http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Mar 5, 1946: Churchill delivers Iron Curtain speech
In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union's policies in Europe and declares, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." Churchill's speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War.
Churchill, who had been defeated for re-election as prime minister in 1945, was invited to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri where he gave this speech. President Harry S. Truman joined Churchill on the platform and listened intently to his speech. Churchill began by praising the United States, which he declared stood "at the pinnacle of world power." It soon became clear that a primary purpose of his talk was to argue for an even closer "special relationship" between the United States and Great Britain—the great powers of the "English-speaking world"—in organizing and policing the postwar world. In particular, he warned against the expansionistic policies of the Soviet Union. In addition to the "iron curtain" that had descended across Eastern Europe, Churchill spoke of "communist fifth columns" that were operating throughout western and southern Europe. Drawing parallels with the disastrous appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II, Churchill advised that in dealing with the Soviets there was "nothing which they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness."
Truman and many other U.S. officials warmly received the speech. Already they had decided that the Soviet Union was bent on expansion and only a tough stance would deter the Russians. Churchill's "iron curtain" phrase immediately entered the official vocabulary of the Cold War. U.S. officials were less enthusiastic about Churchill's call for a "special relationship" between the United States and Great Britain. While they viewed the English as valuable allies in the Cold War, they were also well aware that Britain's power was on the wane and had no intention of being used as pawns to help support the crumbling British empire. In the Soviet Union, Russian leader Joseph Stalin denounced the speech as "war mongering," and referred to Churchill's comments about the "English-speaking world" as imperialist "racism." The British, Americans, and Russians-allies against Hitler less than a year before the speech—were drawing the battle lines of the Cold War.
Mar 5, 1953: Joseph Stalin dies
On this day, Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union since 1924, dies in Moscow.
Like his right-wing counterpart, Hitler, who was born in Austria, Joseph Stalin was not a native of the country he ruled with an iron fist. Isoeb Dzhugashvili was born in 1889 in Georgia, then part of the old Russian empire. The son of a drunk who beat him mercilessly and a pious washerwoman mother, Stalin learned Russian, which he spoke with a heavy accent all his life, in an Orthodox Church-run school. While studying to be a priest at Tiflis Theological Seminary, he began secretly reading Karl Marx and other left-wing revolutionary thinkers. The "official" communist story is that he was expelled from the seminary for this intellectual rebellion; in reality, it may have been because of poor health.
In 1900, Stalin became active in revolutionary political activism, taking part in labor demonstrations and strikes. Stalin joined the more militant wing of the Marxist Social Democratic movement, the Bolsheviks, and became a student of its leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin. Stalin was arrested seven times between 1902 and 1913, and subjected to prison and exile.
Stalin's first big break came in 1912, when Lenin, in exile in Switzerland, named him to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party—now a separate entity from the Social Democrats. The following year, Stalin (finally dropping Dzugashvili and taking the new name Stalin, from the Russian word for "steel") published a signal article on the role of Marxism in the destiny of Russia. In 1917, escaping from an exile in Siberia, he linked up with Lenin and his coup against the middle-class democratic government that had supplanted the czar's rule. Stalin continued to move up the party ladder, from commissar for nationalities to secretary general of the Central Committee—a role that would provide the center of his dictatorial takeover and control of the party and the new USSR.
In fact, upon Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin began the consolidation of his power base, conducting show trials to purge enemies and rivals, even having Leon Trotsky assassinated during his exile in Mexico. Stalin also abandoned Lenin's New Economic Policy, which would have meant some decentralization of industry. Stalin demanded—and got—absolute state control of the economy, as well as greater swaths of Soviet life, until his totalitarian grip on the new Russian empire was absolute.
The outbreak of World War II saw Stalin attempt an alliance with Adolf Hitler for purely self-interested reasons, and despite the political fallout of a communist signing an alliance with a fascist, they signed a nonaggression pact that allowed each dictator free reign in their respective spheres of influence. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland, Romania, and Finland, and occupy Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In May 1941, he made himself chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; he was now the official head of the government and no longer merely head of the party. One month later, Germany invaded the USSR, making significant early inroads. As German troops approached, Stalin remained in the capital, directing a scorched-earth defensive policy and exercising personal control over the strategies of the Red Army.
As the war progressed, Stalin sat in on the major Allied conferences, including those in Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945). His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet Empire. In fact, after Germany's surrender in April 1945, Stalin oversaw the continued occupation and domination of much of Eastern Europe, despite "promises" of free elections in those countries.
