March 5

1496 – King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorizing them to explore “part[s] of the world placed, which before this time were unknown to all Christians.” which lead to his voyages to North America.

1616 – Nicolaus Copernicus’ book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium – On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres – explaining his theory that the Sun is at the center of the universe, (a better, but still not perfect idea than that the Earth was at the center) is added to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum – Index of Forbidden Books – by the Roman Catholic Curia, 73 years after it was first published

1770 – 5 Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are killed by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the “Boston Massacre”.

1836 – Under American patent #138, Samuel Colt’s Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, is chartered by the New Jersey legislature.

1872 – George Westinghouse patents the air brake.

1936 – The prototype Supermarine Spitfire – K5054 – is flown for the first time.

1943 – The Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first combat jet aircraft is flown for the first time.

1946 – Winston Churchill coins the phrase “Iron Curtain” in his speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri.

1953 – Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier.

1970 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.

1974 – Occupied since October of the previous year during the Yom Kippur War,  Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.