5th September, on this day

1590 Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris.
1661 Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers.
1666 Great Fire of London ends: 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral are destroyed, but only 16 people are known to have died.
1698 In an effort to move his people away from archaic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards.
1725 Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczynska.
1774 In US, 1st Continental Congress assembles, in Philadelphia
1781 Battle of Virginia Capes, French defeat British, traps Cornwallis
1793 French Revolution the French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.
1795 US-Algiers sign peace treaty
1798 Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law.
1800 Following a blockade by the Royal Navy commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson, French troops surrender the Mediterranean island of Malta to Britain
1816 Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable ("Unobtainable Chamber").
1836 Sam Houston elected president of the Republic of Texas
1839 The First Opium War begins in China.
1862 Lee crosses the Potomac and enters Maryland
1864 A combined fleet of British, French and Dutch ships attacks Japan in the Shimonoseki Straits after the Japanese have closed their ports to internationalshipping and expelled foreigners
1864 Achille François Bazaine becomes Marshall of France.
1877 Southern blacks led by Pap Singleton settle in Kansas
1877 Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.
1882 10,000 workers march in 1st Labor Day parade in NYC
1885 1st gasoline pump is delivered to a gasoline dealer (Ft Wayne, Ind)
1887 Fire at Theatre Royal in Exeter, England killed 186
1900 France proclaims a protectorate over Chad
1905 US President Theodore Roosevelt negotiates the Treaty of Portsmouth (New Hampshire,USA) to end the Russo-Japanese War. The Russians are forced to cede parts of China and Manchuria and recognise Japan's interestsin Korea
1914 The start of the First Battle of the Marne - a French counter offensive against the Germans along a 300 mile front
1915 The pacifist Zimmerwald Conference begins.
1918 Decree "On Red Terror" is published in Russia
1920 Silent movie star 'Fatty' Arbuckle" is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman who later died. He is acquitted of any crime but his career never recovers
1922 American pilot James Doolittle makes the first United States coast-to-coast flight in 21 hours and 19 minutes
1927 The first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Trolley Troubles, produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures.
1932 The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.
1937 Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls.
1938 Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are assassinated in the Seguro Obrero massacre.
1939 At the start of World War II in Europe, American President Roosevelt declares the United States to be neutral
1942 Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, first Japanese defeat in the Pacific War.
1943 The 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Nazdab, near Lae in the Salamaua-Lae campaign.
1944 Allies liberate Brussels
1945 During World War II, British forces re-occupy Singapore in the Far East
1945 Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
1953 1st privately operated atomic reactor-Raleigh NC
1956 20 die in a train crash in Springer, NM
1957 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista bombs the revolt in Cienfuegos.
1958 "Doctor Zhivago" by Boris Pasternak published in the US
1958 1st colour video recording on magnetic tape presented, Charlotte NC
1960 Cassius Clay captures the olympic light heavyweight gold medal
1961 The first conference of the Non Aligned Countries is held in Belgrade.
1963 In Britain, Christine Keeler - one of the girls at the centre of the Profumo scandal along with Mandy Rice-Davies - is arrested and charged with perjury
1968 21 killed by hijackers aboard a Pan Am jet in Karachi Pakistan
1969 In the United States, while many Americans join the anti-war movement, Lieutenant Calley, of the US Army, is charged with the murders of 109 men, women and children masacred by troops under his command in a village in Vietnam
1969 The British commercial television channel, ITV, begins broadcasting in colour
1970 Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien province.
1972 Arab terrorists, members of the Black September Group, break into the Olympic Games village in Munich and seize a group of Israeli athletes ashostages. 9 Israelis, 4 terrorists and a German policeman are killed
1972 Chemical spill with fog sickens hundreds in Meuse Valley Belgium
1975 In Sacramento, US President Gerald Ford survives an assassination attempt by Lynette Fromme - a follower of the jailed cult leader Charles Manson
1975 A terrorist bomb explodes at the Hilton Hotel in London killing 2 and injuring another 60
1977 Voyager 1 launched toward fly-by of Jupiter, Saturn
1977 West German terrorists kidnap German industrialist and businessman Hans Martin Schleyer. His body is found six weeks later in France
1978 Sadat, Begin and Carter began peace conference at Camp David, Md
1979 Earl of Mountbatten funeral held in Bruma
1979 The BBC begins broadcasting the hit American series 'Dallas' which soon becomes one of the most popular programmes on British TV
1980 In Switzerland, the official opening of the longest road tunnel in the world, the 10 mile long St Gotthard Tunnel - linking Goschenen to Airolo. Itsconstruction has taken 11 years and cost 690 million Swiss francs
1982 Eddie Hill sets propeller-driven boat water speed record of 229 mph
1983 Elmer Trettr sets record for highest terminal velocity at 201.34 mph end of a 440 yard motorcycle run from a standing start
1984 STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
1984 Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
1986 Pakistani troops storm a hi-jacked Pan Am Boeing 747. 22 people are killed -including several of the hostages. The hi-jacking began 16 hours earlier when 4 Palestinian terrorists boarded the plane at Karachi
1987 In London, the longest-running theatre comedy in the world, ' No Sex please - We're British' finally closes after 16 years and 6,671 performances
1990 Iraqi Pres Saddam Hussein urges Arabs to rise against the West
1990 An historic meeting in Seoul between the Prime Ministers of North and South Korea
1991 In Moscow, the Congress of People's Deputies brings an end to the 70-year old USSR -the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - and gives individual republics their independence
1991 Actor John Travolta weds Kelly Preston
1991 US trial of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega begins