Stalin did not mellow with age; he prosecuted a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to the Gulag Archipelago (a system of forced-labor camps in the frozen north), and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign, especially Western European, influence. To the great relief of many, he died of a massive heart attack on March 5, 1953. He is remembered to this day as the man who helped save his nation from Nazi domination—and as the mass murderer of the century, having overseen the deaths of between 8 million and 10 million of his own people.
Mar 5, 1770: The Boston Massacre
On the cold, snowy night of March 5, 1770, a mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops, who were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation.
British Captain Thomas Preston, the commanding officer at the Customs House, ordered his men to fix their bayonets and join the guard outside the building. The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the British regulars, and Private Hugh Montgomery was hit, leading him to discharge his rifle at the crowd. The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dying—Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, and James Caldwell—and three more were injured. Although it is unclear whether Crispus Attucks, an African American, was the first to fall as is commonly believed, the deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War.
The British soldiers were put on trial, and patriots John Adams and Josiah Quincy agreed to defend the soldiers in a show of support of the colonial justice system. When the trial ended in December 1770, two British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded with an "M" for murder as punishment.
The Sons of Liberty, a Patriot group formed in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act, advertised the "Boston Massacre" as a battle for American liberty and just cause for the removal of British troops from Boston. Patriot Paul Revere made a provocative engraving of the incident, depicting the British soldiers lining up like an organized army to suppress an idealized representation of the colonist uprising. Copies of the engraving were distributed throughout the colonies and helped reinforce negative American sentiments about British rule.
In April 1775, the American Revolution began when British troops from Boston skirmished with American militiamen at the battles of Lexington and Concord. The British troops were under orders to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington and to confiscate the Patriot arsenal at Concord. Neither missions were accomplished because of Paul Revere and William Dawes, who rode ahead of the British, warning Adams and Hancock and rousing the Patriot minutemen. Eleven months later, in March 1776, British forces had to evacuate Boston following American General George Washington's successful placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights. This bloodless liberation of Boston brought an end to the hated eight-year British occupation of the city. For the victory, General Washington, commander of the Continental Army, was presented with the first medal ever awarded by the Continental Congress. It would be more than five years before the Revolutionary War came to an end with British General Charles Cornwallis' surrender to Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.
Mar 5, 1969: Jim Morrison is charged with lewd behavior at a Miami concert
The Dade County Sheriff's Office issues an arrest warrant for Doors' lead singer Jim Morrison. He is charged with a single felony count and three misdemeanors for his stage antics at a Miami concert a few days earlier.
When Morrison first got word of the charges for lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent exposure, profanity, and drunkenness, he thought it was a practical joke. But he soon learned that Miami authorities were entirely serious. In fact, they later added an additional charge, simulated oral copulation on guitarist Robbie Krieger during the concert.
The trial did not begin until September 1970, when the prosecution trotted out witnesses who claimed to be shocked at the scene they had witnessed at the Doors concert. However, virtually every witness was somehow connected to the police or the district attorney's office. There was some question as to whether the popular singer had ever actually exposed himself on stage. But there was little doubt that he was so drunk that he had been able to do little more than mumble during the show. Morrison turned down a plea bargain arrangement where the band would play a free concert in Miami.
This turned out to be a mistake as he was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison and a $500 fine. Morrison died in Paris before he could serve the sentence. Twenty years later, Dade County, Florida, once again placed itself in the middle of rock concert controversy when they prosecuted 2 Live Crew for alleged obscenity on stage.
In December 2010, Jim Morrison received a posthumous pardon by the state of Florida, thanks in part to the efforts of outgoing governor Charlie Crist, who cited lingering doubts about the singer's actions.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army
of 90,000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a campaign which would bring about
his own death.
1046 - Naser Khosrow begins the seven-year Middle Eastern
journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama.
1179 - 3rd Lateran Council (11th ecumenical council) opens
in Rome
1496 - English king Henry VII hires John Cabot (Giovanni
Caboto) to explore
1528 - Utrecht governor Maarten van Rossum plunders The
Hague
1558 - Smoking tobacco introduced in Europe by Francisco
Fernandes
1579 - Betuwe joins Union of Utrecht
1616 - Copernicus' "de Revolutionibus" placed on
Catholic Forbidden index
1623 - 1st American temperance law enacted, Virginia
1651 - South Sea dike in Amsterdam breaks after storm
1684 - Emperor Leopold I, Poland & Venice sign Heilig
Covenant of Linz
1743 - 1st US religious journal, The Christian History,
published, Boston
1746 - Jakobijnse troops leave Aberdeen
1750 - 1st American Shakespearean
production-"altered" Richard III, NYC
1766 - Don Antonio de Ulloa takes possession of Louisiana
Terr from French
1770 - Boston Massacre, British troops kill 5 in crowd.
