History of 5 January
- 1905 – In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, started with four basic specialties.
- 1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic.
- 1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.
- 1917 – The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
- 1917 – The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto.
- 1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
- 1918 – SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
- 1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.
- 1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.
- 1933 – Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.
- 1939 – Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th “Caudillo de España“, or Leader of Spain.
- 1941 – World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.
- 1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
- 1958 – Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.
- 1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
- 1962 – French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
- 1963 – The European Court of Justice’s ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law.
- 1971 – Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission.
- 1975 – Riots break in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship.
- 1985 – Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.
- 1988 – Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
- 1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
- 1994 – Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.
- 1997 – The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
- 2000 – Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.
- 2004 – Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
- 2008 – A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States kills 57
Celebrating Birthday’s Today
- 1980 – Brad Fitzpatrick, an American programmer, created LiveJournal
- 1980 – Jo Swinson, English politician
- 1981 – Mia Hansen-Løve, French director and screenwriter
- 1981 – Loukas Vyntra, Czech-Greek footballer
- 1982 – Laura del Rio, Spanish footballer
- 1982 – Kevin Everett, American football player
- 1982 – Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1982 – Rodrigo Palacio, the Argentinian footballer
- 1983 – Anja Hammerseng-Edin, Norwegian handball player
- 1984 – Carlos Tevez, the Argentinian footballer
- 1985 – Lloyd Johansson, Australian rugby player
- 1985 – Laurence Maroney, American football player
- 1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
- 1986 – Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian footballer
- 1986 – Sekope Kepu, Australian rugby player
- 1986 – Billy Sharp, English footballer
- 1986 – Reed Sorenson, American race car driver
- 1986 – Carlos Villanueva, Chilean footballer
- 1987 – Darren Criss, American actor, singer, and entrepreneur
- 1987 – Curtis Jerrells, American basketball player
- 1987 – Alex Kuznetsov, Ukrainian-American tennis player
- 1987 – Linus Omark, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1987 – Donald Sanford, American-Israeli sprinter
- 1988 – Karin Ontiveros, Mexican model
- 1989 – Marina Melnikova, a Russian tennis player
- 1990 – Dmitry Andreikin, Russian chess player
- 1990 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Indian cricketer
- 1990 – Jordan Rhodes, Scottish footballer
- 1991 – Nabil Bahoui, Swedish footballer
- 1991 – Gerald Tusha, Albanian footballer
- 1992 – Stefan de Vrij, Dutch footballer
- 1992 – Neymar, Brazilian footballer
- 1993 – Leilani Latu, Australian rugby league player
- 1993 – Ty Rattie, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1994 – Arisa Komiya, Japanese actress and voice actress
- 1995 – Adnan Januzaj, Belgian-Albanian footballer
- 1996 – Stina Blackstenius, Swedish footballer
- 1997 – Patrick Roberts, English footballer
- 2016 – Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, Bhutanese prince