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“If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.”
~ Horace Mann
Wikiquote (Horace Mann (May 4, 1796 – August 2, 1859) was an American education reformer. As a politician he served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833.)
May 5th, 553
553 - The Second Council of Constantinople begins.
Wikipedia Photo: Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562).
● Catholic Ecumenical Councils include 21 councils over a period of 1700 years. (While definitions changed throughout history, in today's Roman Catholic understanding Ecumenical Councils are assemblies of Patriarchs, Cardinals, residing Bishops, Abbots, male heads of religious orders and other juridical persons, nominated by the Roman Pontiff.) They meet to discuss matters of faith and Church discipline.
May 5th, 1215
Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England - part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.
Wikipedia Photo: Elias of Dereham, a steward to the Archbishop Stephen Langton with King John of England entrusted with delivering 10 of 13 copies of the Magna Carta. (The Magna Carta was the first document forced onto a King of England by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges.)
May 5th, 1260
Mongol Empire:
Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
Wikipedia Image: Map of Mongol Empire at its height; Genghis Khan, credit The Field Museum in Chicago; Genghis Khan various Mongolian tribes joined together in 1206; Mongol warriors was created for an Islamic history book, Rashid al-Din's History of the World of 1307, courtesy of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland.
May 5th, 1494
Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.
Wikipedia Paintings: Christopher Columbus' fleet of three ships sets sail from Spain in 1492. credit Kean Collection / Hulton Archive / Getty Images; Christopher Columbus pointing to land in the New World; Romantic Painting of Christopher Columbus arriving to the Americas Primer desembarco de Cristóbal Colón en América, by Dióscoro Puebla 1862.
May 5th, 1640
English Civil War:
1640 - King Charles II of England dissolves the Short Parliament.
Wikipedia Painting: English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers);
John Milton publishes Areopagitica;
Battle of Naseby, victory of the Parliamentarian New Model Army;
Battle of Marston Moor, 1644;
"Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow; Oliver Cromwell; King Charles I, painted by Van Dyck;
"And when did you last see your father?" by William Frederick Yeames.
May 5th, 1762
Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of Saint Petersburg.
Wikipedia Image: Saint Petersburg: Panorama from Palace Bridge; Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg to preserve the cultural heritage (Institute of Russian Literature, as seen from across the Neva); Saint Petersburg, Russia. © Digital Vision / Getty Images; Saint Isaac's Cathedral; Winter Palace is one of the most splendid buildings in Saint Petersburg.
May 5th, 1809
Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.
Wikipedia Photo: Spinning Jenny. Invented in 1765 by James Hargreaves. (The Spinning jenny produced thread quickly. This enabled spinners to keep up with the demands of weavers who were using mechanical looms.)
May 5th, 1811
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1811 - Peninsular War; Battle of Fuentes de Onoro - In the second day of fighting, the French army, under Marshall Massena, drive in The Duke of Wellington's overextended right flank, but French frontal assaults fail to take the town of Fuentes de Onoro and the Anglo-Portuguese army holds the field at the end of the day.
1821 - Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar;
Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806;
Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet;
Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani);
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo;
Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807;
Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars;
Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen;
Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford;
Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay).
May 5th, 1860
Kingdom of Italy: Giuseppe Garibaldi sets sail from Genoa, leading the expedition of the Thousand to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and giving birth to the Kingdom of Italy.
Wikipedia Image: Antique Italian Maps: Joan and Cornelis Blaeu - 1640, Map of the Southern Part of Italy ● Territories and colonies of the Kingdom of Italy in 1941.
May 5th, 1862
Mexican War of Independence:
1862 - Cinco de Mayo Battle of Puebla - Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in Mexico.
Wikipedia Painting: Mexican War of Independence
May 5th, 1864
American Civil War:
1864 - Battle of the Wilderness; begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia retreat.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
May 5th, 1877
American Indian Wars:
1877 - Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.
