1937, and the Tour de France in 1938. After the war, he added one more victory in each event: the Giro d'Italia in 1946 and the Tour de France in 1948. His second and last Tour de France victory in 1948 gave him the largest gap between victories in the race.

Bill Musselman, American basketball player and coach (born 1940)

William Clifford Musselman was an American basketball coach in the NCAA, the ABA, the WBA, the CBA, and the NBA.

05/05/1999

Vasilis Diamantopoulos, Greek actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1920)

Vasilis Diamantopoulos was a Greek actor. He was one of the founders of the Modern Theater and was the first actor to appear live on Greek television in the single act play Him and his pants by Iakovos Kambanellis in 1966. His most characteristic role was that of the austere professor in Giannis Dalianidis' movie Law 4000 and later in shorts including Ekmek Ice Cream in private TV.

05/05/1995

Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player and coach (born 1911)

Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who held five world titles in three different reigns. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess, the last of which he was awarded an honorary mathematics degree for.

05/05/1994

Mário Quintana, Brazilian poet and translator (born 1906)

Mário de Miranda Quintana was a Brazilian writer and translator.

05/05/1993

Irving Howe, American literary and social critic (born 1920)

Irving Howe was an American author, literary and social critic, and a key figure in the democratic socialist movement in the U.S. He co-founded and served as longtime editor of Dissent magazine. In 1976, he wrote the National Book Award-winning World of Our Fathers, a history of East European Jews who immigrated to America.

05/05/1988

Michael Shaara, American author and academic (born 1928)

Michael Shaara was an American author of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction.

05/05/1985

Donald Bailey, English engineer, designed the Bailey bridge (born 1901)

Sir Donald Coleman Bailey, OBE was an English civil engineer who invented the Bailey bridge. Field Marshal Montgomery is recorded as saying that "without the Bailey bridge, we should not have won the war."

05/05/1983

Horst Schumann, German physician (born 1901)

Horst Schumann was an SS-Sturmbannführer (major) and medical doctor who conducted sterilization and castration experiments at Auschwitz and was particularly interested in the mass sterilization of Jews by means of X-rays. Hors d'atteinte, a book by Frédéric Couderc, published in France by Les Escales and Pocket, reveals the extent of Schumann's crimes and his life as a fugitive in Africa.

John Williams, English-American actor (born 1903)

Hugh Ernest Leo Williams, known professionally as John Williams, was an English stage, film and television actor. He is remembered for his role as Chief Inspector Hubbard in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, as the chauffeur in Billy Wilder's Sabrina, as Mr. Brogan-Moore in Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and as the second "Mr. French" on TV's Family Affair in its first season (1967).

05/05/1981

Bobby Sands, PIRA volunteer and hunger striker (born 1954)

Robert Gerard Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.

05/05/1977

Ludwig Erhard, German economist and politician, Chancellor of Germany (born 1897)

Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard was a German politician and economist who served as the second chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. Affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he is known for leading the West German postwar economic reforms and economic recovery in his role as Minister of Economic Affairs under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1949 to 1963. During that period, he promoted the concept of the social market economy, on which Germany's economic policy in the 21st century continues to be based.

05/05/1973

Zekai Özger, Turkish poet and academic (born 1948)

Zekai Özger, better known under his pen name Arkadaş Z. Özger, was a young Turkish poet.

05/05/1971

Violet Jessop, Argentinean-English nurse (born 1887)

Violet Constance Jessop was an Irish-Argentine-born British ocean liner stewardess and Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse during World War I. She is notable for having survived the sinking of both RMS Titanic in 1912 and sister ship HMHS Britannic in 1916, as well as having been aboard the eldest of the three ships of that class, RMS Olympic, when it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke in 1911.

05/05/1965

Nikos Gounaris, Greek tenor and composer (born 1915)

Nikos Gounaris was a Greek tenor who was enormously popular as a light music singer in the 1950s.

John Waters, American director and screenwriter (born 1893)

John Waters was an American film director, second unit director and, initially, an assistant director. His career began in the early days of silent film and culminated in two consecutive Academy Award nominations in the newly instituted category of Best Assistant Director. He won on his second nomination, for MGM's Viva Villa!, and received a certificate of merit; the certificate was replaced with an Oscar statuette in 1965.

05/05/1962

Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (born 1889)

George Ernest Tyldesley was an English cricketer. The younger brother of Johnny Tyldesley and the leading batsman for Lancashire. He remains Lancashire's most prolific run-getter of all time, and is one of only a few batsmen to have scored 100 centuries in the first-class game.

05/05/1959

Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentinian academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1878)

Carlos Saavedra Lamas was an Argentine academic and politician, and in 1936, the first Latin American Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

05/05/1957

Leopold Löwenheim, German mathematician and logician (born 1878)

Leopold Löwenheim [ˈle:o:pɔl̩d ˈlø:vɛnhaɪm] was a German mathematician doing work in mathematical logic. The Nazi regime forced him to retire because under the Nuremberg Laws he was considered only three quarters Aryan. In 1943 much of his work was destroyed during a bombing raid on Berlin. Nevertheless, he survived the Second World War, after which he resumed teaching mathematics.

