On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 64 of the year.

Thursday, March 5th

Today is Reel Film Day, World Book Day, National Absinthe Day and St Piran’s Day. Your star sign is Pisces and your birthstone is Aquamarine.
1936 – The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. It was designed by Reginald Mitchell and was the fighter plane that helped to win the Battle of Britain. Mitchell died in 1937 without ever knowing how successful his aircraft would become.
Today’s birthdays
1946 – Murray Head (80), English actor (Sunday Bloody Sunday) and singer (“One Night in Bangkok”), born in London.
1948 – Eddy Grant (78), Guyanese-British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (“Electric Avenue”, “I Don’t Wanna Dance”, “Gimme Hope Jo’anna”), born in Plaisance, Guyana.
1948 – Elaine Page (78), English singer (“I Know Him So Well”) and actress (Cats), born in London Borough of Barnet.
1955 – Penn Jillette (71), American magician and entertainer best known for his work with fellow magician Teller, born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, United States.
1962 – Craig and Charlie Reid (64), Scottish singer/songwriters (Proclaimers – “I Wanna Be”, “A Letter From America”), born in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1962 – Rosemarie Ford (63), English singer, dancer (Cats, Come Dancing) and television presenter (Bruce Forsyth’s The Generation Game), born in Sherburn in Elmet, North Yorkshire.
1974 – Matt Lucas (52), English actor, comedian (Little Britain), writer, and television presenter (The Great British Bake Off), born in Paddington, London.
1974 – Eva Mendes (52), American actress (Hitch, Ghost Rider, Training Day, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, 2 Fast 2 Furious), born in Miami, Florida, United States.
1993 – Harry Maguire (33), English professional footballer (Manchester United, England national team), born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
Famous deaths
1953 – Joseph Stalin (b. 1878), Georgian-born Soviet revolutionary and politician who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953.

1963 – Patsy Cline (b. 1932), American singer (“Crazy”, “Walking After Midnight”).

1982 – John Belushi (b. 1949), American comedian and actor (National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers).
The day today
1936 – The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. It was designed by Reginald Mitchell and was the fighter plane that helped to win the Battle of Britain. Mitchell died in 1937 without ever knowing how successful his aircraft would become. The Spitfire was first put into service with the Royal Air Force in 1938 and they remained in active service (as photo reconnaissance planes) with the Royal Air Force until 1954.
1936 – “Mutiny on the Bounty”, starring Clarke Gabel wins Best Picture and Bette Davis wins Best Actress at the 8th Academy Awards.
1943 – The first flight of the Gloster Meteor jet aircraft. It was the first British jet fighter and the Allies’ first operational jet. The Meteor’s development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, developed by Sir Frank Whittle.
1943 – The Battle of the Ruhr, a major five-month British-led strategic bombing campaign, began, and lasted until July 31, 1943. RAF Bomber Command heavily targeted Germany’s industrial heartland, focusing on steelworks and synthetic oil plants, beginning with a major raid on Essen.
1946 – Winston Churchill’s 1946 address, “The Sinews of Peace” at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, formally popularised the term “Iron Curtain” to describe the ideological and physical divide between Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe and the West. Declaring that “an iron curtain has descended across the Continent,” Churchill warned of expanding Soviet influence and helped define the impending Cold War.
1948 – The birth of Elaine Paige, singer and actress. Her debut was in the 1968 production of Hair. She played Eva Perón in the first production of Evita in 1978 which won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a Musical.
1966 – BOAC Flight 911 (Speedbird 911), a round-the-world flight operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation disintegrated and crashed on Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 113 passengers and 11 crew members. It was the third fatal passenger airline accident in Tokyo in a month.
1981 – Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won their first of four consecutive World Figure Skating Championship gold medals in Hartford, Connecticut. The British duo dominated the competition, marking the beginning of a legendary era where they redefined ice dancing, often using innovative routines.
2001 – PC Alison Armitage (aged 29) became the first female officer in the Greater Manchester Police force to be killed in the line of duty since it was formed in 1974.
2002 – The Osbournes reality TV show aired for the first time on MTV. The American show featured Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly, and Jack Osbourne. Ozzy and Sharon have another child (Aimee) who refused to participate.
2006 – The landmark BBC nature documentary Planet Earth, narrated by David Attenborough, premiered on BBC One. As the first BBC series filmed in high definition, it was five years in the making and cost over £16 million, featuring 11 episodes that covered diverse global biomes.
2015 – Actor Harrison Ford was seriously injured after he was forced to crash-land his vintage 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR (PT-22 Recruit) plane on the Penmar Golf Course in Venice, California, shortly after takeoff from Santa Monica Airport. The vintage aircraft suffered total engine power loss at approximately 1,100 feet.
2019 – Bugatti announces the most expensive new car ever made to celebrate Bugatti’s 110th anniversary. The Bugatti La Voiture Noire (“The Black Car”) is a one-off, handcrafted hypercar based on the Chiron, priced at roughly €11 million before taxes.
2019 – Forbes named 21-year-old Kylie Jenner the world’s youngest-ever “self-made” billionaire, driven by the massive success of her 100% owned Kylie Cosmetics. She surpassed Mark Zuckerberg to achieve this milestone. Her fortune was largely built on social media marketing and a lucrative retail partnership with Ulta.
2019 – Adam Castillejo, known as the “London patient,” became the second person ever to be declared free of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant for Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2016. He achieved long-term remission without daily medication after receiving cells with a rare genetic mutation that prevents HIV infection. While not a scalable cure for all HIV patients due to the intensity of the treatment and rarity of the donor mutation, it proved the 2011 “Berlin patient” (Timothy Ray Brown) was not a one-off case.
2021 – Pope Francis made history when he became the first pope to visit Iraq. The four-day visit was made possible by invitation from the Iraqi government and the largest Catholic church in Iraq, the Chaldean Catholic Church. Before this, a papal visit to Iraq was attempted in 2000, when Pope John Paul II wished to visit the city of Ur, but the Iraqi government denied him.
Today in music
1953 – America learns of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s death when Air Force Staff Sergeant Johnny Cash intercepted a coded message from Russia. Cash enlisted in 1950 after he turned 18 and was assigned to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the US Air Force Security Service at Landsberg, West Germany, where he proved his skill as a Morse Code operator.
1956 – Frank Sinatra released his tenth studio album Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! (the first album ever to top the UK Albums Chart). Sinatra aficionados often rank it his best album and many music critics consider it one of the greatest albums of its era. The original cover had Sinatra facing away from the young couple, but in 1957 Capitol altered the cover with a new image of Sinatra facing the couple.
1963 – Country singers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins were killed in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee. They were travelling to Nashville after appearing at a benefit concert for the widow of Kansas City disc jockey ‘Cactus’ Jack Call, who had died in a car crash. On 7 March, country singer Jack Anglin was killed in a car crash on his way to Cline’s funeral. Cline was the first country singer to cross over as a pop artist.
1977 – Barbra Streisand started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Love Theme From A Star Is Born’, her second US No.1. It made No.3 in the UK. The Eagles were at No.2 with ‘New Kid In Town’ and The Steve Miller Band was at No.3 with ‘Fly Like An Eagle’.
1982 – Actor and singer John Belushi died from an overdose of cocaine and heroin. Belushi was one of the original cast members on US TV’s Saturday Night Live, played Joliet ‘Jake’ Blues in The Blues Brothers and also appeared in the film Animal House. His tombstone reads “I may be gone, but rock n roll lives on.”
1983 – Michael Jackson started a seven week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Billie Jean’, his fourth solo US No.1, also No.1 in the UK. And on this day Jacksons album Thriller went to No.1 for the first time on the UK album chart, it went on to become the biggest selling album of all time with sales over 65 million.
1992 – R.E.M. cleaned up in The Rolling Stone Music Awards winning Album of the year, for ‘Out Of Time’, Artist of the year, Best single for ‘Losing My Religion’, Best video for ‘Losing My Religion’ and Best band, Best guitarist and Best songwriter awards.

