Historical Events
- 1242 Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod defeats the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice
- 1722 Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to discover Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the southeastern Pacific
- 1818 Battle of Maipú: Chile's independence movement led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead
- 1847 Birkenhead Park, the first civic public park, opens in Birkenhead, England, designed by Joseph Paxton
- 1879 Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.
- More Historical Events
Apr 5 in Film & TV
- 1987 Fox TV network premieres showing "Married With Children" and "The Tracey Ullman Show"
Apr 5 in Music
- 1874 Johann Strauss Jr's opera "Die Fledermaus" premieres in Vienna
Apr 5 in Sport
- 1984 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain's all-time career scoring record of 31,419 points (31,421)
Thomas Hobbes
Booker T. Washington
Spencer Tracy
Bette Davis
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Pharrell Williams
Would You Believe?
Chinese steward Poon Lim is found off the coast of Brazil by a Brazilian fisherman family after being adrift 133 days, after British ship SS Benlomond torpedoed by german U-boat
On April 5, 1943
Famous Weddings
- 1614 American Indian princess Pocahontas and daughter of chief Powhatan marries English colonist John Rolfe
- 1653 Dutch painter Jan Vermeer marries Catharina Bolenes in Schipluiden
- 1955 American musician Ray Charles (24) weds Della Beatrice Howard
More Weddings
Georges Danton
Douglas MacArthur
Howard Hughes
Kurt Cobain
Allen Ginsberg
Charlton HestonArticles, Photos and Quiz
‘I Do’ Says Pocahontas
Pocahontas, the native American princess regarded by many as the mother of modern America, was married on this day, aged about nineteen, to an English settler
April 5, 1614
Easter Island Moai
Two Moai on the Rano Raraku crater on Rapa Nui from a 1914-15 expedition photograph held in the British Museum
April 5, 1722
Poon Lim's 133 Day South Atlantic Odyssey
Poon Lim and his raft, photo made on request of the US Navy for its Survival Training.
April 5, 1943