05/05/1947

Ty LaForest, Canadian-American baseball player (born 1917)

Byron Joseph LaForest was a Canadian professional baseball player who appeared in 52 games in the major leagues, primarily as a third baseman, for the Boston Red Sox during the latter months of the 1945 season. He was born in Edmundston, New Brunswick, and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1921. He attended Waltham High School in the Boston suburb and graduated from Dorchester High School. Listed as 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and 165 pounds (75 kg), he threw and batted right-handed.

05/05/1942

Qemal Stafa, Albanian politician (born 1920)

Qemal Stafa was an Albanian politician and one of the founding members of the Albanian Communist Party, and the leader of its youth section.

05/05/1941

Platon of Banja Luka, Serbian Orthodox bishop (born 1874)

Platon of Banja Luka was a Serbian Orthodox cleric who served as the Bishop of Banja Luka between 1940 and 1941. His tenure ended in May 1941, when he was abducted, tortured and killed by followers of the Ustaše movement.

05/05/1931

Glen Kidston, English pilot and racing driver (born 1899)

George Pearson Glen Kidston was a British motor racing driver and aviator who completed a record-breaking flight from Netheravon, Wiltshire to Cape Town, South Africa, in 1931. He was one of the "Bentley Boys".

05/05/1924

A. Sabapathy, Sri Lankan journalist and politician (born 1853)

Arunachalam Sabapathy was a Ceylon Tamil newspaper editor, politician and member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon.

05/05/1921

Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian journalist and publicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1864)

Alfred Hermann Fried was an Austrian Jewish pacifist, publicist, journalist, co-founder of the German peace movement, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911. Fried was also a supporter of Esperanto. He is the author of an Esperanto textbook and an Esperanto–German and German–Esperanto dictionary, first published in 1903 and republished in 1905.

05/05/1916

John MacBride, executed Irish soldier and rebel (born 1865)

John MacBride was an Irish republican and military leader. He was executed by the British government for his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (born 1866)

Maurice Raoul-Duval was a French polo player who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

05/05/1913

Henry Moret, French painter (born 1856)

Henry Moret was a French Impressionist painter. He was one of the artists who associated with Paul Gauguin at Pont-Aven in Brittany. He is best known for his involvement in the Pont-Aven artist colony and his richly colored landscapes of coastal Brittany.

05/05/1907

Şeker Ahmed Pasha, Turkish soldier and painter (born 1841)

Ahmed Ali Pasha, better known as "Şeker" Ahmed Pasha, was an Ottoman painter, soldier and government official. His nickname "Şeker" meant "sugar" in Turkish, which he earned due to his very easy-going nature.

05/05/1902

Bret Harte, American short story writer and poet (born 1836)

Francis Brett Hart, known as Bret Harte, was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he also wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches.

05/05/1901

Mariano Ignacio Prado, Peruvian general, twice President of Peru (born 1825)

Mariano Ignacio Prado Ochoa was a Peruvian army general who served twice as President of Peru.

05/05/1896

Silas Adams, American lawyer and politician (born 1839)

Silas Adams was an American attorney and politician from Kentucky who served for one term as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky's 11th congressional district.

05/05/1892

August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist and academic (born 1818)

August Wilhelm von Hofmann was a German chemist who made considerable contributions to organic chemistry. His research on aniline helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry, and his research on coal tar laid the groundwork for his student Charles Mansfield's practical methods for extracting benzene and toluene and converting them into nitro compounds and amines. Hofmann's discoveries include formaldehyde, hydrazobenzene, the isonitriles, and allyl alcohol. He prepared three ethylamines and tetraethylammonium compounds and established their structural relationship to ammonia.

05/05/1883

John O'Shanassy, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Victoria (born 1818)

Sir John O'Shanassy, KCMG, was an Irish-Australian politician who served as the 2nd Premier of Victoria. O'Shanassy was born near Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland, the son of a surveyor, and came to the Port Phillip District in 1839. He went into business in Melbourne as a draper, and by 1846 he was rich enough to be elected to the Melbourne City Council and to become the founding chairman of the Colonial Bank of Australasia. By the 1850s he was a major landowner and one of the wealthiest men in the colony. He also became a recognised leader of the large Irish Catholic community.

05/05/1860

Jean-Charles Prince, Canadian bishop (born 1804)

Jean-Charles Prince was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, teacher, seminary administrator, editor, and Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe, Lower Canada from 1852 to 1860.

05/05/1859

Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (born 1805)

Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was a German mathematician. In number theory, he proved special cases of Fermat's Last Theorem and created analytic number theory. In analysis, he advanced the theory of Fourier series and was one of the first to give the modern formal definition of a function. In mathematical physics, he studied potential theory, boundary-value problems, heat diffusion, and hydrodynamics.

05/05/1855

Sir Robert Inglis, 2nd Baronet, English politician (born 1786)

Sir Robert Harry Inglis, 2nd Baronet, FRS was a British Conservative politician, noted for his staunch high church views.

05/05/1833

Sophia Campbell, English-Australian painter (born 1777)

Sophia Campbell was an early Australian settler. She was the wife of politician Robert Campbell.

05/05/1827

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (born 1750)

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony was a member of the House of Wettin who reigned as the last Elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 and as the first King of Saxony from 1806 to 1827. He was also Duke of Warsaw from 1807 to 1815, a short-lived disputed Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1812, and a legitimate candidate to the Polish throne.

