This day in history
Every day is full of amazing anniversaries, ancient and modern! As well as today, you can also look at any other day of the year - click the arrows to select the month, then click a number to select the day.
5 February
Events
- 1265: Guy Foulquoi, the papal legate to England, is elected Pope Clement.
- 1556: A truce is signed at Vaucelles in the Spanish Netherlands between King Henry II of France and King Philip II of Spain, who is now governor of the Netherlands following the abdication of his father the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
- 1661: K'ang-Hsi becomes the second emperor of the Manchu dynasty in China at the age of six after the death of Shun-chih. He begins his personal rule in 1669 at the age of fifteen.
- 1679: The final Peace Treaty of Nijmegen is signed by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and King Louis XIV of France. By its terms, France gives up the fortress of Philippsburg but retains Freiburg. Additionally, Duke Charles of Lorraine is restored to his territories in Lorraine. However, the French retain Longwy and Nancy as well as military access roads in the territory. Charles refuses to accept these terms and as a result Lorraine remains under French occupation.
- 1792: Tippu, sultan of Mysore, India, is defeated in his war with the British and Hyderabad. He cedes half of Mysore to Britain.
- 1811: The worsening mental illness of King George III of Britain necessitates the passage of the Regency Act, under which the Prince of Wales becomes Prince Regent and governs in his place. His powers are limited for 12 months.
- 1840: By the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand Maori chiefs surrender their sovereignty to the British government.
- 1885: The Congo State is established as a personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium.
- 1913: Fights between Caucasian and black American boxers in New York City are banned by the New York State Athletic Commission in the USA.
- 1922: US publishers DeWitt Wallace and his wife Lila Acheson Wallace publish the first issue of the Reader's Digest magazine in Greenwich Village, New York City.
- 1985: Spain reopens its frontier with Gibraltar, ending the 16-year-long siege imposed by General Francisco Franco on the British territory.
- 1987: Iran launches a missile attack on Baghdad, capital of its opponent in the IranIraq war. On 19 February, a truce is agreed in the war of cities, in which both sides have inflicted damage on heavily populated areas.
- 1989: Satellite television is broadcast direct to homes in Britain via satellite dish decoders. Four Sky TV channels are available, featuring news, film, sport, and a general channel.
- 1994: A Serb mortar attack on the market place in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, kills at least 68 civilians.
- 2001: At Sotheby's auction house in London, England, an early portrait painting by Egon Schiele is sold for 7.7 million (a record for the Austrian artist), and a late work by Monet, Le Bassin aux Nympheas/The Waterlily Pond, fetches nearly 5.3 million.
- 2007: The Swiss Re building at 30 St Mary Axe in London, England more popularly known as the Gherkin is sold for 600 million in a deal thought to be the most expensive recorded in the capital for a single building.
Births and Deaths
- Robert Peel
1788: Robert Peel, British prime minister 183435 and 184146, founder of the Conservative Party, born in Bury, Lancashire, England (1850). - William S(eward) Burroughs
1914: William S(eward) Burroughs, US writer noted for his experimental methods, black humour, explicit homo-eroticism, and apocalyptic vision, author of Naked Lunch, born in St Louis, Missouri (1997).
Data provided by Helicon Publishing
