Events on January 5 38
Year 1066
Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
Year 1477
Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
Year 1527
Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, Switzerland, is executed by drowning.
Year 1757
Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
Year 1781
American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
Year 1846
The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
Year 1875
The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, is inaugurated in Paris.
Year 1882
Charles J. Guiteau is found guilty of assassinating US President James A. Garfield, and is sentenced to death by hanging.
Year 1895
Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
Year 1911
Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's third oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University.
Year 1913
First Balkan War: During the Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
Year 1914
The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday, but entitlement to the higher was subject to various restrictions.[1]
Year 1925
Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
Year 1950
In the Sverdlovsk air disaster, all 19 of those on board were killed, including almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force - 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur.
Year 1957
In a speech given to the United States Congress, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine.
Year 1970
The 7.1 Mw Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 10,000-15,621 were killed and 26,783 were injured.
Year 1972
United States President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.
Year 1974
Warmest reliably measured temperature below the Antarctic Circle of +59 °F (+15 °C) recorded at Vanda Station
Year 1975
The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
Year 1976
The Troubles: Gunmen shoot dead ten Protestant civilians after stopping their minibus at Kingsmill in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK.
Year 1991
Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, Georgia, opening the 1991-92 South Ossetia War.
Year 1991
The United States Embassy to Somalia in Mogadishu is evacuated by helicopter airlift days after violence enveloped Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War
Year 1993
The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
Year 2000
Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician Kumar Ponnambalam is shot dead in Colombo.
Year 2005
Eris, the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
Year 2014
A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV MK.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic engine.