What Happened Today in History?

Let's take a break and learn history for a moment.

Today in History May 5

1494 - Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria.
1814 - British attack the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, New York.
1821 - Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena.
1834 - The first mainland railway line opens in Belgium.
1862 - Union and Confederate forces clash at the Battle of Williamsburg, part of the Peninsula Campaign. Eyewitness to War
1862 - Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeat troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.
1865 - The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery.
1886 - A bomb explodes on the fourth day of a workers’ strike in Chicago.
1912 - Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing.
1916 - U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic.
1917 - Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earns a flying certificate with the French Air Service.
1920 - Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Visetti are arrested for murder.
1935 - American Jesse Owens sets the long jump record.
1942 - General Joseph Stilwell learns that the Japanese have cut his railway out of China and is forced to lead his troops into India.
1945 - Holland and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control.
1961 - Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.
1968 - U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen.

Source: historynet.com