Historical Events on January 5

  • 1781: Benedict Arnold leads British Naval forces to capture and burn Richmond, Virginia during the American Revolutionary War.
  • 1846: The U.S House of Representatives decides to stop allowing the United Kingdom to use parts of the Oregon Territory.
  • 1875: The opera house Palais Garnier is inaugurated on this day in Paris, France.
  • 1882: Charles J. Guiteau is sentenced to death by hanging after he was convicted of assassinating United States President James A. Garfield.
  • 1895: Alfred Dreyfus is sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island.
  • 1914: Henry Ford introduces a $5 dollar a day minimum wage to his employees – which was over double what their original wage was. He also lowered the work day from 9-hours to 8-hours a day.
  • 1919: The German Worker’s Party is founded. This party would eventually become the Nazi Party.
  • 1933: Construction for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California begins on this day.
  • 1949: The Fair Deal Program is introduced to the American public by U.S President Harry S. Truman.
  • 1957: What would come to be known as the Eisenhower Doctrine is announced in a speech given by U.S President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the U.S Congress.
  • 1972:S President Richard Nixon gives final approval to the Space Shuttle program.

Famous Birthdays on January 5

  • German author, philosopher and Nobel Prize laureate, Rudolf Christoph Eucken is born in 1846.
  • American businessman and founder of the Gillette Company, King Camp Gillette is born in 1855.
  • American physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate, Joseph Erlanger is born in 1874.
  • American nurse Agnes von Kurowsky is born in 1892.
  • American actor George Reeves is born in 1914.
  • American actress Jane Wyman is born in 1917.
  • American businessman Herb Peterson is born in 1919.
  • American poet W.D. Snodgrass is born in 1926.
  • American actor and director Robert Duvall is born in 1931.
  • American singer-songwriter Marilyn Manson is born in 1969.