05/05/1821

Napoleon, French general and emperor (born 1769)

Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.

05/05/1808

Pierre Jean George Cabanis, French physiologist and philosopher (born 1757)

Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis was a French physiologist, Freemason, materialist philosopher and leading idéologue.

05/05/1766

Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (born 1684)

Jean Astruc was a professor of medicine in France at Montpellier and Paris, who wrote the first great treatise on syphilis and venereal diseases, and also, with a small anonymously published book, played a fundamental part in the origins of critical textual analysis of works of the Bible. Astruc was the first to propose and hypothesize, by using the techniques of textual analysis that were commonplace in studying the secular classics, the theory that Genesis was composed based on several sources or manuscript traditions, an approach now called the documentary hypothesis.

05/05/1760

Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, English politician (born 1720)

Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers was an English nobleman, notable for being the last peer to be hanged, following his conviction for murdering his steward.

05/05/1714

Nathaniel Lawrence, English politician (born c. 1627)

Nathaniel Lawrence was an English politician who served as MP for Colchester in 1685.

05/05/1705

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1640)

Leopold I was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain, Leopold became heir apparent in 1654 after the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV. Elected in 1658, Leopold ruled the Holy Roman Empire until his death in 1705, becoming the second-longest-ruling emperor of the House of Habsburg. He was both a composer and considerable patron of music.

05/05/1700

Angelo Italia, Italian architect (born 1628)

Angelo Italia was an Italian Jesuit and Baroque architect, who was born in Licata and died in Palermo. He designed a number of churches in Sicily, and later worked to reconstruct three cities following the 1693 Sicily earthquake.

05/05/1672

Samuel Cooper, English painter and linguist (born 1609)

Samuel Cooper, sometimes spelt Samuel Cowper, was an English miniature painter. He was the younger brother of Alexander Cooper.

05/05/1671

Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, English general and politician, Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom (born 1602)

Major-General Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, KG, KB, FRS was an English army officer and courtier who commanded Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War and for a time was Oliver Cromwell's superior.

05/05/1586

Henry Sidney, Irish politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland (born 1529)

Sir Henry Sidney was an English soldier, politician and Lord Deputy of Ireland. Instrumental in the Tudor conquest of Ireland, his attempts to consolidate English power in Ireland were a major contributing factor to the Desmond Rebellions.

05/05/1582

Charlotte of Bourbon, Princess consort of Orange, married to William I of Orange (born 1547)

Charlotte of Bourbon was a princess consort of Orange as the third wife of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. She was the fourth daughter of Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, and Jacqueline de Longwy, Countess of Bar-sur-Seine.

05/05/1525

Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (born 1463)

Frederick III, also known as Frederick the Wise, was Prince-elector of Saxony from 1486 to 1525, who is mostly remembered for the protection given to his subject Martin Luther, the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation. Frederick was the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria.

05/05/1432

Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, Italian adventurer

Francesco Bussone, often called Count of Carmagnola, was an Italian condottiero.

05/05/1380

Saint Philotheos, Coptic martyr

Saint Philotheos was a Coptic Orthodox martyr and saint.

05/05/1338

Prince Tsunenaga, son of the Japanese Emperor (born 1324)

Prince Tsunenaga was one of the sons of Japanese Emperor Go-Daigo. He became involved in the Nanboku-chō wars between the true Imperial line and the Ashikaga clan.

05/05/1316

Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, daughter of King Edward I of England (born 1282)

Elizabeth of Rhuddlan was the eighth and youngest daughter of Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile and was born in Rhuddlan Castle in Denbighshire. Of all of her siblings, she was closest to her younger brother Edward II, as they were only two years apart in age.

05/05/1309

Charles II of Naples (born 1254)

Charles II, also known as Charles the Lame, was King of Naples, Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1285–1309), Prince of Achaea (1285–1289), and Count of Anjou and Maine (1285–1290); he also was King of Albania (1285–1294), and claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1285. He was the son of Charles I of Anjou—one of the most powerful European monarchs in the second half of the 13th century—and Beatrice of Provence. His father granted Charles the Principality of Salerno in the Kingdom of Sicily in 1272 and made him regent in Provence and Forcalquier in 1279.

05/05/1306

Constantine Palaiologos, Byzantine general (born 1261)

Constantine Palaiologos or Palaeologus was a Byzantine prince of the Palaiologos dynasty, who also served as a general in the wars against the Serbs and Turks.

05/05/1243

Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent, English justiciar (born c. 1160)

Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent was an English nobleman who served as Chief Justiciar of England (1215–1232) and Justiciar of Ireland (1232) during the reigns of King John and his son and successor King Henry III and, as Regent of England (1219–1227) during Henry's minority, was one of the most influential and powerful men in English politics in the thirteenth century.

05/05/1194

Casimir II the Just, Polish son of Bolesław III Wrymouth (born 1138)

Casimir II the Just was Duke of Wiślica in Lesser Poland from 1166 to 1173, and Duke of Sandomierz from 1173 onward. In 1177, he became ruler of the Polish Seniorate Province at Kraków and thereby High Duke of Poland — a position he held until his death, though briefly interrupted by his elder brother and predecessor, Mieszko III.