2000 – Madonna went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with her version of the Don McLean 1972 hit ‘American Pie’. It was her 50th UK hit and the singers ninth UK No.1 and taken from the soundtrack to the 2000 film The Next Best Thing.

2006 – Corinne Bailey Rae went to No.1 on the UK album chart with her debut album ‘Corinne Bailey Rae.’ Rae became only the fourth female British act in history to have her first album debut at No.1 on the UK chart.
2007 – Records by the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon were chosen for preservation by the US Library of Congress. The Stones ’(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and Paul Simon’s Graceland album entered the National Recordings Registry, which preserves historic works for future generations. Other recordings chosen this year included Carl Perkins’ ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, ‘Be My Baby’ by The Ronettes, ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ by Sam Cooke and the eponymous album The Velvet Underground and Nico.
2012 – Sony admitted that a number of Michael Jackson tracks had been stolen after its website was hacked. The singer, who died in June 2009 at the age of 50, had recorded unreleased duets with artists ranging from the late Freddie Mercury and Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am.
2017 – Ed Sheeran was at No.1 on the UK album chart with his third studio album ÷ (pronounced ‘divide’). All the tracks on the album reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart in the week of the album’s release, due to heavy streaming. The dominance of its tracks on the UK chart led to calls for change on how the singles chart was compiled. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
Today in history
1133 – The birth of King Henry II, who was to become the first Plantagenet king of England.
1461 – Wars of the Roses: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV.
1850 – Robert Stephenson’s Britannia bridge, linking Bangor, Wales to the Isle of Anglesey, was opened. Unable to use an arch design because the Admiralty would not allow the strait to be closed to the passage of sailing ships, Stephenson conceived the idea of using a pair of completely enclosed iron tubes, rectangular in section, supported in the centre by a pier built on Britannia Rock.
1857 – James Townsend Saward, alias ‘Jim the Penman’, the most notorious forger of his age, was convicted of forging cheques. Saward was a respected solicitor with chambers in the Temple. He and his accomplices were sentenced to transportation to Australia.
1790 – Flora Macdonald, the celebrated Scottish Jacobite heroine who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape, died on March 5, 1790, aged 68, at Kingsburgh on the Isle of Skye. Her funeral was one of the largest in Highland history, attended by 3,000 mourners and marked by the consumption of 300 gallons of whisky.
1900 – The British Government was offered peace proposals to end the Boer War, but rejected them, ultimately leading to the war continuing until the Boers were forced to surrender and accept British rule in the Treaty of Vereeniging in 1902.
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