Nov 5 in History
1499 — The Catholicon — a Breton, French and Latin dictionary written in 1464 by Breton priest Jehan Lagadeuc — is published. Containing 6,000 entries, it is the first Breton and the first French dictionary.
1605 — Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes, 35, is arrested in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament in London, where Catholic conspirators had planted 36 barrels of gunpowder to blow up the building and kill King James I. Conspiracy leader Robert Catesby had left London on November 4, but is killed by a Sheriff's posse in Staffordshire on November 8. Most of the other conspirators are executed, Fawkes on January 31 1606.
1688 — William of Orange lands with a Dutch fleet of approximately 463 ships and 40,000 men at Brixham to challenge the rule of King James II of England. He marches with his army nearly unopposed to London. He and his wife are crowned as co-monarchs, William III and Mary II, on April 11 1689.
1811 — Salvadoran priest and doctor José Matías Delgado rings the bells of the Church of La Merced in San Salvador as a public cry for liberty, launching the 1811 Independence (from Spain) Movement.
1895 — George B Selden, an American patent lawyer and inventor, is granted the first US patent for an automobile, filed on May 8 1879.
1937 — Adolf Hitler tells his military advisers of his intentions of going to war, favouring small wars of plunder to support Germany’s ailing economy.
1955 — After being set alight on March 12 1945 by an American bombardment during World War 2, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera opens with a performance of Beethoven’s “Fidelio”.
1995 — André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada in his home in Ottawa. He is thwarted when Chrétien’s wife Aline locks the bedroom door.
2006 — Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, is sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the 1982 massacre of 148 Shia Muslims in Dujail. He is executed on December 30.
2009 — After picking up €11.6m in cash at the Banque de France branch in Lyon, the driver of the Loomis security firm’s armoured van drives off while the other two guards are inside the next bank. On November 9 it is announced that €9.5m had been recovered. Toni Musulin, 39, surrenders to police in Monaco on November 16. On May 11 2010 he is sentenced to three years in prison.