05/05/0465

Gerontius, Archbishop of Milan

Gerontius was Archbishop of Milan from 462 to 465. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is 5 May.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 5th May

Children's Day (Japan, South Korea)

Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honour of children, whose date of observance varies by country. In 1925, International Children's Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare. Since 1950, it is celebrated on 1 June in many countries that were part of the Eastern Bloc and Non-Aligned Movement, which follow the suggestion from Women's International Democratic Federation. World Children's Day is celebrated on 20 November to commemorate the issuance of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1959, along with the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on that date in 1989. In some countries, it is Children's Week and not Children's Day.

Christian feast day: Angelus of Jerusalem

Angelus of Jerusalem, OCarm was a Catholic convert from Judaism and a religious priest of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance.

Christian feast day: Aventinus of Tours

Aventinus was a hermit and friend of Thomas Becket. Living the life of a hermit in Tours, France, before being ordained a deacon by Thomas Becket, and subsequently accompanied him to the Synod of Tours in 1163.

Christian feast day: Blessed Caterina Cittadini

Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed" before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".

Christian feast day: Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice

Edmund Ignatius Rice, F.P.M., C.F.C. was a Catholic missionary and educationalist who founded two institutes of religious brothers: the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers.

Christian feast day: Frederick the Wise (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod)

Frederick III, also known as Frederick the Wise, was Prince-elector of Saxony from 1486 to 1525, who is mostly remembered for the protection given to his subject Martin Luther, the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation. Frederick was the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria.

Christian feast day: Gotthard of Hildesheim

Gotthard, also known as Gothard or Godehard the Bishop, was a German bishop venerated as a saint.

Christian feast day: Blessed Grzegorz Bolesław Frąckowiak

Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed" before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".

Christian feast day: Hilary of Arles

Hilary of Arles, also known by his Latin name Hilarius, was a bishop of Arles in Southern France. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, with 5 May being his feast day.

Christian feast day: Jutta of Kulmsee

Jutta of Kulmsee, was a German member of the Third Order of Saint Francis.

Christian feast day: Stanisław Kazimierczyk

Stanisław Kazimierczyk was a Polish Catholic priest and a professed member of the Canons Regular of the Lateran. He became noted for his ardent devotions to both the Eucharist and to his personal patron saint, Stanislaus of Szczepanów, as well as for his charitable dedication to the ill and poor of Kraków.

Christian feast day: May 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

May 4 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 6

Cinco de Mayo (Mexico, United States)

Cinco de Mayo is an annual celebration held on May 5 to celebrate Mexico's victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza. Zaragoza died months after the battle from an illness, however, and a larger French force ultimately defeated the Mexican army at the Second Battle of Puebla and then occupied Mexico City. Following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States began lending money and guns to the Mexican Liberals, pushing France and Mexican Conservatives to the edge of defeat. At the opening of the French chambers in January 1866, Napoleon III announced that he would withdraw French troops from Mexico. In reply to a French request for American neutrality, the American secretary of state William H. Seward replied that French withdrawal from Mexico should be unconditional.

Constitution Day (Kyrgyzstan)

Constitution Day is a holiday to honour the constitution of a country. Constitution Day is often celebrated on the anniversary of the signing, promulgation or adoption of the constitution, or in some cases, to commemorate the change to constitutional monarchy.

Europe Day (Council of Europe)

Europe Day is a day celebrating "peace and unity in Europe" celebrated on 5 May by the Council of Europe and on 9 May by the European Union.

Feast of al-Khadr or Saint George (Palestinian)

Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, regions, and cities from which he is the main patron saint, including England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Catalonia, Aragon, Palestine, Rio de Janeiro, Alcoi, and Genoa, and also where he is an important patron saint, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Syria, and Lebanon.

Indian Arrival Day (Guyana)

Indian Arrival Day is a public holiday that was first started in Trinidad and Tobago to celebrate the East Indian immigrants arrival to the nation during the indentureship period.

International Midwives' Day (International)

The International Day of the Midwife is annually celebrated on 5 May, and was established in 1992 by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) to celebrate and raise awareness about the midwifery profession.

Liberation Day (Denmark, Netherlands)

Liberation Day is a day, often a public holiday, that marks the liberation of a place, similar to an independence day, but differing from it because it does not involve the original creation of statehood. It commemorates the end of an occupation or the fall of a regime or the liberation from both a foreign occupation and a collaborationist regime.

Lusophone Culture Day (Community of Portuguese Language Countries)

The Community of Portuguese Language Countries, also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth or Lusophone Community, is an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations across four continents, where Portuguese is an official language. The CPLP operates as a privileged, multilateral forum for the mutual cooperation of the governments, economies, non-governmental organizations, and peoples of the Lusofonia. The CPLP consists of 9 member states and 34 associate observers, located in Africa, América, Asia, Europe and Oceania, totalling 39 countries and 4 organizations.

World Portuguese Language Day (International)

World Portuguese Language Day is observed annually on May 5. The day is marked through a range of musical performances, literature readings, competitions, cultural shows, art exhibitions, lectures, plays, and other cultural events worldwide in order to highlight the use and spread of the Portuguese language around the world.

