January 5: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 360 days (361 in leap years) remain in the year after this day.

Events

• 1463 - Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.
• 1477 - Battle of Nancy, Charles the Bold killed, Burgundy becomes part of France.
• 1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
• 1527 - Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, was executed by drowning.
• 1554 - Great fire in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• 1675 - Battle of Colmar, French army beats Brandenburg.
• 1757 - Louis XV of France survives the assassination attempt by Robert–François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France with the traditional and gruesome form of death penalty used for regicides.
• 1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
• 1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
• 1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
• 1854 - The San Francisco steamer sinks, 300 dead.
• 1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
• 1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
• 1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
• 1909 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
• 1912 - Prague Party Conference.
• 1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
• 1919 - Free Committee for a German Workers' Peace founded, which would become the Nazi party.
• 1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
• 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
• 1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
• 1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• 1945 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
• 1948 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
• 1957 - Major league baseball player Jackie Robinson retires.
• 1964 - Pope Paul VI meets the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem, the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity leaders since 1439.
• 1968 - Alexander Dubček comes to power, "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
• 1970 - Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
• 1972 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
• 1974 - An earthquake in Lima, Peru kills six, and damages 100s of houses.
• 1975 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
• 1976 - Cambodia is renamed Democratic Campuchea.
• 1984 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
• 1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands spilling 84,700 tons of oil.
• 1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
• 1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
• 1997 - Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.
• 2000 - The 1st day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit.
• 2002 - Charles Bishop, a 15-year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a Tampa, Florida building, evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack.

• 1209 - Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1272)
• 1548 - Francisco Suarez, Spanish Jesuit, philosopher/theologian (d. 1617)
• 1587 - Xu Xiake, Chinese writer and geographer (d. 1641)
• 1592 - Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1666)
• 1614 - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (d. 1662)
• 1717 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (d. 1793)
• 1779 - Stephen Decatur, American naval officer (d. 1820)
• 1779 - Zebulon Pike, American explorer (d. 1813)
• 1846 - Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)
• 1855 - King Camp Gillette, American inventor (d. 1932)
• 1865 - Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer (d. 1920)
• 1874 - Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
• 1876 - Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1967)
• 1880 - Nikolay Medtner, Russian composer (d. 1951)
• 1893 - Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian guru (d. 1952)

• 1900 - Yves Tanguy, French painter (d. 1955)
• 1902 - Stella Gibbons, English novelist (d. 1989)
• 1904 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
• 1909 - Stephen Kleene, American mathematician (d. 1994)
• 1910 - Hugh Brannum, American actor (d. 1987)
• 1910 - Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (d. 1949)
• 1913 - Jean-Pierre Aumont, French actor (d. 2001)
• 1914 - George Reeves, American actor (d. 1959)
• 1915 - Arthur H. Robinson, Canadian-born American cartographer (d. 2004)
• 1920 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (d. 1995)
• 1921 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (d. 1990)
• 1921 - Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
• 1923 - Sam Phillips, American country music producer (d. 2003)
• 1926 - Hosea Williams, American religious leader and civil rights activist (d. 2000)
• 1928 - Ali Bhutto, President of Pakistan (d. 1979)
• 1928 - Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate
• 1931 - Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)
• 1931 - Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
• 1931 - Robert Duvall, American actor and director
• 1932 - Umberto Eco, Italian philologist and writer
• 1932 - Chuck Noll, American football coach
• 1938 - King Juan Carlos I of Spain
• 1938 - Jim Otto, American football player
• 1938 - Ngugi wa Thiongo, Kenyan writer
• 1940 - Michael O'Donoghue, American writer (d. 1994)
• 1941 - Miyazaki Hayao, Japanese animated film maker
• 1942 - Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist
• 1942 - Charlie Rose, American talk show host
• 1946 - Diane Keaton, American actress
• 1948 - Ted Lange, American actor
• 1949 - George Brown, American drummer (Kool & The Gang)
• 1950 - Chris Stein, American guitarist (Blondie)
• 1953 - Pamela Sue Martin, American actress
• 1954 - Alex English, American basketball player
• 1956 - Chen Kenichi, Japanese-born chef
• 1960 - Phil Thornalley, English bass guitarist (The Cure)
• 1962 - Suzy Amis, American actress
• 1962 - Joe Monzo, American composer
• 1964 - Grant Young, American drummer (Soul Asylum)
• 1966 - Kate Schellenbach, American drummer (Luscious Jackson)
• 1968 - Ricky Paull Goldin, American actor
• 1969 - Marilyn Manson, American singer
• 1972 - Sakis Rouvas, Greek singer
• 1975 - Bradley Cooper, American actor
• 1982 - Janica Kostelic, Croatian skier
• 1985 - Richard Butler, English footballer
• 1985 - Michael Cuccione, Canadian actor and singer (d. 2001)

