This Day in History

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March 5

1496 – King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.

1616 – Nicolaus Copernicus's book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.

1836 – Samuel Colt patents the first production-model revolver, the .34-caliber.

1850 – The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened.

1872 – George Westinghouse patents the air brake.

1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions.

1940 – Six high-ranking members of Soviet politburo, including Joseph Stalin, sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, in what will become known as the Katyn massacre.

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

1963 – American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.

1974 – Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.

1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 1.5 million units around the world.

Births

1133 – Henry II of England, 1512 – Gerardus Mercator, 1658 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, 1898 – Zhou Enlai, 1908 – Rex Harrison, 1922 – James Noble, 1929 – J. B. Lenoir, 1938 – Fred Williamson, 1948 – Eddy Grant, 1953 – Tokyo Sexwale, 1954 – Marsha Warfield, 1955 – Penn Jillette, 1956 – Teena Marie, 1958 – Andy Gibb, 1963 – Joel Osteen, 1970 – John Frusciante, 1974 – Kevin Connolly

Deaths

1770 – Crispus Attucks, 1827 – Alessandro Volta, 1929 – David Dunbar Buick, 1953 – Joseph Stalin, 1963 – Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, 1980 – Jay Silverheels, 1982 – John Belushi, 1984 – William Powell, 1999 – Richard Kiley, 2013 – Paul Bearer, 2013 – Hugo Chávez