On this day: 5 April
Events, births and deaths on 5 April. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
Nothing recorded for that year.
10 years ago2016
Nothing recorded for that year.
100 years ago1926
- Births · Roger Corman
1000 years ago1026
Nothing recorded for that year.
Events · 23
- 919(Julian date)Second Fatimid invasion of Egypt — 919-921 attempted invasion of Abbasid Egypt by the Fatimid Caliphate
- 1242(Julian date)Battle of the Ice — 1242 battle during Northern Crusades
- 1795Peace of Basel — 1795 set of treaties during the War of the First Coalition
- 1818Battle of Maipú — battle of the Chilean War of Independence
- 1847Birkenhead Park — public park in Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England, UK
- 1862Siege of Yorktown — 1862 battle of the American Civil War
- 1879War of the Pacific — war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance
- 19021902 Ibrox disaster — stadium structural failure in Glasgow, Scotland
- 1928Taiwanese Communist Party — political party
- 1933Forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates — United States executive order signed by Franklin Roosevelt on 5 April 1933
- 1933Rotter kidnapping — 1933 antisemitic pogrom in the principality of Liechtenstein
- 1933Revolution of 1933 — 1933 pro-democracy uprising in Andorra
- 1942Easter Sunday Raid — WWII battle in Ceylon between Britain and Japan
- 1944escape of Viktor Pestek and Siegfried Lederer from Auschwitz — 1944 prisoner escape from Auschwitz concentration camp
- 19461946 Rabat Vickers Wellington crash — 1946 military aviation disaster in Rabat, British Malta
- 196537th Academy Awards — award ceremony presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for achievement in filmmaking in 1964
- 19711971 JVP Insurrection — attempted coup in Sri Lanka
- 1976Tiananmen incident — 1976 protest in Beijing, China
- 19861986 West Berlin discotheque bombing — April 1986 bomb at a discotheque in West Berlin, West Germany
- 1991Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 — aviation accident
- 19921992 Peruvian self-coup d'état — constitutional crisis that occurred in Peru after President Alberto Fujimori dissolved the as well as the judiciary of Peru and assumed full legislative and judicial powers
- 20002000 UEFA Cup semi-final violence — 2000 fights between English and Turkish football fans
- 2010Upper Big Branch Mine disaster — Gas explosion in a coal mine caused by negligence of the mining company to ensure safety
Births · 60
- 1568(Julian date)Urban VIII — 235 pope of the Catholic Church from 1623 to 1644 (1568–1644)
- 1588Thomas Hobbes — English philosopher (1588–1679)
- 1732Jean-Honoré Fragonard — French painter (1732–1806)
- 1784Louis Spohr — German composer, violinist and conductor
- 1804Matthias Jacob Schleiden — German botanist and philosopher (1804-1881)
- 1810Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet — British politician (1810-1895)
- 1827Joseph Lister — British surgeon and antiseptic pioneer (1827–1912)
- 1832Jules Ferry — French politician (1832-1893)
- 1837Algernon Charles Swinburne — English poet, playwright and novelist (1837–1909)
- 1856Booker T. Washington — African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor (1856-1915)
- 1857Alexander of Battenberg — Bulgarian ruler (1857–1893)
- 1863Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine — Member of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt (1863–1950)
- 1883Walter Huston — Canadian actor and singer (1883–1950)
- 1900Spencer Tracy — American actor (1900–1967)
- 1901Melvyn Douglas — American actor (1901-1981)
- 1908Bette Davis — American actress (1908–1989)
- 1908Herbert von Karajan — Austrian conductor (1908–1989)
- 1916Gregory Peck — American actor (1916–2003)
- 1917Robert Bloch — American fiction writer (1917–1994)
- 1920Arthur Hailey — British-Canadian writer
- 1923Nguyễn Văn Thiệu — president of South Vietnam from 1965–75
- 1926Roger Corman — American film director and producer (1926–2024)
- 1929Ivar Giæver — Norwegian-American physicist
- 1929Hugo Claus — Belgian author (1929–2008)
- 1929Nigel Hawthorne — British actor (1929–2001)
Deaths · 60
- 902(Julian date)Al-Mu'tadid — 16th Abbasid Caliph from 892 to 902
- 1205(Julian date)Isabella I of Jerusalem — queen of Jerusalem
- 1419(Julian date)Vincent Ferrer — Spanish Dominican preacher and saint (1350–1419)
- 1684William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker — English mathematician (c.1620-1684)
- 1693Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans — Duchess of Montpensier (1627-1693)
- 1695George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax — English politician (1633-1695)
- 1697(Julian date)Charles XI of Sweden — King of Sweden from 1660 to 1697 (1655-1697)
- 1723Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach — sculptor and architect from Austria (1656-1723)
- 1751Frederick I of Sweden — king of Sweden (1676-1751)
- 1765Edward Young — English poet (1683–1765)
- 1794Georges Danton — French revolutionary (1759–1794)
- 1794Camille Desmoulins — French journalist, politician and revolutionary (1760-1794)
- 1794Fabre d'Églantine — French actor (1750-1794)
- 1804Jean-Charles Pichegru — French general (1761-1804)
- 1842Shah Shujah Durrani — Emir of Afghanistan (1839-1842) and ruler of the Durrani Empire (1803-1809)
- 1852Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg — Austrian prince (1800-1852)
- 1866Thomas Hodgkin — British pathologist and social reformer (1798-1866)
- 1882Pierre Guillaume Frédéric Le Play — French engineer, sociologist and economist (1806-1882)
- 1900Joseph Bertrand — French mathematician (1822-1900)
- 1900Osman Nuri Pasha — Ottoman general (1832–1900)
- 1904Frances Power Cobbe — Irish writer, philosopher, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist and leading suffragist (1822-1904)
- 1918Paul Vidal de La Blache — French geographer
- 1923George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon — British aristocrat (1866-1923)
- 1933Earl Derr Biggers — American novelist and playwright (1884–1933)
- 1941Parvin E'tesami — Iranian poet (1907–1941)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.