May 5
1494 - During his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica.
1809 - Mary Kies of South Killingly, Connecticut became the first woman to be granted a patent. The patent was for the rights to a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread.
1818 - Political philosopher Karl Marx was born in Prussia.
1821 - Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of St. Helena.
1891 - Carnegie Hall (then known as Music Hall) opened in New York City with Peter Tchaikovsky serving as guest conductor.
1892 - Congress extended the Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 years.
1893 - Panic hit the New York Stock Exchange; by the end of the year the country was in the throes of a severe depression.
1925 - John Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for teaching Darwinism. (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)
1942 - Wartime sugar rationing began in the United States.
1945 - In the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children.
1955 - West Germany became a sovereign state.
1961 - Alan Shepard became the first American in space as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1978 - Ben & Jerry's ice cream had its beginnings as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened an ice cream parlor at a converted gas station in Burlington, Vermont.
1981 - Bobby Sands of the Irish Republican Army died in a prison hospital on the 66th day of his hunger strike.
1985 - President Ronald Reagan attended a wreath-laying ceremony at a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany. The visit drew worldwide condemnation because 49 members of the Waffen SS were buried there.
1987 - The congressional Iran-Contra hearings opened with former Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord the lead-off witness.
1994 - Singapore caned American teenager Michael Fay for vandalism, a day after the sentence was reduced from six lashes to four in response to an appeal by President Bill Clinton.
2004 - Pablo Picasso's "Boy with a Pipe" became the most expensive painting ever sold at $104 million.
2009 - Texas health officials confirmed the first death of a U.S. resident with swine flu.
2010 - Preliminary plans for a mosque and cultural center near ground zero in New York were unveiled, setting off a national debate over whether the project was disrespectful to 9/11 victims and whether opposition to it exposed anti-Muslim biases.
2016 - Former Los Angeles trash collector Lonnie Franklin Jr. was convicted of 10 counts of murder in the “Grim Sleeper” serial killings that targeted poor, young Black women over two decades.
2016 - Londoners cast votes in an election that gave the city its first Muslim mayor, Labour lawmaker Sadiq Khan, who succeeded outgoing Conservative Boris Johnson.
2020 - Facebook said it had removed several accounts and pages linked to QAnon, taking action for the first time against the far-right conspiracy theory circulated among Trump supporters.
Birthdays
23 - Charlotte D'Alessio (model)
32 - Chris Brown (singer)
33 - Skye Sweetnam (singer)
33 - Adele (singer)
36 - Clark Duke (actor)
38 - Henry Cavill (actor)
40 - Danielle Fishel (actress)
40 - Craig David (singer)
42 - Tahiry Jose (reality star)
42 - Vincent Kartheiser (actor)
43 - Santiago Cabrera (actor)
48 - Tina Yothers (actress)
62 - Brian Williams (news anchor)
64 - Richard E. Grant (actor)
64 - Lisa Eilbacher (actress)
66 - Melinda Culea (actress)
77 - John Rhys-Davies (actor)
78 - Michael Palin (comedian/actor)
81 - Lance Henriksen (actor)
83 - Michael Murphy (actor)
94 - Pat Carroll (actor)
========================================
Today in Sports History - May 5
1904 - Cy Young of the Boston Americans (Red Sox) pitched the first perfect game in modern major league baseball history in a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Athletics.
1925 - Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers goes 6-for-6 at the plate with 4 runs, 5 RBIs and 16 total bases in the Tigers' 14-8 win over the St. Louis Browns.
1956 - Jim Bailey became the first runner to break the four-minute mile in the U.S. He was clocked at 3 minutes, 58.5 seconds.
1966 - The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
1969 - The Milwaukee Bucks select UCLA center Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) with the first pick in the NBA Draft.
1969 - The Boston Celtics defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games to win the NBA championship.
1973 - Secretariat began his march towards the Triple Crown with a victory in the Kentucky Derby in a record time of 1:59.4.
1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds registered his 3,000th major league hit, the 14th player in major league history to accomplish the feat.
2012 - Chelsea defeats Liverpool 2-1 to win the English FA Cup.
2018 - 52-year-old Mike Smith wins his second Kentucky Derby aboard Justify.
