History of the Day for:
April 5
- 2348 BC: According to tradition, Noah's Ark landed on Mt. Ararat.
- 1614: Native American princess Pocahontas married English colonist Avis McJohn (John) Rolfe in Virginia.
- 1722: Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island.
- 1768: The first U.S. Chamber of Commerce was formed in New York City.
- 1792: President Washington cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.
- 1806: Isaac Quintard patented Apple Cider.
- 1887: Teacher Anne Sullivan achieved a major breakthrough with her blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller, by conveying to her the meaning of the word "water."
- 1895: Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who accused him of homosexual practices.
- 1923: Firestone Co. put their inflatable tires into production.
- 1936: A series of tornadoes in Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina killed 498 over six days.
- 1942: World War II: The Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
- 1944: World War II: 270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura are executed by the Germans.
- 1945: Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
- 1946: Soviet troops leave the island of Bornholm, Denmark after an 11 month occupation.
- 1949: Fireside Theater debuts on television.
- 1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction on spying for the Soviet Union.
- 1955: Sir Winston Churchill resigned as British Prime Minister.
- 1964: The first driver-less trains ran on the London Underground.
- 1971: Fran Phipps became the first woman to reach the North Pole.
- 1974: The tallest building of its day, the World Trade Center, opened in New York City.
- 1990: Paul Newman won a court victory over Julius Gold to continue giving all profits from Newman foods to charity.
- 1992: Peru's President Alberto Fujimori suspended the constitution and dissolved Congress.
- 1992: Several hundred-thousand abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
- 1992: The Siege of Sarajevo begins when Serb paramilitaries murder peace protesters Suada Dilberovic and Olga Sucic on the Vrbanja Bridge.
- 1998: In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu and costing about $3.8 billion USD, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
- 1999: Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
- 2009: North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.