Martyrs' Day (Albania)

Martyrs' Day is an Albanian Holiday observed annually on May 5 for the remembrance of those who died for Albanian liberation during World War 2. The date was chosen for its significance as the anniversary of the assassination of Qemal Stafa by Italian fascists in 1942. His death became a symbol of anti-fascism and Albanian liberation.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Awareness Day (Canada and United States)

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls are victims of violence against Indigenous women in Canada and the United States, of those in the First Nations in Canada and Native American communities, but also amongst other Indigenous peoples, such as in Australia and New Zealand. A grassroots movement raises awareness of MMIWG through marches, protests, holding meetings, domestic violence training, building and maintaining records of the missing, and other informational sessions for law enforcement agencies.

National Cartoonist Day

May 5th is National Cartoonist Day, a world-wide celebration of cartoonists and their work. The National Cartoonist Society declared the date in the 1990s to promote support for the cartooning industry, and to recognize the impact they have had on society. The establishment of the Day was spearheaded by co-chairpersons Polly Keener and Ken Alvine of the National Cartoonists Day Committee.

Patriots' Victory Day (Ethiopia)

The Ethiopian Patriots' Victory Day, also called Meyazia 27, is a national holiday in Ethiopia celebrated on 5 May to commemorate the Ethiopian Arbegnoch resistance against Italy during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1937). It also marks Haile Selassie's return to the throne and Italy's defeat following World War II.

Revenge of the Fifth (see Star Wars Day)

Star Wars Day is an informal commemorative day observed annually on May 4 to celebrate the Star Wars media franchise created by filmmaker George Lucas. Observance of the day spread quickly through media and grassroots celebrations since the franchise began in 1977.

Senior Citizens Day (Palau)

This is a list of holidays in Palau.

Soviet Press Day (Soviet Union)

The Soviet Press Day was an annual observance in the Soviet Union, celebrated on May 5. The celebration was done in commemoration of the publishing of the first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda on 5 May [O.S. 22 April] 1912. Soviet Press Day was instituted in 1922 in connection with the tenth anniversary of the founding of Pravda, on decision by the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and by approval of the 11th Party Congress.

Tango no sekku (Japan)

Tango no Sekku (端午の節句), also known as Ayame no hi , originally referred to an annual ceremony held at the Japanese imperial court on May 5. It was one of the five annual court ceremonies called Gosekku. Since the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when the samurai class seized power, Tango no Sekku has become an event to ward off evil spirits for samurai boys. Japanese armour, kabuto (helmets) and Japanese swords were displayed in houses from the Kamakura period to the Muromachi period (1333–1573). From the Edo period (1603–1867), samurai dolls were displayed in homes, koinobori were hung in gardens. From this period, the custom of decorating houses with offerings on Tango no Sekku spread to the peasant and chōnin classes, and paper kabuto began to be displayed. Since the Showa era (1926–1989), miniatures of samurai armor have become more popular than samurai dolls.

Uyghur Doppa Cultural Festival (Doppa Day): 1–2

The Uyghur Doppa Cultural Festival, observed annually on 5 May, celebrates the culture and history of the Uyghurs, a Turkic people originating from Xinjiang, China. It is also known as Uyghur Doppa Day or just Doppa Day. The doppa is a traditional skullcap commonly worn by Uyghurs.

What Happened on 5th May?

51 significant events took place on Friday, 5th May — stretching from 553 to 2023. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

05/05/2023

The World Health Organization declares the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide. Only sovereign states are eligible to join, and it is the largest intergovernmental health organization at the international level.

05/05/2010

Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek government-debt crisis.

The anti-austerity movement in Greece involved a series of demonstrations and general strikes that took place across the country. The events, which began on 5 May 2010, were provoked by plans to cut public spending and raise taxes as austerity measures in exchange for a €110 billion bail-out, aimed at solving the Greek government-debt crisis. Three people were killed on 5 May in one of the largest demonstrations in Greece since 1973.

05/05/2007

Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashes after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Douala, Cameroon, killing all 114 aboard, making it the deadliest aircraft disaster in Cameroon.

Kenya Airways Flight 507 was a scheduled international passenger service between Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and Nairobi, Kenya with a stopover in Douala, Cameroon, operated by Kenya Airways. On 5 May 2007, the Boeing 737-800 aircraft serving the flight crashed immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Cameroon, killing all 114 occupants onboard.

05/05/2006

The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.

Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the southeast, and South Sudan to the south. Sudan has a population of 51.8 million people as of 2025 and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres, making it Africa's third-largest country by area. Sudan's capital and most populous city is Khartoum.

05/05/1994

The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Bishkek Protocol was a provisional ceasefire agreement, signed by the representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, and Russia on May 12, 1994, in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism.

In 1994, the District Court in Singapore sentenced an American teenager, Michael Fay, to be lashed six times with a cane for violating the Vandalism Act. This caused a temporary strain in relations between Singapore and the United States.

05/05/1991

A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man.

The 1991 Washington, D.C., riot, sometimes referred to as the Mount Pleasant riot or Mount Pleasant Disturbance, occurred in May 1991, when rioting broke out in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in response to an African-American female police officer having shot a Salvadoran man in the chest following a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

05/05/1987

Iran–Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States.

The Iran–Contra affair, also referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the Contragate, Iran Initiative, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitated by senior officials of the Reagan administration. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, an anti-Sandinista rebel group in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendments, a series of laws passed by Congress and signed by Ronald Reagan, further funding of the Contras by legislative appropriations was prohibited by Congress, but the Reagan administration continued funding them secretly using non-appropriated funds.

