1776 – James Kent, English composer, dies at 76
1891 – Thomas Hare, English barrister and political reformer, dies at 85
1951 – Henri Carton de Wiart, Belgian count and politician (Prime Minister of Belgium 1920-21), dies at 82
1963 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-born American physicist and aeronautic engineer (co-founder of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), dies at 81
2014 – Farley Mowat, Canadian author, dies at 92
2014 – William H Dana, American aeronautical engineer, US Navy pilot, NASA test pilot (X-15), and astronaut, dies at 83
2016 – Reg Grundy, Australian media and television mogul (Neighbours, Prisoner), dies at 92
2018 – Khaled Mohieddin, Egyptian military officer (member of the Revolutionary Command Council), dies at 95
2020 – Steve Blackmore, Welsh rugby union prop (4 caps; Cardiff RFC), dies from a brain tumour at 58
2024 – Judy Devlin Hashman, English-American badminton player (World Team Championship gold US – 1957, 1960, 1963, 1966), dies at 88
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 6th May 2025
878 – Battle of Edington: Alfred the Great and his West Saxon army defeat Viking army of Guthrum the Old [earliest possible date]
1787 – 1st African American Masonic Lodge (African # 459) forms Prince Hall, Boston
1853 – 1st major US rail disaster kills 46 at Norwalk, Connecticut
1934 – MLB Boston Red Sox score 12 runs in 4th inning, including record 4 consecutive triples hit by Carl Reynolds, Moose Solters, Rick Ferrell, and B Walters
1944 – 70th Kentucky Derby: Conn McCreary aboard Pensive wins in 2:04.2
1975 – 3 people die in tornado that strikes Omaha, Nebraska
1978 – 104th Kentucky Derby: Steve Cauthen wins aboard Affirmed – first and only Derby victory and 1st-leg of Triple Crown
1987 – Mario Andretti sets one-lap speed record at Indy at 218.204 MPH
1996 – Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Hartford, Connecticut on WCCC 106.9 FM
2012 – Greek parliamentary election results in 60% support for parties opposed to austerity measures
Today in History for 6th May 2025
Historical Events
1915 – The Allies on Cape Helles launch three attacks to enlarge their beachheads; after terrible losses, they advance about three miles
1935 – British King George V and Queen Mary celebrate their Silver Jubilee
1979 – Louis LaRusso II’s stage drama “Knockout”, starring Danny Aiello, opens at the Helen Hayes Theater, NYC: runs for 154 performances
1984 – Jose Napoleon Duarte wins El Salvador presidential election
2013 – Brazilian neobank Nubank founded in Brazil by David Vélez, Cristina Junqueira and Edward Wible
Famous Birthdays
1861 – Motilal Nehru, Indian lawyer and freedom fighter, born in Agra, British India (d. 1931)
1890 – Claire Whitney, American silent film actress (Blind Fools, Haunted Mine), born in New York City (d. 1969)
1922 – Pat Harder, American NFL fullback (Cardinals, Lions), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 1992)
1927 – Ettore Manni, Italian actor (Street People, Divine Nymph, Fatal Desire, Heroes in Hell), born in Rome, Italy (d. 1979)
1946 – David Avshalomov, American classical composer, vocalist, and conductor, born in New York City
Famous Deaths
1727 – Catharine I of Russia [Marta Samuilovna], wife of Peter the Great, dies at about 42
1951 – Henri Carton de Wiart, Belgian count and politician (Prime Minister of Belgium 1920-21), dies at 82
1951 – Élie Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1869)
1989 – Earl Blaik, American College Football coach (NCAA C’ship 1944–46; AFCA Coach of the Year 1946; Army) and executive (AD Army 1948–59, dies at 92
2007 – Đorđe Novković, Croatian pop singer-songwriter (Pro Arte), and television personality (Hrvatski Idol), dies at 63
Famous Deaths for 5th May 2025
311 – Galerius, Emperor of Rome (305-311) ended persecution of Christianity in the East, dies of disease
1194 – Casimir II, the Just, grand duke of Poland (1177-94), dies. Born 1138
1316 – Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, youngest daughter of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile, dies at 33
1504 – Anton of Burgundy, the Great Bastard, knight, dies at about 82
1971 – Violet Jessop, Titanic survivor (b. 1887)
