This is a list of selected May 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 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.
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Images
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Ignacio Zaragoza
Ulysses S. Grant
Cy Young
Cy Young, 1911 baseball card
Palace of Europe
Kublai Khan
Giuseppe Garibaldi
1964 stamp commemorating the Battle of the Wilderness
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
First issue of Pravda
Alan Shepard on board Freedom 7
Cinco de Mayo dancers
A depiction of the Battle of the Wilderness- Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| St George's Day (Palestinians); | multiple CN tags (10) |
| Liberation Day in Denmark, Ethiopia, and the Netherlands; | refimprove |
| ; Children's Day in Japan and South Korea | refimprove section, more citations needed |
| 1260 – Kublai Khan claimed the title of Khagan of the Mongol Empire after the death of his older brother Möngke in the previous year. | unreferenced section |
| 1789 – The Estates General convened in Versailles to discuss a financial crisis in France, triggering a series of events that led to the French Revolution. | refimprove section |
| 1809 – Mary Dixon Kies became the first woman to receive a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. | Article says this is disputed |
| 1862 – Mexican troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halted a French invasion at the Battle of Puebla. | refimprove |
| 1912 – The Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was first published in Saint Petersburg, Russia. | unreferenced section |
| 1949 – Ten European countries signed the Treaty of London, creating the Council of Europe, today one of the oldest international organisations working for European integration. | refimprove section |
| 1992 – The Supreme Council of Crimea declared Crimea to be independent from Ukraine. | multiple issues |
| 1994 – First Nagorno-Karabakh War | saved for February 20, the start of the war |
| 2005 – The United Kingdom general election was held, leading to a record third consecutive term for Tony Blair as a Labour Prime Minister. | unreferenced section |
| 2010 – A series of demonstrations in Athens and general strikes across Greece began in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the debt crisis. | update |
| 2019 – Aeroflot Flight 1492 was struck by lightning after leaving Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport and caught fire during the subsequent emergency landing attempt, killing 41 people on board. | update |
| Søren Kierkegaard |b|1813 | too many quotes |
| Lusophone Culture Day; | Vast swathes uncited |
Eligible
- 1646 – First English Civil War: Charles I surrendered himself to Scottish Covenanter leader David Leslie near Newark, England.
- 1860 – Led by Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi, the volunteer Expedition of the Thousand set sail from Genoa on a campaign to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a crucial event of the unification of Italy.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in Virginia began with the inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness in Spotsylvania County.
- 1891 – Carnegie Hall (interior pictured) in New York City, built by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, officially opened with a concert conducted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
- 1904 – Pitching for the Boston Americans, Cy Young threw the first perfect game in modern professional baseball.
- 1940 – World War II: A squad of 250 Norwegian volunteers defending Hegra Fortress surrendered to a superior Nazi force after a 25-day siege.
- 1945 – World War II: American and German troops fought side-by-side at the Battle for Castle Itter, defending a prison against Waffen-SS forces.
- 1945 – World War II: The citizens of Prague spontaneously rose up against the city's German occupiers.
- 1945 – The Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps were liberated by the United States Army.
- 1960 – The Netherlands Carillon was inaugurated in Arlington, Virginia, on the 15th anniversary of Dutch Liberation Day.
- 1980 – The British Special Air Service recaptured the Iranian embassy in London following a six-day siege after Iranian Arab separatists had seized it.
- 1981 – After a 66-day hunger strike, Irish republican Bobby Sands died of starvation in HM Prison Maze.
- 1991 – Riots broke out in Washington, D.C., after a rookie police officer shot a Salvadoran man in the chest.
- 1992 – The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, 202 years after it was first proposed.
- 1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism, a punishment that the United States deemed to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime.
- 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashed immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Cameroon, resulting in the deaths of all 114 people aboard.
- 2023 – The World Health Organization declared the end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency.
- Born/died: | Samuel Cooper |d|1672| Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis |d|1808| Hubert Howe Bancroft |b|1832| William George Beers |b|1841| Henryk Sienkiewicz |b|1846| Dorothy Garrod |b|1892| August Wilhelm von Hofmann |d|1892| John Thomas North |d|1896| Pritilata Waddedar |b|1911| Irene Gut Opdyke |b|1918| Mavis Batey |b|1921| Isaac Adewole |b|1954| Adele |b|1988| Aryna Sabalenka |b|1998| Nathan Chen |b|1999|
May 5: Lixia begins in China (2026); Uyghur Doppa Day in China; Cinco de Mayo in Mexico and the United States
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Italian troops in Addis Ababa
- 1654 – Cromwell's Act of Grace, which pardoned the people of Scotland for any crimes committed during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, was proclaimed in Edinburgh.
- 1936 – Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Italian troops (pictured) captured the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa unopposed.
- 1961 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Alan Shepard made a sub-orbital spaceflight on board Freedom 7, becoming the second person to travel into outer space.
- 2020 – Philippine broadcast network ABS-CBN was forced to go off-air by the National Telecommunications Commission after Congress failed to renew its franchise granted in 1995.
- Guru Amar Das (b. 1479)
- Charlotte of Bourbon (d. 1582)
- Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler (b. 1883)
- Chris Birchall (b. 1984)