April 5 in history — On This Day

A photograph taken after the 1871 fire can make Chicago look as though its future had been decided by a wall of flame. A view from around 1905 tells a different story: tall offices, busy transport routes and commercial streets crowded again.

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Stephen King’s Carrie is published

Also on April 5

My Fair Lady wins the Academy Award for Best Picture

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg receive death sentences

Soviet troops leave the Danish island of Bornholm

This Week in History

Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis

Bye Bye Birdie reaches film audiences

France agrees to the Mali Federation’s independence

AI History Recreations

Politics

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg receive death sentences

War & Conflict

Germany invades Denmark and Norway

Space

Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space

Technology

The Boeing B-52 prototype takes flight

History

The Surgeon’s Photograph of Loch Ness is published

Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations

The Luttra Woman is found in a Swedish bog

Crime & Justice

A gunman attacks residents of Velika Ivanča

A shooting hits a shopping center in Alphen aan den Rijn

Bomb blasts hit residential buildings in Shijiazhuang

Science

Astronomers unveil the first image of a black hole

Stones fall from the sky near L’Aigle

A total eclipse shares the sky with Hale–Bopp

Medicine & Health

A French team reports isolating a virus later named HIV

The Bundaberg vaccine contamination disaster unfolds

Researchers identify the bacterium behind Legionnaires’ disease

Nature & Disasters

A solar halo over Stockholm inspires a famous city view

The Messina Earthquake

A Rachel Carson sculpture is dedicated in Woods Hole

Exploration

La Salle is killed by members of his own expedition

Soviet scientists establish North Pole-1 on drifting ice

Amundsen's Team Reaches the South Pole

Sport

The Montreal Canadiens Are Founded

FC Barcelona Is Founded

Magic Johnson Announces He Has HIV and Retires From the Lakers

Art & Literature

Stephen King’s Carrie is published

Farmers uncover the Terracotta Army near Xi’an

Gürdal Duyar’s Güzel İstanbul is removed

Music

The Vienna Philharmonic gives its first concert

Handel’s Messiah premieres in Dublin

Handel’s Serse opens in London

Film & TV

My Fair Lady wins the Academy Award for Best Picture

Bye Bye Birdie reaches film audiences

Sidney Poitier wins the Best Actor Oscar

The Story Behind the Photo

Chicago After the Fire: From Burned Blocks to a New Skyline

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The Road to the Moon

Fires That Changed Cities

The Age of Invention

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