1998 – Syd Lawrence, British bandleader (Syd Lawrence Orchestra), dies at 74
2001 – Cliff Hillegass, American publisher (Cliffsnotes), dies at 83
2005 – Ted Atkinson, American jockey (US Champion 1944, 46), dies of a stroke at 88
2008 – Thomas Boggs, American rock drummer (Box Tops), dies at 63
2018 – Ermanno Olmi, Italian film director (The Tree of Wooden Clogs), dies at 86
Historical Events for 5th May 2025
1665 – Dutch politician Nicolaas Witsen visits the politically powerful Patriarch Nikon, head of the Russian Orthodox church in Moscow
1917 – Eugene Bullard gains his pilot’s license from Aéro-Club de France and becomes the 1st African-American military pilot (French Air Service)
1921 – First ranger for Cleveland Metroparks is hired
1962 – “West Side Story” soundtrack album goes #1 and stays #1 for 54 weeks, more than 20 weeks longer than any other album
1971 – Courtney, Courtney, and Link’s musical “Earl of Ruston” opens at Billy Rose Theater, NYC, runs for 5 performances
1999 – 34th Academy of Country Music Awards: Garth Brooks, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw win
2008 – American/Columbia Records releases “Home Before Dark”, the twenty-seventh studio album by Neil Diamond; tops charts in US, UK and NZ
2018 – Childish Gambino [Donald Glover] releases the music video to new single “This is America” to wide acclaim
2020 – São Luis, in Maranhão state becomes the first Brazilian city to enter lockdown because of COVID-19 as its health services struggle to cope
2021 – Baltimore Orioles pitcher John Means no-hits Seattle Mariners, 6-0 at T-Mobile Park, Seattle
Today in History for 5th May 2025
Historical Events
1814 – British attack Fort Ontario, Oswego, New York
1908 – 34th Kentucky Derby: Arthur Pickens aboard 66-1 chance Stone Street wins in muddy track conditions; 2:15.20 slowest Derby in history
1938 – MLB Philadelphia Phillies Harold Kelleher pitcher faces 16 batters in 6th, as Cubs score 12 runs, both marks are NL records off one hurler in a single inning
1980 – Siege at Iranian Embassy in London ends as the SAS and police storm the building
1990 – 35th Eurovision Song Contest: Toto Cutugno for Italy wins singing “Insieme: 1992” in Zagreb
Famous Birthdays
1680 – Giuseppe Porsile, Neapolitan composer, born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, Spanish Empire (d. 1750)
1873 – Leon Czolgosz, American anarchist and assassin of US President William McKinley, born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1901)
1904 – Gordon Richards, British jockey (26 x British flat racing Champion Jockey; 4,870 race wins), born in Donnington Wood, Telford (d. 1986)
1921 – Sonja Oosterman, Dutch pop singer and lyricist (De Marketentsters en De Musketiers), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 2008)
1936 – Patrick Gowers, British choral and film score composer (Viri Galilaei; Hamlet; Smiley’s People), born in Islington, England (d. 2014)
Famous Deaths
1678 – Anna M van Schurman, Dutch poet, spoke 10 languages, dies at about 70
1808 – Pierre Jean George Cabanis, French physiologist, dies at 50
1864 – John Marshall Jones, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in battle at 43
1996 – Bernard Benjamin Gillis [Kyanski] British jurist (High Court , 1964-80), dies at 89
2000 – Gino Bartali, Italian cyclist (Tour de France 1938, 48; Giro d’Italia 1936-7, 46), dies of a heart attack at 85
Famous Deaths for 4th May 2025
1471 – Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, dies in Battle of Tewkesbury at 17, becoming the only heir apparent to the English throne to ever die in battle
1770 – Christian Gottfried Krause, German composer, dies at 51
1811 – Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general (b. 1776)
1859 – Joseph Diez Gergonne, French mathematician, dies at 87
1873 – William Holmes McGuffey, American professor (wrote elementary school McGuffey Readers – 120 million copies sold), dies at 72
1916 – Joseph Mary Plunkett, Irish revolutionary (b. 1887)
1972 – Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
1980 – Kay Hammond, British actress (Blithe Spirit, 5 Golden Hours), dies at 71
1994 – Karl Francis Hettinger, American police officer (Onion Field survivor), dies at 59
