Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on May 5th?

The Battle of Puebla - An elite French military force led by General Charles de Lorencez headed for Mexico City was stopped at Puebla by an outnumbered Mexican army of 2,000—5,000 led by Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza. The larger French forces, which were experiencing a larger loss of troops withdrew by the end of the day. The victory at the Battle of Puebla rallied the Mexicans, eventually culminating in the complete withdraw of all French forces in 1867 and the capture and execution by firing squad of Emperor, Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, who had been installed in 1864 as emperor of Mexico by Napoleon III. More

Martha Jones of Amelia County, Va., become the first black woman known to receive a United States patent. Her application for an “Improvement to the Corn Husker, Sheller” was granted U.S. patent No. 77,494 in 1868. Jones claimed her invention could husk, shell, cut up, and separate husks from corn in one operation, representing a significant step forward in the automation of agricultural processes. More

The start of the Panic of 1893 - The most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of the 1930 resulted in a significant economic downturn in the United States lasting until 1897. It began with the collapse of two major corporations, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company and a chain of financial failures, triggering a stock market crash with a Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 24% in a single day.
The Panic of 1893 deeply affected every sector of the economy and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment and the presidency of William McKinley. The panic climaxed with a run on gold from the United States Treasury. Unemployment rates in many states rose above 25% and poverty became widespread. More

Haile Selassie, a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history, returns triumphantly after a military campaign ousted the Italian forces. His return signaled the liberation of the country from the Italian occupation and the re-establishment of the Ethiopian monarchy. The Emperor's entry was marked by celebrations and the re-establishment of the Solomonic Dynasty. More

The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) gained full sovereignty after the United States, Great Britain, and France ended their military occupation, which had begun in 1945. This marked the end of Allied occupation and a significant step in West Germany's transition to a sovereign state and its integration into the Western sphere. Importantly, the announcement did not take into account the “reserved rights” of the Allies regarding decisions relating to Berlin, the question of reunification and the conclusion of peace treaties. The Soviet Union followed suit on 20 September 1955, granting the DDR “full sovereignty”. However, the freedoms granted in the treaty existed only on paper, as the Soviet Union preserved its full political, military and economic influence across the Eastern bloc. More

Alan Shepard, one of the Mercury Astronauts, became the first American in space. He piloted the spacecraft Freedom 7 during a 15-minute 28-second suborbital flight that reached an altitude of 116 miles (186 kilometers) above the earth. Ten years later, Shepard made his second space flight as spacecraft commander on Apollo 14 on January 31, 1971. He was accompanied on man's third lunar landing mission by Stuart A. Roosa, command module pilot, and Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot. Maneuvering their lunar module, "Antares," to a landing in the hilly upland Fra Mauro region of the moon. More

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gives a symbolic speech about the Cold War at Westminster College in Fulton Missouri; the same site of Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech 46 years earlier.  More

The Pulitzer prizes for 2025 were announced. The Public Service category was awarded to ProPublica, for urgent reporting by Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, Cassandra Jaramillo and Stacy Kranitz, about pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgently needed care for fear of violating vague “life of the mother” exceptions in states with strict abortion laws. 
Among the other prize recipients is Author Tessa Hulls, who was the winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in the memoir or autobiography category for her first book, the graphic novel “Feeding Ghosts,” about her family’s complex, continent-spanning history. Pulitzer Prize administrator Marjorie Miller, described “Feeding Ghosts” as “an affecting work of literary art and discovery whose illustrations bring to life three generations of Chinese women — the author, her mother and grandmother — and the experience of trauma handed down with family histories.” Hulls is from Seattle WA.
See the list of all 2025 Pulitzer Prizes