WHAT HAPPENED ON 5. MAY
Want to find out what all happened on 5. May

The Second Council of Constantinople begins. (5. May 553)

Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta. (5. May 1215)

Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire. (5. May 1260)

Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain. (5. May 1494)

King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament. (5. May 1640)

Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg. (5. May 1762)

In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614. (5. May 1789)

Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread. (5. May 1809)

The Swiss canton of Aargau denies citizenship to Jews. (5. May 1809)

In the second day of fighting at the Peninsular War Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro the French army, under Marshall André Masséna, drive in the Duke of Wellington's overextended right flank, but French frontal assaults fail to take the town of Fuentes de Onoro and the Anglo-Portuguese army holds the field at the end of the day. (5. May 1811)

Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. (5. May 1821)

In Belgium, the first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen. (5. May 1835)

Giuseppe Garibaldi sets sail from Genoa, leading the expedition of the Thousand to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and giving birth to the Kingdom of Italy. (5. May 1860)

Cinco de Mayo: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico. (5. May 1862)

American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. (5. May 1864)

In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the United States takes place. (5. May 1865)

Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York. (5. May 1866)

American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles. (5. May 1877)

The Bay View Tragedy: A militia fires into a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, killing seven. (5. May 1886)

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. (5. May 1891)