05/05/1985

Ronald Reagan visits the military cemetery at Bitburg and the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he makes a speech.

Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Reagan era.

05/05/1981

Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27.

Robert Gerard Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.

05/05/1980

Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.

The Iranian Embassy siege took place from 30 April to 5 May 1980, after a group of six armed men stormed the Iranian embassy on Prince's Gate in South Kensington, London.

05/05/1973

Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59.4, an as-yet-unbeaten record.

Secretariat, also known as Big Red, was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who was the ninth winner of the American Triple Crown, setting and still holding the fastest time record in all three of its constituent races. He became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and his record-breaking victory in the Belmont Stakes, which he won by 31 lengths, is often considered the greatest race ever run by a thoroughbred racehorse. During his racing career, he won five Eclipse Awards, including Horse of the Year honors at ages two and three. Widely regarded as one of the greatest racehorses of all time, he was nominated to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974. In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, Secretariat was second to Man o' War.

05/05/1972

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

Alitalia Flight 112 was a scheduled flight from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, in Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport in Palermo, Italy, with 115 on board. On 5 May 1972, the Douglas DC-8-43 crashed into Mount Longa, about 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Palermo while on approach to the airport, killing all 115 passengers and crew onboard. Investigators believe that the crew had three miles visibility and did not adhere to the established vectors issued by air traffic control, while according to an independent investigation the accident was caused by an explosion on board.

05/05/1964

The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day.

The Council of Europe is an international organisation which aims to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, representing 46 European member states. The council is an official United Nations observer. It operates with an annual ordinary budget of 656 million euros.

05/05/1961

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

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights, and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.83 billion. The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.

05/05/1955

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

The Bonn–Paris conventions were signed in May 1952 and came into force after the 1955 ratification. The conventions put an end to the Allied occupation of West Germany.

05/05/1946

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.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946, to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity, leading up to and during World War II. The IMTFE was modeled after the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg, Germany, which prosecuted the leaders of Nazi Germany for their war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity.

05/05/1945

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

The Prague uprising was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled anti-German sentiment and the rapid advance of Allied forces from the Red Army and the United States Army offered the resistance a chance of success.

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

Fu-Go was an incendiary balloon weapon deployed by Japan against the United States during World War II. It consisted of a hydrogen-filled paper balloon 33 feet (10 m) in diameter, with a payload of four 11-pound (5.0 kg) incendiary devices and one 33-pound (15 kg) high-explosive anti-personnel bomb. The uncontrolled balloons were carried over the Pacific Ocean from Japan to North America by fast, high-altitude air currents, today known as the jet stream, and used a sophisticated sandbag ballast system to maintain their altitude. The bombs were intended to ignite large-scale forest fires and spread panic.

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

The Battle of Castle Itter was fought on 5 May 1945, in the Austrian village of Itter in the North Tyrol region of the country, during the last days of the European Theater of World War II.

05/05/1941

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

Haile Selassie I was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia under Empress Zewditu between 1916 and 1930.

05/05/1940

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.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

05/05/1936

Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The March of the Iron Will was an Italian offensive occurring from 26 April to 5 May 1936, during the final days of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Its goal was to capture the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in a show of force for Fascist propaganda. An Italian mechanized column under the command of Pietro Badoglio, Marshal of Italy, advanced from the town of Dessie to take Addis Ababa. The march covered a distance of approximately 200 miles (320 km).

05/05/1930

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

An earthquake affected Myanmar on 5 May 1930 with a moment magnitude (Mw ) of 7.4. The shock occurred 35 km (22 mi) beneath the surface with a maximum Rossi–Forel intensity of IX. The earthquake was the result of rupture along a 131 km (81 mi) segment of the Sagaing Fault—a major strike-slip fault that runs through the country. Extensive damage was reported in the southern part of the country, particularly in Bago and Yangon, where buildings collapsed and fires erupted. At least 550, and possibly up to 7,000 people were killed. A moderate tsunami struck the Burmese coast which caused minor damage to ships and a port. The earthquake was felt over 570,000 km2 (220,000 sq mi) and as far as Shan State and Thailand; it was followed by many aftershocks including several damaging ones. A further, related, earthquake in December was similarly sized and also occurred along the Sagaing Fault.

05/05/1920

Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists, controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a guard and a paymaster, during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. Seven years later, they were executed in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. Most historians consider their conviction unfair due to prejudice against immigrants and radicals.

05/05/1912

The first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda is published.

The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the Second Party Congress in 1903. The Bolshevik party, formally established in 1912, seized power in Russia in the October Revolution of 1917 and was later renamed the Russian Communist Party, All-Union Communist Party, and ultimately the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Its ideology, based on Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist principles, became known as Bolshevism.

05/05/1905

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.

Alfred Edward Stratton (1882-1905) and his brother Albert Ernest Stratton (1884-1905) were the first men to be convicted in Britain for murder based on fingerprint evidence. They were both executed at 9 am on 23 May 1905 at HM Prison Wandsworth. The case, otherwise known as the Mask Murders, the Deptford Murders or the Farrow Murders, was one of the earliest convictions made using forensic science.

05/05/1904

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.

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the defensive numbering system used in baseball, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and the closer.

05/05/1891

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.

