History of the Day for:
June 5
- 1783: Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier publicly demonstrated their hot-air balloon in a flight over Annonay, France.
- 1884: Civil War hero General William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."
- 1898: William Boyd, also known as "Hopalong Cassidy," was born in Cambridge, Ohio.
- 1933: The United States went off the gold standard.
- 1947: Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as "The Marshall Plan."
- 1967: War erupted in the Middle East as Israel, convinced an Arab attack was imminent, raided Egyptian military targets; the Minnesota North Stars and the Los Angeles Kings joined the NHL.
- 1968: Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan.
- 1975: Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.
- 1986: A federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. (Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus ten years.)
- 1997: Harold J. Nicholson, the highest-ranking CIA officer ever caught spying against his own country, was sentenced to 23-1/2 years in prison for selling defense secrets to Russia after the Cold War.
- 1998: A strike begins at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan, that quickly spreads to five other assembly plants (the strike lasted seven weeks).
- 2001: U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican Party, an act which shifts control of the United States Senate from the Republicans to the Democratic Party.
- 2001: Tropical Storm Allison makes landfall on the upper-Texas coastline as a strong tropical storm and dumps large amounts of rain over Houston. The storm caused $5.5 billion in damages, making Allison the costliest tropical storm in U.S. history.
- 2003: A severe heat wave across Pakistan and India reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50°C (122°F) in the region.
- 2006: Serbia declares independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.