May 5 in History

Historical Events on May 5

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

1494 Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.

1821 Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

1864 American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County.

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

1920 Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.

1927 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is first published.

1940 World War II: Norwegian Campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.

2006 The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.

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Famous Birthdays on May 5

1813 Søren Kierkegaard

1818 Karl Marx

1989 Chris Brown

All Births

Famous Deaths on May 5

1705 Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

1821 Napoleon

1995 Mikhail Botvinnik

2000 Gino Bartali

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