Events on February 5 43
Year 756
An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declares himself emperor and establishes the state of Yan.
Year 1576
Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.
Year 1597
A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
Year 1778
South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
Year 1852
The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.
Year 1859
Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state.
Year 1869
The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.
Year 1905
In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, started with four basic specialties.
Year 1909
Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.
Year 1913
Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.
Year 1917
The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
Year 1917
The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
Year 1918
Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
Year 1918
SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
Year 1919
Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.
Year 1924
The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.
Year 1933
Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.
Year 1939
Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain.
Year 1941
World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.
Year 1958
Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.
Year 1958
A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
Year 1962
French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
Year 1963
The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law.
Year 1975
Riots break in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship.
Year 1985
Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.
Year 1994
Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
Year 1994
Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.
Year 1997
The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
Year 2000
Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.
Year 2004
Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
Year 2017
The New England Patriots win Superbowl LI after coming back down 25 to win 34-28 in overtime. It is the first such overtime game in Superbowl history. Tom Brady wins 4th Super Bowl MVP award.