Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule
HISTORY & TIMELINE
5 January

A journey through
5 January in history

The fifth day of the year has seen Waiting for Godot first performed in a small Paris theatre, a Soviet probe set off for Venus, astronomers find a world more massive than Pluto and Wyoming swear in America’s first woman governor. This timeline follows 5 January from medieval Lorraine to the twenty-first century.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

1477
The Battle of Nancy and the death of Charles the Bold, painted by Eugène Delacroix in 1831.The Battle of Nancy and the death of Charles the Bold, painted by Eugène Delacroix in 1831.Image: Eugène Delacroix · Public domain
world · Europe

Charles the Bold dies at Nancy

Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ruled a rich patchwork of lands from the Low Countries to the Alps and dreamed of joining them into a kingdom. Beaten twice by the Swiss in 1476, he laid siege in winter to Nancy, the capital of Lorraine. On 5 January 1477 René II of Lorraine and his Swiss allies routed the Burgundian army outside the town. Charles was killed in the fighting, and his body was found days later on the frozen battlefield. His lands were divided between France and the Habsburgs, who gained the Netherlands through his daughter’s marriage.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Battle of Nancy ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1895
Captain Alfred Dreyfus in uniform.Captain Alfred Dreyfus in uniform.Image: Aron Gerschel · Public domain
politics · Europe

Captain Dreyfus is stripped of his rank

Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery captain on the French general staff, was convicted in secret by a court martial in December 1894 of selling military secrets to Germany, on evidence that was flimsy and partly forged. On 5 January 1895, in the courtyard of the École Militaire in Paris, his badges were torn off and his sword was broken before the assembled troops while a crowd outside shouted against the Jews, and Dreyfus cried out that an innocent man was being degraded. He was sent to Devil’s Island. The fight to clear him split France for a decade, until he was fully cleared in 1906.

Source: Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme: the Dreyfus Affair, key dates ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1925
Nellie Tayloe Ross, governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927.Nellie Tayloe Ross, governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927.Image: Unknown · Public domain
politics · Americas

Wyoming swears in America’s first woman governor

Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected governor of Wyoming in 1924 after her husband, the governor, died in office. Sworn in on 5 January 1925, she became the first woman to govern an American state, fifteen days before Miriam Ferguson took office in Texas. She later served for twenty years as the first woman director of the United States Mint.

Source: WyoHistory.org (Wyoming State Historical Society): the ambition of Nellie Tayloe Ross ↗
1933
The north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge rising on the Marin shore, in a press photograph of August 1934.The north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge rising on the Marin shore, in a press photograph of August 1934.Image: ACME Newspictures · Public domain
science · Americas

Work begins on the Golden Gate Bridge

For decades engineers had said the Golden Gate, the windy, fog-bound strait at the mouth of San Francisco Bay, was too deep and too rough to bridge. Joseph Strauss spent years winning over sceptics and raising money, and construction finally began on 5 January 1933, in the depths of the Depression. Its two towers rose 746 feet above the water, and when it opened in May 1937 it was the longest suspension span in the world. A safety net slung beneath the deck saved the lives of 19 men, but 11 workers died building it.

Source: Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District: construction ↗
1953
Waiting for Godot at the Avignon Festival in 1978, directed by Otomar Krejča.Waiting for Godot at the Avignon Festival in 1978, directed by Otomar Krejča.Image: Fernand Michaud · CC0
culture · Europe

Waiting for Godot opens in Paris

Samuel Beckett’s play En attendant Godot was first performed on 5 January 1953 at the tiny Théâtre de Babylone on the Boulevard Raspail in Paris, directed by Roger Blin, who also played Pozzo. Two tramps wait by a bare tree for a Mr Godot, who never comes. Some of the audience walked out, but critics and writers took it up, and within a few years it was being staged around the world. It became one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century.

Source: University of Reading, Staging Beckett: case study, Waiting for Godot ↗
1968
Alexander Dubček, leader of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1968.Alexander Dubček, leader of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1968.Image: CTK · CC0
politics · Europe

Dubček takes charge and the Prague Spring begins

By the end of 1967 Antonín Novotný, the hard-line leader of Communist Czechoslovakia, had lost the confidence of his own party. On 5 January 1968 the Central Committee replaced him as first secretary with Alexander Dubček, the Slovak party leader, a quiet compromise candidate from whom little was expected. Within weeks Dubček had eased censorship and promised ‘socialism with a human face’. A flood of free debate followed, the Prague Spring. It alarmed Moscow, and on the night of 20 August 1968 armies of the Warsaw Pact invaded and brought it to an end.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Alexander Dubček ↗
1969
A 1969 Soviet stamp marking the arrival of Venera 5 and Venera 6 at Venus in May 1969.A 1969 Soviet stamp marking the arrival of Venera 5 and Venera 6 at Venus in May 1969.Image: USSR Post · Public domain
science · Global

Venera 5 sets off for Venus

The Soviet probe Venera 5 was launched on 5 January 1969, followed five days later by its twin, Venera 6. After four months in space, Venera 5 plunged into the night side of Venus on 16 May, releasing a capsule on a parachute. It sent back readings for 53 minutes before the heat and pressure crushed it. The twin probes confirmed that the air of Venus is almost all carbon dioxide, with almost no water, and far hotter and denser than Earth’s.

Source: NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive: Venera 5 ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2005
The dwarf planet Eris (centre) and its moon Dysnomia (left), photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006.The dwarf planet Eris (centre) and its moon Dysnomia (left), photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006.Image: NASA, ESA, and M. Brown (California Institute of Technology) · Public domain
science · Global

Astronomers find Eris, a rival to Pluto

In October 2003 a telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California photographed a faint dot far beyond Neptune. It moved so slowly that the astronomers Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz missed it, until they went back over the images on 5 January 2005 and found it. The new world, later named Eris, seemed at first larger than Pluto and turned out to be more massive. If Pluto was a planet, so was Eris, and the argument that followed led the International Astronomical Union to define ‘dwarf planets’ in 2006, taking Pluto off the list of planets.

Source: NASA Science: Eris ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 5 January, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 5 January

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

Explore This Day →
← PREVIOUS DAY4 January
HISTORY & TIMELINE5 January
NEXT DAY →6 January