Native African American Crispus Attucks 1st to die. Later held up as early
black martyr
1783 - King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski grants rights to
Jews of Kovno
1784 - Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney is named President
of the Board of Trade.
1793 - French troops are defeated by Austrian forces and
Liège is recaptured.
1795 - Amsterdam celebrates Revolution on the Dam; Square of
Revolution
1795 - Treaty of Basel-Prussia ends war with France
1807 - 1st performance of Ludwig von Beethoven's 4th
Symphony in B
1820 - Dutch city of Leeuwarden forbids Jews to go to
synagogues on Sundays
1821 - Monroe is 1st pres inaugurated on March 5th, because
4th was Sun
1824 - First Burmese War: The British officially declare war
on Burma.
Inventor/Industrialist Samuel ColtInventor/Industrialist
Samuel Colt 1836 - Samuel Colt manufactures 1st pistol, 34-caliber
"Texas" model
1841 - 1st continuous filibuster in US Senate began, lasting
until March 11
1842 - Over 500 Mexican troops led by Rafael Vasquez invade
Texas, briefly occupy San Antonio and then head back to the Rio Grande.
1845 - Congress appropriates $30,000 to ship camels to
western US
1848 - Louis Antoine Garnier-Pages is named French minister
of Finance.
1849 - Zachary Taylor sworn in as 12th president
1850 - The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between
the Isle of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened.
1856 - Covent Garden Opera House destroyed in a fire
1856 - Georgia becomes 1st state to regulate railroads
1860 - Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in
referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia.
1862 - Union troops under brig-gen Wright occupy Fernandina
Florida
1864 - 1st track meet between Oxford & Cambridge
1868 - Arrigo Boito's opera "Mefistofele,"
premieres in Milan
1868 - Stapler patented in England by C H Gould
1868 - US Senate organizes to decide charges against Pres
Andrew Johnson
Entrepreneur and Engineer George WestinghouseEntrepreneur
and Engineer George Westinghouse 1872 - George Westinghouse Jr patents triple
air brake for trains
1877 - Rutherford B Hayes inaugurated as 19th US president
1894 - Seattle authorizes 1st municipal employment office in
US
1894 - Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery becomes
First Lord of the Treasury.
1896 - Italian premier Crispi resigns
1896 - Italians governor of Eritrea, Gen Baldissera, reaches
Massawa
1897 - American Negro Academy forms
1899 - 1st performance of Edward MacDowell's 2nd Concerto in
D
1900 - American Hall of Fame found
1903 - Definitive treaty for construction of Baghdad railway
drawn
1904 - Nikola Tesla, in Electrical World and Engineer,
describes the process of the ball lightning formation.
1907 - 1st radio broadcast of a musical composition aired
1907 - The second Duma opens in St. Petersburg, Russia and
40,000 demonstrators have to be dispersed by Russian troops.
1908 - 1st ascent of Mt Erebus, Antarctica
1910 - Ramon Inclan's "La Farsa Infantil de la Cabeza
del Dragon," premieres
Electrical and Mechanical Engineer Nikola TeslaElectrical
and Mechanical Engineer Nikola Tesla 1910 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Wanderers
beat Ottawa Senators, 3-1
1912 - Spanish steamer "Principe de Asturias"
sinks NE of Spain, 500 die
1912 - Italian forces are the first to use airships for
military purposes, using them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.
1915 - World War I: The LZ 33, a zeppelin, is damaged by
enemy fire and stranded south of Ostend.