1995 France faces worldwide condemnation for testing a nuclear bomb at an underground site at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. It sparks two days of rioting by anti-nuclear protestors on the island of Tahiti
2005 Mandala Airlines Flight 091 crashes into a heavily-populated residential of Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 104 people on board and at least 39 persons on ground.
2007 3 terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Quaeda are arrested in Germany after planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations

5th September 2005

Thousands return to New Orleans

100 killed in Indonesia jet crash

Alps cable car crash

5th September 2006

Pakistan 'Taleban' in peace deal

Iran's liberal lecturers targeted

Nine held in Danish terror raids

5th September 2007

Germany foils 'huge' bomb plot

UN calls for curbs on currency speculators

All UK 'must be on DNA database'

5th September 2008

Rice in Libya for historic visit

Flooded Haitians 'in dire need'

US jobless rate near 5-year high

5th September 2009

Sudan militias in deadly raids

Macedonia boat sinking kills 15

G20 pledges tougher bank action

5th September 2010

Birthdates which occurred on 5th September:

1187 Louis VIII [Coeur-de-Lion] king of France (1223-26)
1638 Louis XIV the great, king of France (1643-1715)
1735 Johann Christian Bach composer, son of JS Bach (English Bach)
1791 Giacomo Meyerbeer Vogelsdorf Germany, composer (Golt Und Die Natur)
1847 Jesse James Missouri, outlaw
1875 Napoleon "Larry" Lajoie RI, hall of fame shortstop (.426 in 1901)
1892 Joseph Szigeti Budapest Hungary, violinist (Violinist Notebook 1933)
1897 Luella Gear NYC, actress (Joe & Mabel)
1897 Morris Carnovsky actor (Dead Reckoning)
19-- Bill Shanks actor (As the World Turns)
19-- Rick Moses Wash DC, actor (Young Dan'l Boone)
19-- Rod Arrants actor (Search for Tomorrow, Young & Restless)
1901 Florence Elridge actress (Long Days Journey into the Night)
1902 Darryl F Zanuck Hollywood producer & motion picture executive
1905 Arthur Koestler Hungary, writer (Darkness at Noon)
1908 Joaqu¡n Nin-Culmell Berlin, Germany, Cuban/Spanish composer
1912 John Cage LA, Calif, composer (Silence) & fraud
1914 Gail Kubik South Coffeyville, Okla, composer (Gerald McBoing Boing)
1917 Jack Buetel Dallas Tx, actress (The Outlaw, Half Breed)
1921 Jack Valenti Pres of Motion Picture Assn of America
1923 Arthur C Nielsen market researcher (TV's Nielsen's Ratings)
1927 Paul Volcker Federal Reserve chairman
1929 Andrian G Nikolayev USSR, cosmonaut (Vostok III Soyuz 9)
1929 Bob Newhart Oak Park Ill, comedian (Bob Newhart Show, Newhart)
1934 Carol Lawrence Illinois, dancer/actress (Dean Martin Summer Show)
1935 Werner Erhard Phila, founded EST
1937 William Devane Albany NY, actor (Family Plot, Missles of October)
1939 John Stewart San Diego Ca, rocker (Kingston Trio-Fire in the Wind)
1940 Raquel Welch Chic Ill (Myra Breckenridge, 1,000,000 BC, 100 Rifles)
1942 Eduardo Mata Mexico City Mexico, conductor (Improvisaciones)
1945 Al Stewart Glasgow Scotland, rocker (The Year of the Cat)
1946 Freddie Mercury rock vocalist (Queen-We are the Champions)
1950 Cathy Guisewite cartoonist (Cathy)
1950 Kathy Cronkite actress (Annie-Hizzonner)
1952 Graham Salmon blind runner (fastest 100m by a blind man)
1954 Hans-Jrgen Gerhardt German DR, bobsled (Olympic-gold-1980)
1956 Sandra Guiboard US AFB German FR, actress (Donna-One Life to Live)
1956 Steve Denton world's fastest tennis serve-138 mph)
1960 Willie Gault bob sledder/NFL receiver (Chicago Bears, LA Raiders)
1964 Kristian Alfonso actress (Days of our Lives, Falcon Crest)
1965 Christopher Nolan Ireland, handicapped writer (Under Eye of Clock)
1967 Michele Ebadi Omaha Nebraska, Miss Nebraska-America (1991)
1969 Dweezil Zappa rocker/son of Frank Zappa/MTV VJ
1973 Tina Yothers actress (Family Ties)

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Deaths which occurred on September 5th:
1969 Mitchell Ayres orch leader (Hollywood Palace), dies at 58
1980 Barbara Loden actress (Ernie Kovacs Show), dies at 48
1981 Ayatollah Ali Qoddusi prosecutor-general of Iran, assassinated