On This Day — 5 March

2023

The 2023 Estonian parliamentary election is held, with two centre-right liberal parties gaining an absolute majority for the first time.

2023 Estonian parliamentary election

2023

A group of four prisoners escape from the Nouakchott Civil Prison, before being caught the next day.

2023 Nouakchott prison break

2021

Pope Francis begins a historic visit to Iraq amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pope Francis

2021

Twenty people are killed and 30 injured in a suicide car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia.

March 2021 Mogadishu bombing

2018

Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pause the Deir ez-Zor campaign due to the Turkish-led invasion of Afrin.

Syrian civil war

2012

Tropical Storm Irina kills over 75 as it passes through Madagascar.

Tropical Storm Irina

2012

Two people are killed and six more are injured in a shooting at a hair salon in Bucharest, Romania.

2012 Bucharest hair salon shooting

2011

An Antonov An-148 crashes in Russia's Alexeyevsky District, Belgorod Oblast during a test flight, killing all seven aboard.

Antonov An-148

2003

In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed in the Haifa bus 37 suicide bombing.

Haifa

2002

An earthquake in Mindanao, Philippines, kills 15 people and injures more than 100.

2002 Mindanao earthquake

2001

In Mina, Saudi Arabia, 35 pilgrims are killed in a stampede on the Jamaraat Bridge during the Hajj.

Mina, Saudi Arabia

1993

Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301 crashes at Skopje International Airport in Petrovec, North Macedonia, killing 83.

Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301

1991

Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109 crashes in Venezuela, killing 45.

Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 109

1982

Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus.

Venera 14

1981

The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 11⁄2 million units around the world.

ZX81

1979

Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.

Venera 11

1978

The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Landsat 3

1974

Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.

Yom Kippur War

1973

An Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 collides in mid-air with a Spantax Convair 990 Coronado over Nantes, France, killing all 68 people aboard the DC-9, including music manager Michael Jeffery.

Iberia (airline)

1970

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

1968

Air France Flight 212 crashes into La Grande Soufrière, killing all 63 aboard.

Air France Flight 212 (1968)

1967

Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 crashes near Marseilles, Ohio, killing 38.

Lake Central Airlines Flight 527

1966

BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707 aircraft, breaks apart in mid-air due to clear-air turbulence and crashes into Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 124 people on board.

BOAC Flight 911

1965

March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against the British colonial presence.

March Intifada

1963

American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.

Patsy Cline

1963

Aeroflot Flight 191 crashes while landing at Aşgabat International Airport, killing 12.

Aeroflot Flight 191

1960

Indonesian President Sukarno dismisses the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaces it with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members.

President of Indonesia

1957

Sutton Wick air crash: A Blackburn Beverley of 53 Squadron, Royal Air Forces, crashes into the village of Sutton Wick, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), killing most of the crew and passengers and two local residents.

Sutton Wick air crash

1953

Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier.

Joseph Stalin

1946

Cold War: Winston Churchill delivers his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College, Missouri.

Cold War

1944

World War II: The Red Army begins the Uman–Botoșani offensive in the western Ukrainian SSR.

Red Army

1943

World War II: General strike and protest march in Athens against rumours of forced mobilization of Greek workers for work in Germany, resulting in clashes with the Axis occupation forces and collaborationist police. The decree is withdrawn on the next day.

1943 Greek protests against labour mobilization

1942

World War II: Japanese forces capture Batavia, capital of Dutch East Indies, which is left undefended after the withdrawal of the KNIL garrison and Australian Blackforce battalion to Buitenzorg and Bandung.

World War II

1940

Six high-ranking members of the Soviet politburo, including Joseph Stalin, sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, in what will become known as the Katyn massacre.

Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1939

Spanish Civil War: The National Defence Council seizes control of the republican government in a coup d'etat, with the intention of negotiating an end to the war.

Spanish Civil War

1933

Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections, which allows the Nazis to later pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.

Adolf Hitler

1931

The British Raj: Gandhi–Irwin Pact is signed.

British Raj

1912

Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.

Italo-Turkish War

1906

Moro Rebellion: United States Army troops bring overwhelming force against the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors.

Moro Rebellion

1872

George Westinghouse patents the air brake.

George Westinghouse

1868

Mefistofele, an opera by Arrigo Boito, receives its premiere performance at La Scala.

Mefistofele

1860

Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Parma

1850

The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened.

Britannia Bridge

1836

Samuel Colt establishes his first factory to produce the recently patented production-model revolver, the .34-caliber "Paterson".

Samuel Colt

1825

Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, is defeated in combat and captured by authorities.

Roberto Cofresí

1824

First Anglo-Burmese War: The British officially declare war on Burma.

First Anglo-Burmese War

1811

Peninsular War: A French force under the command of Marshal Victor is routed while trying to prevent an Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese army from lifting the Siege of Cádiz in the Battle of Barrosa.

Peninsular War

1770

Boston Massacre: Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence) five years later.

Boston Massacre

1766

Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.

Antonio de Ulloa

1616

Nicolaus Copernicus's book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.

Nicolaus Copernicus

1496

King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.

Henry VII of England

1279

The Livonian Order is defeated in the Battle of Aizkraukle by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Livonian Order

1046

Nasir Khusraw begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama.

Nasir Khusraw

363

Roman emperor Julian leaves Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sasanian Empire, in a campaign which would bring about his own death.

Roman emperor