On this day, March 5
1770 The Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers who’d been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened fire, killing five people.
1849 Zachary Taylor was inaugurated as the 12th president of the United States. (The swearing-in was delayed by a day because March 4 fell on a Sunday.)
1868 The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U.S. Senate, with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding. Johnson, the first U.S. president to be impeached, was accused of “high crimes and misdemeanors” stemming from his attempt to fire Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; the trial ended on May 26 with Johnson’s acquittal.
1933 In German parliamentary elections, the Nazi Party won 44% of the vote; the Nazis joined with a conservative nationalist party to gain a slender majority in the Reichstag.
1946 Winston Churchill delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., in which he said: “From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent, allowing police governments to rule Eastern Europe.”
1953 Soviet dictator Josef Stalin
died after three decades in power.
1963 Country music performers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins died in the crash of their plane, a Piper Comanche, near Camden, Tenn., along with pilot Randy Hughes (Cline’s manager).
1970 The Treaty on the NonProliferation of Nuclear Weapons went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.
1979 NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe flew past Jupiter, sending back photographs of the planet and its moons.
1982 Comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in a rented bungalow in Hollywood; he was 33.
1998 NASA scientists said enough water was frozen in the loose soil of the moon to support a lunar base and perhaps, one day, a human colony. 2004, Martha Stewart was convicted in New York of obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she’d unloaded her Imclone stock just before the price plummeted; her ex-stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, also was found guilty in the stock scandal. (Each later received a fivemonth prison sentence.) 2013 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Latin America’s most vocal and controversial leader, died in Caracas at age 58 after a struggle with cancer. Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole announced that airline passengers would be able to carry small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes (the plan was dropped three months later amid fierce congressional and industry opposition).
2018 Los Angeles police arrested Terry Bryant, 47, on charges that he stole Frances McDormand’s Oscar trophy after the Academy Awards a night earlier; the award was returned to the actress. (Charges against Bryant would later be dismissed.) The Nielsen company announced that the Academy Awards viewership had plunged to a record low of 26.5 million, down 20% from a year earlier.
2020 Palestinian officials closed the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem over fears of the coronavirus. Officials ordered a cruise ship with 3,500 people aboard to stay back from the California coast until passengers and crew could be tested; a traveler from its previous voyage died of the coronavirus.
2022 A promised cease-fire in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol collapsed amid scenes of terror in the besieged town. The number of people fleeing the country reached 1.4 million just 10 days after Russian forces invaded. Officials in Russia revealed that WNBA AllStar Brittney Griner had been arrested at a Moscow airport weeks earlier when a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis. (Nine months later, Griner would be released in a prisoner swap with the U.S.)
Today’s birthdays: Actor Paul Sand, 91. Actor James B. Sikking, 89. Actor Fred Williamson, 85. Actor Samantha Eggar, 84. Actor Michael Warren, 77. Singer Eddy Grant, 75. Rock musician Alan Clark (Dire Straits), 71. Actor-comedian Marsha Warfield, 69. Magician Penn Jillette, 68. Actor Adriana Barraza, 67. Actor Talia Balsam, 64. Rock singers Charlie and Craig Reid (The Proclaimers), 61. Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, 57. Actor Paul Blackthorne, 54. Rock musician John Frusciante, 53. Singer Rome, 53. Actor Kevin Connolly, 49. Actor Eva Mendes, 49. Actor Jill Ritchie, 49. Actor Jolene Blalock, 48. Model Niki Taylor, 48. Actor Kimberly McCullough, 45. Actor Karolina Wydra, 42. Singersongwriter Amanda Shires, 41. Actor Dominique McElligott, 37.