Wikipedia Photos: American Indians - Chief Crazy Horse, Tashunca-uitco (1849 - 1877) ● Geronimo Apache Chief (1829 - 1909) ● Indian Chief 'Two Eagles'; Crow Indian Chief ● Snake Cheif ● Band of Chiricahua Apache Indians, followers of legendary renegade Geronimo, attending a peace negotiation after a long struggle against U.S. government attempts to force them onto reservations - Tombstone, Arizona (1886), Life Magazine ● American Horse - Oglala ● Native American Arapaho Indian ● Washakie, Shoshone leader ● Arapaho American Indian Chief.
May 5th, 1891
The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
Wikipedia Carnegie Hall in New York City.
May 5th, 1904
History of baseball in the United States:
1904 - Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
Wikipedia Photo: National League Baltimore Orioles, 1896 ● Cy Young won 21 or more games 15 times in his career and had 13 victories at age 39 in 1906. ● Babe Ruth in 1920 ● Shoeless Joe Jackson, Chicago White Sox 1919 ● Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers outfield.
May 5th, 1934
The first Three Stooges short, Woman Haters, is released. 
Wikipedia Photo: Three Stooges; Columbia Pictures Corporation - Title frame featuring Moe, Larry and Curly (spelled "Curley") ● Three Stooges colorized, credit Fanpop, Clubs.
May 5th, 1936
World War II:
1936 - March of the Iron Will; Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
1940 - Norwegian refugees form a government-in-exile in London.
1940 - Norwegian Campaign squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to the Nazis after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.
1941 - Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day.
1945 - Canadian and U.K. troops liberate the Netherlands and Denmark from Nazis occupation when Wehrmacht troops capitulate.
1945 - German occupation of Czechoslovakia; The Prague Uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from Nazis occupation.
Post World War II:
1946 - The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
1949 - The Treaty of London establishes the Council of Europe in Strasbourg as the first European institution working for European integration.
1955 - West Germany gains full sovereignty.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
May 5th, 1944
World War II: Holocaust;
1944 - German troops execute 216 civilians in the village of Kleisoura in Greece.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
May 5th, 1961
Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 3; Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight.
Wikipedia Photo: Mercury program; Flight A members for the Mercury program ● Mercury-Atlas 1 (MA-1) vehicle was launched from the Cape Canaveral test site on July 29, 1960 ● Spacecraft recovery system, a single parachute allowed recovery of the capsule. credit University Oregon.edu
May 5th, 1972
Aviation accidents and incidents:
1972 - Alitalia Flight 112; crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.
2007 - All 114 aboard Kenya Airways Flight 507 die when the pilots lose control of the plane and it crashes in Douala, Cameroon.
Wikipedia Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP
May 5th, 1973
Secretariat (horse), wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, a still standing record.
Wikipedia Image: Secretariat; Cover of Time, June 11th, 1973 ● Secretariat (1970-89) was the winner of the 1973 Triple Crown and is widely considered to be one of the greatest Thoroughbred race horses of all time, ESPN.
May 5th, 1987
Iran-Contra Affair:
1987 - Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America.
Wikipedia Photo: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, December 22, 1986; Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings in Washington, D.C., 1987. credit Associated Press.
May 5th, 2010
Greek debt crisis: Greek protests; Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government.
Wikipedia Photo: Greek debt crisis: Greek protests; Mass protests in Greece erupt.
May 5th, 2014
Po Toi Island ship collision: Eleven people are missing after a Chinese cargo ship collides with a Marshall Islands registered container ship off the coast of Hong Kong.
Wikipedia Photo: GPo Toi Island ship collision: Eleven people are missing after a Chinese cargo ship collides with a Marshall Islands registered container ship off the coast of Hong Kong. (South China Morning Post)
May 5th, 2014
Aegean Sea yacht and dinghy capsizing: Twenty-two people die after two boats carrying refugees collide in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece.
Wikipedia Photo: Aegean Sea yacht and dinghy capsizing: Twenty-two people die after two boats carrying refugees collide in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece. (Hellenic coast guard/EPA/Landov)