The Kingdom of Portugal is recognized by the Kingdom of León through the Treaty of Zamora. The agreement was signed by Afonso Henriques, who became the first king of Portugal, and his cousin, King Alfonso VII of León and Castile, officially establishing Portugal as an independent kingdom. This treaty was a crucial step in solidifying Portugal's independence, which was later confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1179.
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What Happened Today in History on October 5
Explore the historical events that shaped our world on October 5th. From major milestones to cultural achievements, see what happened on this day in history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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The Battle of Kircholm occurs between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden.
The Battle of the Thames in present-day Ontario, Canada, sees British and Native American forces defeated by American forces.
President Harry Truman delivers the first-ever televised presidential address, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help Europe, which was still recovering from World War II. More
PBS officially begins broadcasting on American television. This launch marked the formal debut of the Public Broadcasting Service. PBS and NPR are private, nonprofit organizations owned by their member stations and in turn distribute programming to them. The member stations are typically non-profit entities like universities, public school districts, community organizations, or state government agencies.
Their funding was historically supported in part by federal money channeled through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as dictated by the The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 (PBA) and funded in two year increments by Congress. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private Non Profit Corporation for Public Broadcasting with the mission to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality educational, cultural, and other content and telecommunications services. CPB managed the distribution of the government funds to the public networks, both national such a PBS and NPR and for local public stations or programming. In July 2025, the Rescissions Act of 2025 was passed by the 119th United States Congress an d signed into law by Donald Trump, cutting all federal funding for CPB. In August 2025, CPB announced plans to shut down in January 2026 due to a lack of federal funding.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announces that it has awarded the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize to Lech Walesa; a labor activist who helped form and lead communist Poland’s first independent trade union, Solidarity, from 1980 to 1990. Walesa became the first popularly elected president of Poland in 1990. View all Nobel Peace Prizes
The Iran-Contra scandal comes to light after a plane carrying weapons is shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinista regime. Eugene Hasenfus and ex US Marine and sole survivor of the plane crash, confessed that he was shipping military supplies into Nicaragua for use by the Contras, an anti-Sandinista force, allegedly run by the CIA.
President Ronald Reagan and other officials denied the CIA's involvement in the flight, but further investigations confirmed that the U.S. had been secretly selling weapons to Iran and using some of the proceeds to covertly fund the Contra war in Nicaragua. More