1917 - 1st jazz recording for Victor Records released
1919 - Louis Hirsch & Harold Atteridge's musical
premieres in NYC
1922 - "Nosferatu" premieres in Berlin
1923 - 1st old age pension plans in US established by
Montana & Nevada
1923 - Montana & Nevada become 1st states to enact old
age pension laws
1924 - Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corp becomes IBM
1924 - Frank Carauna, becomes 1st to bowl 2 successive
perfect 300 games
1924 - King Hussein of Hedzjaz appoints himself kalief
1927 - 1,000 US marines land in China to protect American
property
1928 - Karl Zuckmayer's "Der Hauptmann von
Köpenick," premieres in Berlin
1931 - Gandhi & British viceroy Lord Irwin sign pact
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933 - FDR proclaims 10-day bank holiday
1933 - Germany's Nazi Party wins majority in parliament
(43.9%-17.2M votes)
1934 - Mother-in-law's day 1st celebrated (Amarillo, Tx)
1935 - 1st premature baby health law in US (Chicago)
1936 - Spitfire makes its 1st flight (Eastleigh Aerodrome in
Southampton)
1942 - Bosnia Tito establishes 3rd Proletarit Brigade in
Bosnia
1942 - Dmitri Shostakovitch' 7th Symphony, premieres in
Siberia
1942 - Japanese troop march into Batavia
1943 - Anti fascist strikes in Italy
1943 - RAF bombs Essen Germany
1944 - 1st performance of Walter Piston's 2nd Symphony
1945 - Allies bombs The Hague, Netherlands
1945 - Generals Eisenhower, Patton & Patch meet in
Luneville
1945 - US 7th Army Corps captures Cologne
1945 - US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen
Merrill
US General George S. PattonUS General George S. Patton 1945
- World War II: The "Battle of the Ruhr" begins.
1946 - Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech
(Fulton Missouri)
1946 - Hungarian Communists and Social Democrats co-found
the Left Bloc.
1948 - US rocket flies record 4800 KPH to 126k height
1949 - Bradman plays his last innings in 1st-class cricket,
gets 30
1949 - The Jharkhand Party is founded in India.
1952 - Terence Rattigan's "Deep Blue Sea,"
premieres in London
1954 - "Girl in Pink Tights" opens at Mark
Hellinger NYC for 115 perfs
1955 - Elvis Presley's 1st TV appearance on "Louisiana
Hayride" show
1955 - WBBJ TV channel 7 in Jackson, TN (ABC) begins
broadcasting
1956 - "King Kong," 1st televised
1956 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Jacksonville Golf Open
1957 - Eamon de Valera's Fianna Fail-party wins election in
Ireland
1957 - Sgt Bilko satirizes Elvis Presley (Elvis Pelvin)
1958 - Explorer 2 fails to reach Earth orbit
Singer & Cultural Icon Elvis PresleySinger &
Cultural Icon Elvis Presley 1958 - KDUH TV channel 4 in Scottsbluff-Hay Spring,
NB (ABC) 1st broadcast
1959 - Iran & US sign economic & military treaty
1960 - Elvis Presley ends 2-year hitch in US Army
1960 - Ice Dance Championship at Vancouver won by Denny
& Jones (GRB)
1960 - Ice Pairs Championship at Vancouver won by Wagner
& Paul (CAN)
1960 - Men's Fig Skating Championship in Vancouver won by
Alain Giletti (FRA)
1960 - Worlds Ladies Fig Skating Champions in Vanc won by
Carol E Heiss (USA)
1960 - The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis originates when Alister
Hardy publicly announces his idea that ape-human divergence may have been due
to a coastal phase.
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - Beatles record "From Me to You" &
"Thank You Girl"
1964 - Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr, announces a baseball
team is moving there
1964 - Emergency crisis proclaimed in Ceylon due to social
unrest
1965 - 1st performance of Walter Piston's 8th Symphony
1965 - Ernie Terrel beats Eddie Machen in 15 for heavyweight
boxing title
1965 - March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain
against British colonial presence.
1966 - 75 MPH air currents causes BOAC 707 crash into Mount
Fuji, 124 die
1966 - Bob Seagren pole vaults 5.19m indoor world record
1966 - Player reps elect Marvin Miller, as exec dir of
Players' Association
1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1967 - WEDN TV channel 53 in Norwich, CT (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1968 - US launches Solar Explorer 2 to study the Sun
1969 - Gold reaches then record high ($47 per ounce) in
Paris
1969 - Gustav Heinemann elected president of West-Germany
1969 - Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw,"
premieres in London
1970 - Edison Theater opens at 240 W 47th St NYC
1970 - Nuclear non-proliferation treaty goes into effect
1970 - SDS Weathermen terrorist group bomb 18 West 11th St
in NYC
1970 - Dubnium atoms are first detected conclusively.