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue at 881 Seventh Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by its namesake, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the venue is one of the most prestigious in the world for both classical music and popular music. Carnegie Hall has its own artistic programming, development, and marketing departments and presents about 250 performances each season. It is also rented out to performing groups, though it has not had a resident company since the New York Philharmonic moved to Lincoln Center in 1962.

05/05/1887

The Peruvian Academy of Language is founded.

The Peruvian Academy of Language is a cultural institution that brings together literary figures, writers, poets, linguists, and scholars specializing in the use of the Spanish language in Peru. It is a collective member of the Association of Spanish Language Academies.

05/05/1886

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

The eight-hour day movement was a social movement that appeared in various countries to regulate the length of a working day. The goal was preventing excesses and abuses of working time.

05/05/1877

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

The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were initially fought by European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States of America and Republic of Texas against various American Indian tribes in North America. These conflicts occurred from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the end of the 19th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for Indian tribes' lands. The European powers and their colonies enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.

05/05/1866

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

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May.

05/05/1865

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

The conclusion of the American Civil War commenced with the articles of surrender agreement of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, at Appomattox Court House, by General Robert E. Lee and concluded with the surrender of CSS Shenandoah on November 6, 1865, bringing the hostilities of the American Civil War to a close. Legally, the war did not end until a proclamation by President Andrew Johnson on August 20, 1866, when he declared "that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquillity, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States of America." The Confederate government being in the final stages of collapse, the war ended by debellatio, with no definitive capitulation from the rapidly disintegrating Confederacy; rather, Lee's surrender marked the effective end of Confederate military operations. The Confederate cabinet held its final meeting on May 5, at which point it declared the Confederacy dissolved, ending its substantive existence; despite this, some remnant Confederate units did not surrender for another month.

05/05/1864

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

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

05/05/1862

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

Cinco de Mayo is an annual celebration held on May 5 to celebrate Mexico's victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza. Zaragoza died months after the battle from an illness, however, and a larger French force ultimately defeated the Mexican army at the Second Battle of Puebla and then occupied Mexico City. Following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States began lending money and guns to the Mexican Liberals, pushing France and Mexican Conservatives to the edge of defeat. At the opening of the French chambers in January 1866, Napoleon III announced that he would withdraw French troops from Mexico. In reply to a French request for American neutrality, the American secretary of state William H. Seward replied that French withdrawal from Mexico should be unconditional.

05/05/1835

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

Belgium was heavily involved in the early development of railway transport. Belgium was the second country in Europe, after Great Britain, to open a railway and produce locomotives. The first line, between the cities of Brussels and Mechelen opened in 1835. Belgium was the first state in Europe to create a national railway network and the first to possess a nationalised railway system. The network expanded fast as Belgium industrialised, and by the early 20th century was increasingly under state-control. The nationalised railways, under the umbrella organisation National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS/SNCB), retained their monopoly until liberalisation in the 2000s.

05/05/1821

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

Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.

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

The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK.

05/05/1809

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

Mary Dixon Kies was an American inventor. On May 5, 1809, her patent for a new technique of weaving straw with silk and thread to make hats was signed by President James Madison.

05/05/1789

In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.

France, officially the French Republic, is a country primarily located in Western Europe. Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Metropolitan France shares borders with Belgium and Luxembourg to the north; Germany to the northeast; Switzerland to the east; Italy and Monaco to the southeast; Andorra and Spain to the south; and a maritime border with the United Kingdom to the northwest. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea. Its 18 integral regions—five of which are overseas—span a combined area of 632,702 km2 (244,288 sq mi), with a total population estimated at over 69.1 million in 2026. Its capital, largest city and main cultural and economic centre is Paris.

05/05/1762

Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, spanning eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries. With a population of over 140 million, Russia is the most populous country in Europe and the ninth-most populous in the world. It is a highly urbanised country, with sixteen of its urban areas having more than 1 million inhabitants. Moscow, the most populous metropolitan area in Europe, is the capital and largest city of Russia, while Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and a major cultural centre.

05/05/1654

Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the Scots, proclaimed in Edinburgh.

Cromwell's Act of Grace, or, more formally, the Act of Pardon and Grace to the People of Scotland, was an Act of the Parliament of England that declared that the people of Scotland were pardoned for any crimes they might have committed during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It was proclaimed at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh on 5 May 1654. General George Monck, the English military governor of Scotland, was present in Edinburgh, having arrived the day before for two proclamations also delivered at the Mercat Cross, the first of which declared Oliver Cromwell to be the protector of England, Ireland and Scotland, and that Scotland was united with the Commonwealth of England.

05/05/1640

King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.

Charles I was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.

05/05/1609

Daimyō (Lord) Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa.

Shimazu Tadatsune was a tozama daimyō of Satsuma, the first to hold it as a formal fief (han) under the Tokugawa shogunate, and the first Japanese to rule over the Ryūkyū Kingdom. As lord of Satsuma, he was among the most powerful lords in Japan at the time, and formally submitted to Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1602, to prove his loyalty, being rewarded as a result with the name Matsudaira Iehisa; Matsudaira being a branch family of the Tokugawa, and "Ie" of "Iehisa" being taken from "Ieyasu", this was a great honor. As of 1603, his holdings amounted to 605,000 koku.

05/05/1494

On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish transatlantic voyages in the name of the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

05/05/1292

Election of Count Adolf of Nassau as King of the Romans in the Dominican monastery of Frankfurt.