2018 – Edwin G. Burrows, American historian and professor, dies at 74
Historical Events for 4th May 2025
1883 – John Gordon Cashman publishes the first edition of the “Vicksburg Evening Post” in Mississippi
1919 – Demonstrates organised by students erupt in China, after news from the Paris Peace Conference that the Allies intend to give Shangtung to Japan
1933 – Pulitzer Prize for poetry awarded to Archibald Macleish for “Conquistador”
1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather reach a record height of 34,668 meters in a balloon
1968 – 1st ABA championship: Pitts Pipers beat NO Buccaneers, 4 games to 3
1977 – US Catholic bishops rescind automatic excommunications for divorced and remarried Catholics (receiving communion still outlawed if the previous marriages were not annulled by Church tribunals)
1991 – Phil Collins, Al Jarreau, Ikutaro Kakehashi and Joe Zawinul receive honorary doctorate degrees from the Berklee College of Music in Boston
1991 – MLB Cleveland Indians’ Chris James sets club record for most RBIs in a game (9)
1992 – US Army and Marine Corps forces arrive in Los Angeles to end rioting following the acquittal of four police officers over the beating of Rodney King
2016 – Ohio Governor John Kasich bows out of the race for US Republican Presidential nominee
Today in History for 4th May 2025
Historical Events
1868 – World’s largest book, the “Kuthodaw Inscription Shrines,” recording the whole of Buddhist scriptures on 729 marble tablets, is completed and opened to the public in Mandalay, Burma
1919 – Demonstrates organised by students erupt in China, after news from the Paris Peace Conference that the Allies intend to give Shangtung to Japan
1958 – Alberto Lleras Camargo chosen as president of Colombia
2002 – 128th Kentucky Derby: Victor Espinoza aboard War Emblem wins in 2:01.13
2013 – 39 people are killed at a funeral in Wukari, Nigeria
Famous Birthdays
1893 – Edgar Dearing, American actor (Pollyanna, Abraham Lincoln, Free and Easy), born in Ceres, California (d. 1974)
1921 – Edo Murtić, Croatian painter, born in Velika Pisanica, Bjelovar, Croatia (d. 2005)
1933 – J. Fred Duckett, American sports announcer (Houston Astros, Rice University, US Track and Field) and teacher, born in Houston, Texas (d. 2007)
1989 – Rory McIlroy, Irish golfer (Masters 2025; US Open 2011, British Open 2014, PGA C’ship 2012, 14; FedEx Cup 2016, 19, 22), born in Holywood, Northern Ireland
1994 – Pauline Ducruet, daughter of HSH Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, born in Princess Grace Hospital Centre, La Colle, Monaco
Famous Deaths
1859 – Joseph Diez Gergonne, French mathematician, dies at 87
1919 – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak politician, French army general (WWI), Czecho-Slovak nationalist resistance leader, aviator, and astronomer, dies in a plane crash at 38
1971 – Donald Dexter Van Slyke, American chemist (Micromanometric analysis), dies at 88
1975 – Moe Howard [Moses Horowitz], American actor and comedian (The 3 Stooges), dies at 77
1999 – Brinsley Ford, British art historian and CEO (National Art Collections Fund), dies at 90
Famous Deaths for 3rd May 2025
1704 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Bohemian-Austrian violinist and composer, dies at 59
1707 – Michiel de Swaen, Dutch physician and poet, dies at 53
1737 – Abraham Patras, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (1735-37), dies at 65
1779 – John Winthrop, American educator at Harvard and astronomer, dies at 64
1863 – Elisha Franklin Paxton [Bull Paxton], American general (Confederate Army), dies leading Stoneville Brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville at 35
1968 – Leonid Sabaneyev, Russian composer, dies at 86
1972 – Bruce Cabot, actor (Diamonds are Forever), dies at 68
1991 – Don Whitmire, American College Football Hall of Fame tackle (Alabama, Navy – All American at both), dies at 68
2018 – Bob Prewitt, American college basketball coach (SMU Mustangs), dies at 93
2023 – Lance Blanks, American basketball guard (Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves), executive (GM Phoenix Suns 2010-13), and broadcaster (ESPN, Longhorn Network), takes his own life at 56