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

The Battle of Roslin takes place during the First War of Scottish Independence, with Scottish forces led by William Wallace defeating the English.

The Battle of Morgarten occurs in Switzerland, where Swiss forces defeat the Habsburg army.

The Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate King James I of England and blow up the House of Lords during the Opening of Parliament is discovered. The plan was organized by Robert Catesby, a devout English Catholic who hoped to kill the Protestant King James and establish Catholic rule in England. More

The Glorious Revolution in England culminates with the landing of William of Orange, leading to the overthrow of King James II.

The Eddystone Lighthouse in England, one of the world's earliest lighthouses, is destroyed in a storm.

Democratic candidate James K. Polk defeated Whig Party candidate Henry Clay to become the eleventh president of the United States. More

Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage activists are arrested for voting in the U.S. presidential election. After casting her ballot in her hometown of Rochester, New York, she was arrested, indicted, tried, and convicted for voting illegally. She later described her trial as “the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded. More

Woodrow Wilson becomes the 28th President of the U.S. by defeating the incumbent William H. Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 presidential election with a landslide victory in the electoral college and just 41.8% of the popular vote, the lowest vote share for a victorious presidential candidate since 1860. More

Sinclair Lewis wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first American to receive the honor. More

Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected as President of the United States for an unprecedented third term. More

Richard Nixon is elected as the 37th President of the United States (1969-1974) after previously serving as a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from California. He became the only President to ever resign the office, as a result of the Watergate scandal. More

India launched its first interplanetary spacecraft, the Mars Orbiter Mission. India built Mangalyaan (“Mars craft” in English) to study the Red Planet and test key technologies required for exploring the inner solar system. The Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully entered Mars orbit on September 23, 2014. More