Adolf was the count of Nassau from about 1276 and the elected king of Germany from 1292 until his deposition by the prince-electors in 1298. He was never crowned by the pope, which would have secured him the imperial title. He was the first physically and mentally healthy ruler of the Holy Roman Empire ever to be deposed without a papal excommunication. Adolf died shortly afterwards in the Battle of Göllheim fighting against his successor Albert of Habsburg.

05/05/1260

Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

Kublai Khan, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the dynastic name "Great Yuan" in 1271, and ruled Yuan China until his death in 1294.

05/05/1215

Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.

John was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document considered a foundational milestone in English and later British constitutional history.

05/05/1192

Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem marries Henry II, Count of Champagne.

Isabella I was the queen of Jerusalem who reigned from the early 1190s to her death. She received the homage of her vassals as the rightful heir to the throne after the death of her half-sister Queen Sibylla in 1190, but Sibylla's widower, Guy of Lusignan, held onto the kingdom until 1192. Isabella became queen upon her coronation in 1198. Having little political ambition, she passed the government on to three successive husbands, Conrad of Montferrat, Henry II of Champagne, and Aimery of Lusignan, all of whom included her in the issuing of their charters. Isabella's co-reign with Aimery saw the compilation of the Livre au Roi, a law treatise establishing the rights and obligations of queens regnant of Jerusalem.

05/05/0553

The Second Council of Constantinople begins.

The Second Council of Constantinople is the fifth of the first seven ecumenical councils recognized by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. It is also recognized by the Old Catholics and others. Protestant opinions and recognition of it are varied. Some Protestants, such as Calvinists, recognize the first four councils, whereas Lutherans and most Anglo-Catholics accept all seven. Constantinople II was convoked by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I under the presidency of Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople. It was held from 5 May to 2 June 553. Participants were overwhelmingly Eastern bishops—only sixteen Western bishops were present, including nine from Illyricum and seven from Africa, but none from Italy—out of the 152 total.

On this day

World Hand Hygiene Day

Children's Day (Japan/Korea)

What the Weather Had in Store for London on 5th May 2026

5th May in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Personality Profile

Fun Facts About 5th May

Famous Birthdays on 5th May

Jenna Davis, American actress and YouTuber

Kirsty Muir, Scottish freestyle skier

Carlos Alcaraz, Spanish tennis player

Nathan Chen, American figure skater

Justin Kluivert, Dutch footballer

Aryna Sabalenka, Belarusian tennis player

Logan Gilbert, American baseball player

Mitch Marner, Canadian hockey player

Christopher Eubanks, American tennis player

Mayar Sherif, Egyptian tennis player

James Conner, American football player

Celeste, British singer

Raúl Jiménez, Mexican footballer

Tatiana Schlossberg, American journalist and author (died 2025)

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

James Anyon, English cricketer

Henry Cavill, English actor

Vanessa Bryant, American philanthropist and model

Corey Parker, Australian rugby league footballer

Craig David, English singer-songwriter, musician and producer

Danielle Fishel, American actress

Yossi Benayoun, Israeli footballer

Tiffany Roberts, American footballer

Dieter Brummer, Australian actor (died 2021)

Juan Pablo Sorín, Argentinian footballer and sportscaster

Meb Keflezighi, American runner

James Cracknell, English rower

Žigmund Pálffy, Slovak ice hockey player

Mikael Renberg, Swedish ice hockey player

Harold Miner, American basketball player

Adam Hughes, American author and illustrator

Charles Nagy, American baseball player

Alexis Sinduhije, Burundian journalist and politician

Shawn Drover, Canadian drummer

Sergei Stanishev, Bulgarian politician, 46th Prime Minister of Bulgaria

Josh Weinstein, American screenwriter and producer

Jean-François Copé, French politician, French Minister of Budget

Heike Henkel, German high jumper

James LaBrie, Canadian singer-songwriter

Marg Downey, Australian actress

Hiroshi Hase, Japanese wrestler and politician

Doug Hawkins, Australian footballer and sportscaster

Bobby Ellsworth, American singer and bass player

Ian McCulloch, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Brian Williams, American journalist

Robert DiPierdomenico, Australian footballer and sportscaster

Vanessa Downing, Australian actress

Richard E. Grant, Swazi-English actor, director, and screenwriter

Steve Scott, American runner and coach

Jon Butcher, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and freelance multimedia producer

Ed Lee, American politician and attorney, 43rd Mayor of San Francisco (died 2017)

Maggie MacNeal, Dutch singer

Bill Ward, English drummer and songwriter

Jim Kelly, American actor, athlete, and martial artist (died 2013)

Kurt Loder, American journalist, author, and critic

Bo Larsson, Swedish footballer (died 2023)

John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor and screenwriter

Roger Rees, Welsh-American actor and director (died 2015)

Michael Palin, English actor and screenwriter

Ignacio Ramonet, Spanish journalist and author

Jean Corston, Baroness Corston, English lawyer and politician

Tammy Wynette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1998)

Lance Henriksen, American actor

Ray Gosling, English journalist, author, and activist (died 2013)

Bill Watts, American professional wrestler and promoter

Michael Murphy, American actor

Beryl Burton, English racing cyclist (died 1996)