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HISTORY & TIMELINE
5 November

A journey through
5 November in history

From a battle that secured the Mughal Empire in 1556 to the arrival of Android in 2007, 5 November has seen plots foiled, kingdoms proclaimed and presidents re-elected. This timeline follows the date across more than four centuries.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1556
The defeat of Hemu at Panipat, painted by Kankar for the Akbarnama in the 1590s.The defeat of Hemu at Panipat, painted by Kankar for the Akbarnama in the 1590s.Image: Kankar · Public domain
world · Asia

The Second Battle of Panipat

On 5 November 1556 (Julian calendar), on the plain of Panipat north of Delhi, the army of the thirteen-year-old Mughal emperor Akbar, led by his regent Bairam Khan, met the much larger army of Hemu, the Hindu ruler who had taken Delhi only weeks before and been crowned as Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya. Hemu had some 30,000 cavalry and hundreds of war elephants. The battle turned when Hemu was struck in the eye by an arrow and his troops broke. He was captured and beheaded. Akbar went on to take Delhi and Agra and to rule for nearly fifty years, laying the foundations of the Mughal Empire at its height.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Second Battle of Panipat ↗
1605
Eight of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, Guy Fawkes among them, in an engraving of 1605.Eight of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, Guy Fawkes among them, in an engraving of 1605.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
politics · Europe

The Gunpowder Plot is foiled

Around midnight on 4 to 5 November 1605 a search party at Westminster found Guy Fawkes in a cellar beneath the House of Lords, guarding about thirty-six barrels of gunpowder hidden under firewood and coal. He and a small group of English Catholics had planned to blow up the building at the opening of Parliament on 5 November, killing King James I and his government. The date is recorded under the Julian calendar then used in England. When the other conspirators learned that morning that the plot had been discovered, most of them fled. Fawkes was interrogated under torture and gave up their names. Parliament ordered that the King’s escape be celebrated every year, the origin of Bonfire Night.

Source: UK Parliament: The Gunpowder Plot and its discovery ↗
1688
William of Orange and his army land at Brixham, in a later painting by Johan Herman Isings.William of Orange and his army land at Brixham, in a later painting by Johan Herman Isings.Image: Johan Herman Isings · Public domain
politics · Europe

William of Orange lands at Brixham

On 5 November 1688 (Julian calendar) the Dutch ruler William of Orange landed unopposed at Brixham in Torbay with an army of about 14,000 men. He had been invited by seven leading English peers opposed to the Catholic King James II, whose daughter Mary was William’s wife. James’s army and even his daughter Anne deserted him, and he fled to France. William and Mary were crowned together in April 1689, in what became known as the Glorious Revolution.

Source: UK Parliament: Invasion and desertion, the Glorious Revolution ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

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

1872
Susan B. Anthony, photographed about 1890.Susan B. Anthony, photographed about 1890.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
politics · Americas

Susan B. Anthony casts her vote

On 5 November 1872 Susan B. Anthony and fourteen other women voted in the American elections in Rochester, New York, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment already gave them the right. The election officials had let them register and cast their ballots. Two weeks later Anthony was arrested for voting illegally. At her trial the next year the judge directed the jury to find her guilty, and she was fined $100, which she refused to pay. American women won the vote nationally in 1920, fourteen years after her death.

Source: US National Archives Museum: Courting confrontation, the arrest of Susan B. Anthony ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

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

1916
The proclamation of the Act of 5 November, 1916.The proclamation of the Act of 5 November, 1916.Image: władze niemieckie i austriackie · Public domain
politics · Europe

The Act of 5 November proclaims a Kingdom of Poland

On 5 November 1916 the German and Austro-Hungarian governors in occupied Warsaw and Lublin proclaimed a Kingdom of Poland on the lands taken from Russia. The two emperors hoped to raise Polish troops for the war, and gave the new state neither a king nor defined borders. But the act put the question of Polish independence before the world, two years before Poland regained it.

Source: Museum of Polish History: the Act of 5 November ↗
1940
The Electoral College map of the 1940 election.The Electoral College map of the 1940 election.Image: AndyHogan14 · Public domain
politics · Americas

Roosevelt wins a third term

On 5 November 1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first American president elected to a third term, breaking the two-term tradition set by George Washington. He beat the Republican Wendell Willkie with almost 55 per cent of the vote and 449 electoral votes, with the war in Europe at the centre of the campaign.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: United States presidential election of 1940 ↗
1955
The front of the Vienna State Opera today.The front of the Vienna State Opera today.Image: Wiener Staatsoper GmbH · CC BY-SA 4.0
culture · Europe

The Vienna State Opera reopens

The Vienna State Opera, burned out by bombing in the last months of the Second World War, reopened on 5 November 1955, weeks after the last occupying troops had left Austria. Karl Böhm conducted Beethoven’s Fidelio, the opera of tyranny overthrown and freedom regained. The performance was broadcast by forty radio stations around the world, and it was one of the first live broadcasts of Austrian television. It was seen as a symbol of the new beginning of the Austrian republic.

Source: Vienna State Opera: History ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

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

2007
The T-Mobile G1, also sold as the HTC Dream, the first phone to run Android, in 2008.The T-Mobile G1, also sold as the HTC Dream, the first phone to run Android, in 2008.Image: Luis Alberto Arjona Chin · CC BY 2.0
science · Global

Google announces Android

On 5 November 2007 Google and more than thirty technology and telephone companies, among them Intel, Motorola, Samsung, LG and T-Mobile, announced the Open Handset Alliance, formed to develop Android, a free and open-source operating system for mobile phones. The tools for writing Android apps were released a week later, and the first Android phone went on sale in 2008. Android went on to become the most widely used operating system in the world.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Android operating system ↗
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 November, 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 November

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

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