June 5 is the 156th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (157th in leap years), with 209 days remaining.

Events

1700-1899

• 1783 - The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon).
• 1817 - First Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched.
• 1829 - HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.
• 1837 - Houston, Texas is granted a city charter.
• 1849 - Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy by the signing of a new constitution.
• 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.
• 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.

1900-1999

• 1900 - Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria, South Africa.
• 1916 - Stein's Dixie Jass Band plays its first gig under its new name, the Original Dixieland Jass Band.
• 1916 - Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
• 1917 - World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day."
• 1924 - Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean (to his father in Sweden).
• 1933 - The United States' use of the gold standard by enacting a joint resolution (48 Stat. 112) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.
• 1944 - World War II: More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
• 1947 - Marshall Plan: At a speech at Harvard University, United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe.
• 1954 - The last new episode of the comic variety program, Your Show of Shows, airs.
• 1956 - Elvis Presley introduces his new single, Hound Dog, on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.
• 1959 - The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in.
• 1963 - British Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigns in a sex scandal.
• 1967 - Six-Day War begins: The Israeli air force launches simultaneous attacks on the air forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.
• 1968 - U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Sirhan Sirhan. (He died on June 6).
• 1970 - Chile becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
• 1975 - The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War.
• 1976 - Collapse of the Teton Dam in Idaho.
• 1977 - A coup takes place in Seychelles.
• 1977 - The Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale.
• 1981 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (these were the first recognized cases of AIDS).
• 1984 - Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders an attack on the Golden Temple, the Sikh holy spot.
• 1986 - A 52-year old man in Auburn, Washington dies after taking an Excedrin capsule laced with cyanide; this is the first of two Excedrin deaths.
• 1987 - Ted Koppel hosts a "National Town Meeting on AIDS" on a special 4-hour long live broadcast of Nightline.
• 1992 - Patriot Games opens in theaters, starring Harrison Ford.
• 1995 - Bose_Einstein condensate is first created.
• 1998 - A strike begins at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan that quickly spreads to five other assembly plants (the strike lasted seven weeks).
• 1998 - Both Reuters and ABC news erroneously report the death of comedian Bob Hope after Arizona congressman Bob Stump announces the demise of Hope on the floor of the US Congress.

2000-2099

• 2001 - Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican party, an act which changes control of the United States Senate from the Republican party to the Democratic party.
• 2002 - Elizabeth Smart is kidnapped from her Salt Lake City, Utah home.
• 2002 _ Mozilla 1.0, the first 'official' version, is released.
• 2004 - Smarty Jones loses at the Belmont Stakes to Birdstone and fails to bid the Triple Crown.

Births

1300-1799

• 1341 - Edmund of Langley, a younger son of King Edward III of England (d. 1402)
• 1718 - Thomas Chippendale, English furniture maker (d. 1779)
• 1723 - Adam Smith, Scottish economist (d. 1790)
• 1757 - Pierre Jean George Cabanis, French physiologist (d. 1808)
• 1771 - King Ernest I of Hanover (d. 1851)
• 1781 - Christian August Lobeck, German classical scholar (d. 1860)

1800_1899

• 1819 - John Couch Adams, English mathematician, co-discoverer of Neptune (d. 1892)
• 1850 - Pat Garrett, American Western lawman (d. 1908)
• 1876 - Tony Jackson, American musician (d. 1920)
• 1879 - Robert Mayer, philanthropist (d. 1985)
• 1883 - John Maynard Keynes, English economist (d. 1946)
• 1884 - Ralph Benatzky, composer (d. 1957)
• 1887 - Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1923)
• 1894 - Roy Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet, English publisher(d. 1976)
• 1895 - William Boyd, American actor (d. 1972)
• 1898 - Federico García Lorca, Spanish lyricist and dramatist (d. 1936)

1900-1999

• 1912 - Josef Neckermann, entrepreneur and dressage equestrian (d. 1992)
• 1919 - Richard Scarry, children's author (d. 1994)
• 1925 - Art Donovan, American football star
• 1925 - Boy Gobert, actor (d. 1986)
• 1928 - Robert Lansing, actor (d. 1994)
• 1928 - Tony Richardson, British actor (d. 1991)
• 1931 - Jacques Demy, French playwright
• 1932 - Christy Brown, author (d. 1981)
• 1934 - Bill Moyers, American journalist and muckraker
• 1938 - Karin Balzer, East German hurdler
• 1939 - Joe Clark, sixteenth Prime Minister of Canada
• 1939 - Margaret Drabble, English novelist
• 1941 - Martha Argerich, Argentine pianist
• 1941 - Spalding Gray, American actor, screenwriter, and monologue artist (d. 2004)
• 1944 - Tommie Smith, American athlete
• 1947 - Laurie Anderson, American performance artist, actress, composer
• 1949 - Ken Follett, Welsh author
• 1954 - Nicko McBrain, English musician (Iron Maiden)
• 1962 - Princess Astrid of Belgium
• 1967 - Joe DeLoach, American athlete
• 1970 - Martin Gelinas, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1971 - Mark Wahlberg ("Marky Mark"), American singer, actor
• 1972 - Mike Bucci (Nova, Simon Dean), American professional wrestler
• 1979 - David Bisbal, Spanish singer

Deaths

600-1899

• 535 - Epiphanius of Constantinople, patriarch of Constantinople
• 1316 - King Louis X of France (b. 1289)

1900-1999

• 1900 - Stephen Crane, American author (b. 1871)
• 1910 - O. Henry, American author (b. 1862)
• 1913 - Chris von der Ahe, baseball pioneer (b. 1851)
• 1916 - Horatio Kitchener, Lord Kitchener, British Field Marshal (b. 1850)
• 1920 - Rhoda Broughton, Welsh author (b. 1840)
• 1921 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright (b. 1862)
• 1930 - Pascin, the "Prince of Montparnasse" (b. 1885)
• 1942 - Samuel Adams, American naval officer (b. 1912)
• 1975 - Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (b. 1916)
• 1979 - Heinz Erhardt, German comedian (b. 1909)
• 1993 - Conway Twitty, American country musician (b. 1933)
• 1998 - Jeanette Nolan, actress
• 1998 - Sam Yorty, mayor of Los Angeles, California (b.1909)
• 1999 - Mel Tormé, American singer, composer, actor (b. 1925)

2000-2099

• 2002 - Dee Dee Ramone, musician (The Ramones) (b. 1952)
• 2003 - Jürgen Möllemann, German politician (b. 1945)
• 2004 - Ronald Reagan, President of the United States (b. 1911)

Holidays and observances

• National holiday of Denmark (Constitution Day)
• Feast of Saint Boniface
• Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Núr (Light) - First day of the fifth month of the Bahá'í Calendar

June 4 - June 6 - May 5 - July 5 -- listing of all days