• 842 - Al-Mu'tasim, Abbasid caliph (b. 794)
• 1400 - John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, English politician (executed) (d. 1400)
• 1465 - Charles, Duke of Orléans, French poet (b. 1394)
• 1477 - Charles, Duke of Burgundy (killed in battle) (b. 1433)
• 1524 - Marko Marulić, Croatian poet (b. 1450)
• 1527 - Felix Manz, leader of the Swiss Anabaptist (executed) (b. 1498])
• [[1588 - Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (b. 1528)
• 1589 - Catherine de Medici, queen of Henry II of France (b. 1519)
• 1655 - Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)
• 1740 - Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (b. 1667)
• 1762 - Empress Elizabeth of Russia (b. 1709)
• 1771 - John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, British statesman (b. 1710)
• 1846 - Alfred Thomas Agate, American artist (b. 1812)
• 1858 - Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (b. 1766)
• 1891 - Emma Abbott, American soprano (b. 1849)
• 1904 - Karl Alfred von Zittel, German palaeontologist (b. 1839)
• 1910 - Léon Walras, French economist (b. 1834)
• 1922 - Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer (b. 1874)
• 1933 - Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States (b. 1872)
• 1941 - Amy Johnson, English aviator (b. 1903)
• 1943 - George Washington Carver, American educator, activist, and botanist (b. 1860)
• 1951 - Andrei Platonov, Russian writer (b. 1899)
• 1956 - Mistinguett, French singer (b. 1875)
• 1963 - Rogers Hornsby, baseball player (b. 1896)
• 1970 - Max Born, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
• 1970 - Roberto Gerhard, Catalan composer (b. 1896)
• 1971 - Douglas Shearer, Canadian film sound engineer (b. 1899)
• 1979 - Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
• 1981 - Harold C. Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)
• 1981 - Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher, poet, and activist (b. 1901)
• 1982 - Hans Conried, American actor (b. 1917)
• 1988 - Pete Maravich, American basketball player (b. 1947)
• 1990 - Arthur Kennedy, American actor (b. 1914)
• 1991 - Vasko Popa, Yugoslav poet (b. 1922)
• 1994 - Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1912)
• 1996 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist (b. 1966)
• 1998 - Sonny Bono, American singer, actor, U.S. Congressman (skiing accident) (b. 1935)
• 2001 - Nancy Parsons, American actress (b. 1942)
• 2003 - Roy Jenkins, British politician (b. 1920)
• 2003 - Jean Kerr, American author (b. 1923)
• 2004 - Tug McGraw, baseball player (b. 1944)
• 2005 - Danny Sugerman, American music group manager (The Doors) (b. 1954)

• The eleventh day of Christmas in Western Christianity, and the Twelfth Night of Christmas in Western Christianity.
• Catholicism - Feast day of St. John Neumann.
• Mungday (Discordianism)
• National Bird Day

January 4 - January 6 - December 5 - February 5 — listing of all days