1494 - During his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica.
1809 - Mary Kies of South Killingly, Connecticut became the first woman to be granted a patent. The patent was for the rights to a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread.
1818 - Political philosopher Karl Marx was born in Prussia.
1821 - Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of St. Helena.
1891 - Carnegie Hall (then known as Music Hall) opened in New York City with Peter Tchaikovsky serving as guest conductor.
1892 - Congress extended the Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 years.
1893 - Panic hit the New York Stock Exchange; by the end of the year the country was in the throes of a severe depression.
1925 - John Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for teaching Darwinism. (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)
1942 - Wartime sugar rationing began in the United States.
1945 - In the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children.
1955 - West Germany became a sovereign state.
1961 - Alan Shepard became the first American in space as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1978 - Ben & Jerry's ice cream had its beginnings as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened an ice cream parlor at a converted gas station in Burlington, Vermont.
1981 - Bobby Sands of the Irish Republican Army died in a prison hospital on the 66th day of his hunger strike.
1985 - President Ronald Reagan attended a wreath-laying ceremony at a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany. The visit drew worldwide condemnation because 49 members of the Waffen SS were buried there.
1987 - The congressional Iran-Contra hearings opened with former Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord the lead-off witness.
1994 - Singapore caned American teenager Michael Fay for vandalism, a day after the sentence was reduced from six lashes to four in response to an appeal by President Bill Clinton.
2004 - Pablo Picasso's "Boy with a Pipe" became the most expensive painting ever sold at $104 million.
2009 - Texas health officials confirmed the first death of a U.S. resident with swine flu.
2010 - Preliminary plans for a mosque and cultural center near ground zero in New York were unveiled, setting off a national debate over whether the project was disrespectful to 9/11 victims and whether opposition to it exposed anti-Muslim biases.
2016 - Former Los Angeles trash collector Lonnie Franklin Jr. was convicted of 10 counts of murder in the “Grim Sleeper” serial killings that targeted poor, young Black women over two decades.
2016 - Londoners cast votes in an election that gave the city its first Muslim mayor, Labour lawmaker Sadiq Khan, who succeeded outgoing Conservative Boris Johnson.
2020 - Facebook said it had removed several accounts and pages linked to QAnon, taking action for the first time against the far-right conspiracy theory circulated among Trump supporters.
Birthdays
23 - Charlotte D'Alessio (model)
32 - Chris Brown (singer)
33 - Skye Sweetnam (singer)
33 - Adele (singer)
36 - Clark Duke (actor)
38 - Henry Cavill (actor)
40 - Danielle Fishel (actress)
40 - Craig David (singer)
42 - Tahiry Jose (reality star)
42 - Vincent Kartheiser (actor)
43 - Santiago Cabrera (actor)
48 - Tina Yothers (actress)
62 - Brian Williams (news anchor)
64 - Richard E. Grant (actor)
64 - Lisa Eilbacher (actress)
66 - Melinda Culea (actress)
77 - John Rhys-Davies (actor)
78 - Michael Palin (comedian/actor)
81 - Lance Henriksen (actor)
83 - Michael Murphy (actor)
94 - Pat Carroll (actor)
========================================
Today in Sports History - May 5
1904 - Cy Young of the Boston Americans (Red Sox) pitched the first perfect game in modern major league baseball history in a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Athletics.
1925 - Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers goes 6-for-6 at the plate with 4 runs, 5 RBIs and 16 total bases in the Tigers' 14-8 win over the St. Louis Browns.
1956 - Jim Bailey became the first runner to break the four-minute mile in the U.S. He was clocked at 3 minutes, 58.5 seconds.
1966 - The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
1969 - The Milwaukee Bucks select UCLA center Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) with the first pick in the NBA Draft.
1969 - The Boston Celtics defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games to win the NBA championship.
1973 - Secretariat began his march towards the Triple Crown with a victory in the Kentucky Derby in a record time of 1:59.4.
1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds registered his 3,000th major league hit, the 14th player in major league history to accomplish the feat.
2012 - Chelsea defeats Liverpool 2-1 to win the English FA Cup.
2018 - 52-year-old Mike Smith wins his second Kentucky Derby aboard Justify.
