This is a list of selected March 5 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error in content currently on the Main Page, see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. If a listed event is inaccurate, please first seek consensus and update the corresponding article before making changes here.
Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
Artist's impression of Crispus Attucks, one of the people killed in the Boston Massacre
The Bloody Massacre, engraved by Paul Revere
George Westinghouse
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
The Britannia Bridge, c. 1852
Gloster Meteor
Paul Okalik
Sinclair ZX81
Gerardus Mercator, in a c.1550 portrait by Titian
"Guerrillero Heroico" by Alberto Korda
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1496 – King Henry VII of England issued letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore undiscovered lands. | citations needed |
| 1616 – Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, describing his heliocentric theory of the Solar System, was prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church. | refimprove section |
| 1850 – The Britannia Bridge, a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular box-section spans crossing the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales, opened. | lots of CN tags (7) |
| 1872 – American entrepreneur and engineer George Westinghouse patented the air brake, allowing trains to stop more reliably. | needs more footnotes |
| 1918 – Bolshevist Russia relocated its capital from Petrograd to Moscow. | refimprove |
| 1946 – The term "Iron Curtain", describing the symbolic, ideological, and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas during the Cold War, was popularized by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. | refimprove section |
| 1970 – The international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons entered into force. | refimprove section, needs update |
| 1975 – Computer hobbyists in Silicon Valley held the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club (founder pictured), whose members went on to have great influence on the development of the personal computer. | Orange-tagged since March 2022 for additional citations |
| 1999 – Paul Okalik was elected as the first premier of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 363 – Roman–Persian Wars: Roman emperor Julian and his army set out from Antioch to attack the Sasanian Empire.
- 1279 – The Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order suffered a great loss when 71 knights died in the Battle of Aizkraukle.
- 1770 – American Revolution: British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston, killing five people.
- 1824 – The First Anglo-Burmese War began.
- 1943 – World War II: The Gloster Meteor, the Allies' only operational jet aircraft, made its maiden flight.
- 1963 – American country-music performers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, and Hawkshaw Hawkins were killed when their PA-24 crashed shortly after takeoff in Camden, Tennessee.
- 1960 – Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph Guerrillero Heroico of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
- 1966 – BOAC Flight 911 disintegrated and crashed near Mount Fuji shortly after departure from Tokyo International Airport, killing all 113 passengers and 11 crew members on board.
- Born/died: | Hermann Balk |d|1239| Louis I of Hungary |b|1326| Gerardus Mercator (pictured) |b|1512| Alessandro Volta |d|1827| Marietta Piccolomini |b|1834| Michael von Faulhaber |b|1869| Olav Bjaaland |b|1873| Mary Louise Booth |d|1889| Dan Burros |b|1937| Lena Baker |d|1945| Elaine Paige |b|1948| Lat |b|1951| Sergei Prokofiev |d|1953| Joseph Stalin |d|1953|
March 5: Learn from Lei Feng Day in China; St Piran's Day in Cornwall, England
Prototype Spitfire K5054
- 1811 – Peninsular War: At the Battle of Barrosa, Anglo-Iberian forces trying to lift the Siege of Cádiz defeated a French attack but could not break the siege itself.
- 1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last Caribbean pirates, was apprehended after his flagship sloop Anne was captured by authorities.
- 1936 – The prototype (pictured) of the Supermarine Spitfire flew for the first time.
- 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, was launched by Sinclair Research, and went on to sell more than 1.5 million units around the world.
- Edward Cornwallis (b. 1713)
- J. R. Kealoha (d. 1877)
- Anna Akhmatova (d. 1966)
- Ailsa McKay (d. 2014)