On This Day — 5 June
2000s
2025
The Nintendo Switch 2 video game console is released worldwide.
Nintendo Switch 2
2024
The Boeing Starliner is launched on its first crewed flight, carrying astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station.
Boeing Starliner
2022
A constitutional referendum is held in Kazakhstan following violent protests and civil unrest against the government.
2022 Kazakh constitutional referendum
2017
Montenegro becomes the 29th member of NATO.
Montenegro
2017
Six Arab countries—Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates—cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region.
Bahrain
2016
Two shootings in Aktobe, Kazakhstan, kill six people.
2016 Aktobe shootings
2015
An earthquake with a moment magnitude of 6.0 strikes Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia, killing 18 people, including hikers and mountain guides on Mount Kinabalu, after mass landslides that occurred during the earthquake. This is the strongest earthquake to strike Malaysia since 1975.
2015 Sabah earthquake
2012
Last transit of Venus until the year 2117.
2012 transit of Venus
2009
After 65 straight days of civil disobedience, at least 31 people are killed in clashes between security forces and indigenous people near Bagua, Peru.
2009 Peruvian political crisis
2009
A fire at a day-care center kills 49 people in Hermosillo, Mexico.
2009 Hermosillo daycare center fire
2006
Serbia declares independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
Serbia
2004
Noël Mamère, Mayor of Bègles, celebrates marriage for two men for the first time in France.
Noël Mamère
2003
A severe heat wave across Pakistan and India reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50 °C (122 °F) in the region.
Heat wave
2002
Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-111, carrying the Expedition 5 crew to the International Space Station to replace the Expedition 4 crew. Astronaut Franklin Chang-Díaz becomes the second person to have flown on seven spaceflights.
Space Shuttle Endeavour
2001
Tropical Storm Allison makes landfall on the upper-Texas coastline as a strong tropical storm and dumps large amounts of rain over Houston. The storm causes $5.5 billion in damages, making Allison the second costliest tropical storm in U.S. history.
Tropical Storm Allison
2000
The Six-Day War in Kisangani begins in Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, between Ugandan and Rwandan forces. A large part of the city is destroyed.
Six-Day War (2000)
1900s
1998
A strike begins at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan, that quickly spreads to five other assembly plants. The strike lasts seven weeks.
Strike action
1997
The Second Republic of the Congo Civil War begins.
Republic of the Congo Civil War (1997–1999)
1995
The Bose–Einstein condensate is first created.
Bose–Einstein condensate
1993
Portions of the Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK, fall into the sea following a landslide.
Holbeck Hall Hotel
1991
Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-40, the fifth spacelab mission.
Space Shuttle Columbia
1989
The Tank Man halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
Tank Man
1984
Operation Blue Star: Under orders from India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi, the Indian Army begins an invasion of the Golden Temple, the holiest site of the Sikh religion.
Operation Blue Star
1983
More than 100 people are killed when the Russian river cruise ship Aleksandr Suvorov collides with a girder of the Ulyanovsk Railway Bridge. The collision caused a freight train to derail, further damaging the vessel, yet the ship remained afloat and was eventually restored and returned to service.
Aleksandr Suvorov (ship)
1981
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that five people in Los Angeles, California, have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
1976
The Teton Dam in Idaho, United States, collapses. Eleven people are killed as a result of flooding.
Teton Dam
1975
The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War.
Suez Canal
1975
The United Kingdom holds its first country-wide referendum on membership of the European Economic Community (EEC).
1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum
1968
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.
Robert F. Kennedy
1967
The Six-Day War begins: Israel launches surprise strikes against Egyptian air-fields in response to the mobilisation of Egyptian forces on the Israeli border.
Six-Day War
1964
DSV Alvin is commissioned.
DSV Alvin
1963
The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigns in a sex scandal known as the "Profumo affair".
Secretary of State for War
1963
Movement of 15 Khordad: Protests against the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In several cities, masses of angry demonstrators are confronted by tanks and paratroopers.
1963 demonstrations in Iran
1960
The Lake Bodom murders occur in Finland.
Lake Bodom murders
1959
The first government of Singapore is sworn in.
Singapore
1956
Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.
Elvis Presley
1949
Thailand elects Orapin Chaiyakan, the first female member of Thailand's Parliament.
Thailand
1947
Cold War: Marshall Plan: In a speech at Harvard University, the United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe.
Cold War
1946
A fire in the La Salle Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, kills 61 people.
La Salle Hotel
1945
The Allied Control Council, the military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.
Allied Control Council
1944
World War II: More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
Nazi Germany
1942
World War II: The United States declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.
Kingdom of Bulgaria
1941
World War II: Four thousand Chongqing residents are asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing.
Chongqing
1940
World War II: After a brief lull in the Battle of France, the Germans renew the offensive against the remaining French divisions south of the River Somme in Operation Fall Rot ("Case Red").
World War II
1917
World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day".
Selective Service Act of 1917
1916
Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court; he is the first American Jew to hold such a position.
Louis Brandeis
1916
World War I: The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire breaks out.
World War I
1915
Denmark amends its constitution to allow women's suffrage.
Constitution of Denmark
1900
Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria.
Second Boer War
1800s
1893
The trial of Lizzie Borden for the murder of her father and step-mother begins in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Lizzie Borden
1888
The Rio de la Plata earthquake takes place.
1888 Río de la Plata earthquake
1883
The first regularly scheduled Orient Express departs Paris.
Orient Express
1879
The Zungeni Mountain skirmish took place between British and Zulu forces during the second invasion of the Zulu Kingdom.
Zungeni Mountain skirmish
1873
Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar closes the great slave market under the terms of a treaty with Great Britain.
Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar
1864
American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont: Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.
American Civil War
1862
As the Treaty of Saigon is signed, ceding parts of southern Vietnam to France, the guerrilla leader Trương Định decides to defy Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam and fight on against the Europeans.
Treaty of Saigon (1862)
1851
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
1849
Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy by the signing of a new constitution.
Denmark
1837
Houston is incorporated by the Republic of Texas.
Houston
1832
The June Rebellion breaks out in Paris in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis Philippe.
June Rebellion
1829
HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.
HMS Pickle
1817
The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched.
Great Lakes
Before 1800
1798
Battle of New Ross: The attempt to spread the United Irish Rebellion into Munster is defeated.
Battle of New Ross (1798)
1794
Haitian Revolution: Battle of Port-Républicain: British troops capture the capital of Saint-Domingue.
Haitian Revolution
1644
The Qing dynasty's Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor take Beijing during the collapse of the Ming dynasty.
Qing dynasty
1610
The masque Tethys' Festival is performed at Whitehall Palace to celebrate the investiture of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales.
Tethys' Festival
1288
The Battle of Worringen ends the War of the Limburg Succession, with John I, Duke of Brabant, being one of the more important victors.
Battle of Worringen
1284
Battle of the Gulf of Naples: Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon, destroys the Neapolitan fleet and captures Charles of Salerno.
Battle of the Gulf of Naples
1257
Kraków, in Poland, receives city rights.
Kraków
1086
Tutush, brother of Seljuk sultan Malik Shah, defeats Suleiman ibn Qutalmish, the Turkish ruler of Anatolia in the battle of Ain Salm.
Tutush I
830
Theodora is crowned Byzantine empress and marries then emperor Theophilos in the Hagia Sophia. She is credited with restoring Christian orthodoxy and icons.
Theodora (wife of Theophilos)