1972 - Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis leaves communist
party
1973 - Yankee pitchers Peterson & Kekich announce they
swapped wives
1974 - "Candide" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for
740 performances
1974 - Ralph Stewart failed in 2nd Islander penalty shot
1976 - British pound falls below $2 for 1st time
1978 - "Hello, Dolly!" opens at Lunt-Fontanne
Theater NYC for 152 perfs
1978 - Landsat 3 launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif
1979 - Voyager I's closest approach to Jupiter (172,000
miles)
1980 - Earth satellites record gamma rays from remnants of
supernova N-49
1981 - "Bring Back Birdie" opens at Martin Beck
Theater NYC for 4 perfs
1981 - Ice Dance Championship at Hartford won by Jayne
Torvill & C Dean (GRB)
1981 - Ice Pairs Champ at Hartford won by Irina Vorobieva
& I Lisovski (URS)
1981 - Men's Figure Skating Champions in Hartford won by
Scott Hamilton (USA)
1981 - US government grants Atlanta $1 million to search for
black boy murderer
1982 - Gaylord Perry (with 297 wins) signs with Seattle
Mariners
1982 - Russian spacecraft Venera 14 lands on Venus sends
back data
1983 - Bob Hawke (Labour) defeats Australian PM Malcolm
Fraser (Cons)
1983 - NSW beat Western Australia by 54 runs to win
Sheffield Shield
1984 - Supreme Court (5-4): city may use public money for
Nativity scene
1984 - US accuse Iraq of using poison gas
1985 - NY Islander Mike Bossy is 1st to score 50 goals in 8
straight seasons
1985 - Mexican authorities find the body of US drug agent
Enrique "Kike" Camarena Salaazar
1986 - "Today" tabloid launched (Britain's 1st
national color newspaper)
1988 - Constitution of Turks and Caicos Islands is restored
and revised.
1989 - 19th Easter Seal Telethon raises $37,002,000
1989 - Blains McCallister wins Honda Golf Classic shooting
266
1989 - Elly Verhulst runs world record 3000 m indoor
(8:33.82)
1991 - Iraq repealed its annexation of Kuwait
1991 - Reggie Miller (Indiana) begins NBA free throw streak
of 52 games
1992 - Ethic committee votes to reveal congressmen who
bounced checks
NBA Legend Larry BirdNBA Legend Larry Bird 1993 - Boston
Celtic Larry Bird undergoes backfusion surgery
1993 - Fokker 100 crashes at Skopje Macedonia, 81 die
1993 - Former Wash DC Mayor Marion Barry divorces his wife
Effi
1993 - Marlins beat Astros 12-8 in their 1st spring training
game
1994 - Dottie Mochrie wins Chrysler-Plymouth Tournament of
Golf Championship
1994 - Largest milkshake (1,955 gallons of chocolate-Nelspruit
South Africa)
1994 - PBA National Championship won by David Traber
1994 - Singer Grace Slick arrested for pointing a gun at a
cop
1995 - 21st People's Choice Awards: Tim Allen wins
1995 - Estonia Centrumlinkse Coalition party wins
parliamentary election
1995 - Graves of Tsar Nicholas II and family found in St
Petersburg
1995 - Marc Velzeboer skates world record 3 km short track
(5:00.26)
1996 - Earl Weaver & Jim Bunning, elected to Hall of
Fame
1997 - Tommy Lasorda, Nellie Fox & Willie Wells for Hall
of Fame
1998 - Mariah Carey divorces Tommy Mottola
Singer Mariah CareySinger Mariah Carey 1999 - Paul Okalik is
elected first Premier of Nunavut.
2001 - In Mecca, 35 Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death
during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
2003 - In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed by a Hamas
suicide bomb in the Haifa bus 37 massacre.
2005 - The Burkinabé Party for Democracy and Socialism holds
its first National Convention.
2012 - 27 members of Iraq's security force are killed by
gunmen disguised as police in Haditha
2012 - Tropical Storm Irina kills 65 in Madagascar
2013 - The Dow Jones surpasses its 2007 pre-financial crisis
levels for the first time
2013 - Venezuelan Vice-President Nicolás Maduro assumes the
presidency after the death of Hugo Chavez
2013 - Willcom announces the world’s smallest mobile phone,
weighing 32 grams
1770 The Boston Massacre, a pre-Revolutionary incident that grew out of anger towards British troops, occurred. Five anti-British rioters were killed. 1933 In the last free elections in Germany until after World War II, the Nazi Party received 44% of the vote. 1946 Winston Churchill delivered his famous Iron curtain speech, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent." 1953 Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died at age 73, after 29 years in power. 1963 Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, and Hankshaw Hawkins were killed in a plane crash. 1997 North and South Korean representatives met for the first time in 25 years for peace talks.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/mar05.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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