Events on September 5 54
Year 917
Liu Yan declares himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu.
Year 1661
Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers.
Year 1666
Great Fire of London ends: Ten thousand buildings, including Old St Paul's Cathedral, are destroyed, but only six people are known to have died.
Year 1697
War of the Grand Alliance : A French warship commanded by Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville defeated an English squadron at the Battle of Hudson's Bay.
Year 1698
In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.
Year 1781
Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War: The British Navy is repelled by the French Navy, contributing to the British surrender at Yorktown.
Year 1793
French Revolution: The French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.
Year 1812
War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses.
Year 1862
American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia crosses the Potomac River at White's Ford in the Maryland Campaign.
Year 1877
American 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.
Year 1882
Tottenham Hotspur, a Premier League football club from North London, is founded (as Hotspur F.C.).
Year 1905
Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, United States, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.
Year 1906
The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).
Year 1914
World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.
Year 1921
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle party in San Francisco ends with the death of the young actress Virginia Rappe: One of the first scandals of the Hollywood community.
Year 1927
The first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Trolley Troubles, produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures.
Year 1932
The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.
Year 1938
Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are executed after surrendering during a failed coup.
Year 1942
World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, the first major Japanese defeat in land warfare during the Pacific War.
Year 1943
World War II: The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Lae Nadzab Airport, near Lae in the Salamaua-Lae campaign.
Year 1945
Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
Year 1945
Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
Year 1948
In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister; as such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.
Year 1960
Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.
Year 1969
My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
Year 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 Thừa Thiên-Huế Province.
Year 1970
Jochen Rindt becomes the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship (in 1970), after being killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix.
Year 1972
Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and nine are murdered the following day.
Year 1975
Sacramento, California: Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.
Year 1978
Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace discussions at Camp David, Maryland.
Year 1980
The Gotthard Road Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.32 km) stretching from Göschenen to Airolo.
Year 1984
Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
Year 1986
Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
Year 1991
The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, comes into force.
Year 1996
Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people.
Year 2012
An accidental explosion at a Turkish Army ammunition store in Afyon, western Turkey kills 25 soldiers and wounds four others.