Date·Lore

On This Day · The 125th day of the year

May 5

May 5's record stretches 369 years, from 1654 to 2023. Its center of gravity is the 20th century, and conflict is a recurring thread.

♉ZodiacTaurus ◈BirthstoneEmerald ❀Birth flowerLily of the Valley

Taurus is the sign for May 5 — read more on the Taurus page, or see May's birthstone & birth flower.

Compiled & reviewed by · Last reviewed September 6, 2026

What happened on May 5?

May 5 is the 125th day of the year. It marks 10 notable events in history, dated between 1654 and 2023. Famous people born on May 5 include Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx and John Rhys-Davies.

Released on May 5

Movies, games, albums & shows

2026

  • Game Motorslice
  • Game Rune Dice

2022

  • Game Citizen Sleeper
  • Game Trek to Yomi
  • TV Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Release data from TMDB & IGDB.

Events

10 notable moments
  1. 1654

    Cromwell's Act of Grace

  2. 1864

    American Civil War

  3. 1891

    Carnegie Hall

  4. 1904

    Pitcher

  5. 1940

    World War II

  6. 1961

    Project Mercury

  7. 1991

    1991 Washington, D.C., riot

  8. 1994

    Caning of Michael Fay

  9. 2007

    Kenya Airways Flight 507

  10. 2023

    World Health Organization

Famous birthday twins

Born on May 5

Søren Kierkegaard

b. 1813

Karl Marx

b. 1818

John Rhys-Davies

b. 1944

Adele

b. 1988

Delia Derbyshire

b. 1937

Elsie Eaves

b. 1898

Henryk Sienkiewicz

b. 1846

Rupert, King of the Romans

b. 1352

Deaths

  • 2011Dana Wynter
  • 1977Ludwig Erhard
  • 1859Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet
  • 1827Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
  • 1821Napoleon
  • 1194Casimir II the Just

Holidays & observances

  • —Children's Day (Japan, South Korea)
  • —Christian feast day: Angelus of Jerusalem
  • —Christian feast day: Aventinus of Tours
  • —Christian feast day: Blessed Caterina Cittadini
  • —Christian feast day: Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice
  • —Christian feast day: Frederick the Wise (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod)
  • —Christian feast day: Gotthard of Hildesheim
  • —Christian feast day: Blessed Grzegorz Bolesław Frąckowiak

The factual record above — event titles, dates, names, and observances — is drawn from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. DateLore adds curation, structure, and original editorial commentary. DateLore is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.

About the author

Roman Tailor compiles and reviews every date on DateLore. He's the writer and editor behind the site's editorial essays and the day-by-day almanac. Corrections and questions are welcome — read more about DateLore or get in touch.

Born on this day?

Make your birthday card.

Drop in your birth year and we'll work out your exact age, the day of the week you were born, your Chinese zodiac, your generation, and the countdown to your next candle.