What Happened On
Killer Spared the Electric Chair, Killed by Electric Toilet
March 5, 1989
Michael Anderson Godwin, a convicted killer once sentenced to the electric chair, accidentally electrocutes himself to death while sitting naked on a metal toilet repairing a set of earphones connected to a plugged-in TV set. Sentenced to the electric chair for murder, Godwin got his sentence overturned on appeal and commuted to life imprisonment. He was spared the electric chair, only to die on an "electric toilet."
John Belushi Dies of Overdose
March 5, 1982
33-year-old comedian John Belushi, one of the seven original cast members of Saturday Night Live (1975-81), dies of an overdose from a lethal combination of cocaine and heroin, known as a speedball.
Two months later, the woman who was with Belushi at the time of his death, Cathy Smith, gave an interview with the National Enquirer in which she admitted she had administered the fatal speedball shot. The article was titled "I Killed Belushi". The case was then reopened and Smith was charged with first-degree murder. A plea bargain reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter, and she served 15 months in prison.
Patsy Cline Dies in Plane Crash
March 5, 1963
30-year-old country singer Patsy Cline dies when her plane crashes in inclement weather. Her pilot was not instrument rated and was trying to fly in heavy weather. She was returning home after performing at a benefit for the family of disc jockey "Cactus" Jack Call, who had died in an automobile crash a little over a month earlier.
Photo Credit: BeenAroundAWhile
Photo Credit: BeenAroundAWhile
Hula Hoop Patented
March 5, 1963
In 1957, Joan Anderson brought back a bamboo "exercise hoop" from Australia and called it a Hula Hoop after the motion used by Hawaiian dancers. Her husband showed it to Arthur "Spud" Melin of Wham-O and they agreed on a gentleman's handshake that they would share in any profits. However, the company would cut them out of the deal, and they got nothing.
A fad for the toy began in July 1958 with twenty-five million plastic hoops sold in less than four months, and more than 100 million units sold in two years. Melin later claimed he invented it and applied for a patent in 1959, which was granted March 5, 1963.
Art Linkletter was a major investor in the Hula Hoop.
Iron Curtain
March 5, 1946
Winston Churchill remarks, "An iron curtain has descended across the continent" referring to the Russian threat. The term "The Iron Curtain" would become synonymous with the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II until the end of the Cold War in 1991.
Early Spitfire airplane
Early Spitfire airplane
First Flight of the Spitfire
March 5, 1936
The British Spitfire airplane makes its first flight. It was designed to counter the German Messerschmitt.
U.S. Confiscates Gold
March 5, 1933
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order calling for the confiscation of privately-held gold in the U.S.
Adolf Hitler
March 5, 1933
Nazis win almost half of the seats in the German elections. Combined with the support of the Nazis' coalition partner, the German National People's Party, they had a majority in parliament. On March 23, Adolf Hitler used this majority to pass the Enabling Act, which effectively gave him dictatorial powers. He then used that power to ban other political parties.
Boston Massacre as engraved by Paul Revere
Boston Massacre - Presumption of Innocence and Reasonable Doubt
March 5, 1770
British Army troops fire into a Boston mob, killing five. Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and others used the event to call for rebellion against the British authorities. Future U.S. President John Adams defended the troops in a court case that established the presumption of innocence.
A mob of Boston colonists had formed around a British sentry who was guarding the King's money stored inside the Custom House. The colonists began insulting the guard who struck one with his bayonet. The colonists retaliated by throwing snow and stones. The guard, fearing a riot and concerned for the loss of the King's money, called for reinforcements. When the colonists began striking the officers with clubs they fired back, killing five people and wounding six others.
The British soldiers were found not-guilty of murder, but two of them were found guilty of manslaughter and were branded on the thumbs as first offenders per English law.
John Adams in his opening comments for the defense of eight British soldiers accused of murder, "…that many guilty persons should escape unpunished, than one innocent person should suffer. The reason is, because it's of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in the world, that all of them cannot be punished; and many times they happen in such a manner, that it is not of much consequence to the public, whether they are punished or not. But when innocence itself, is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, it is immaterial to me, whether I behave well or ill; for virtue itself, is no security. And if such a sentiment as this, should take place in the mind of the subject, there would be an end to all security what so ever."
This set the precedence for presumption of innocence of clients and that they must be proven guilty as opposed to proving they are innocent.
This trial was also the first time the phrase "reasonable doubt" was used in court when Justice Peter Oliver instructed the jury, "If upon the whole ye are in any reasonable doubt of their guilt, ye must then, agreeable to the rule of law, declare them innocent."
Gulf War
March 5, 1991
Baghdad radio announces that Iraq has voided the annexation of Kuwait and would return Kuwaiti assets.
Voyager I
March 5, 1979
Voyager I makes its closest approach to Jupiter, 172,000 miles.
Hall of Fame for Great Americans
March 5, 1900
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans opens in New York.
Presidential Impeachment
March 5, 1868
The Senate begins impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Andrew Johnson.
The final vote would be 35-19, one short of the two-thirds majority necessary for impeachment.
The impeachment was for "high crimes and misdemeanors", in accordance with Article Two of the U.S. Constitution. The action stemmed from Johnson's suspending Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office Act, which required him to get congressional approval.
The Tenure of Office Act had been passed in 1867 over Johnson's veto.
Johnson was the first United States president to be impeached.
Birthdays
John Schrank and X-Ray of bullet in Roosevelt's chest
John Schrank and X-Ray of bullet in Roosevelt's chest
McKinley's Ghost Told Him to Shoot Theodore Roosevelt
John Schrank
Born March 5, 1876 d. 1943
Bavarian-born New York saloon keeper. He shot former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1912, Milwaukee). He claimed William McKinley's ghost told him to shoot Roosevelt to avenge his death and as a warning to those who'd run for three terms as President. Roosevelt, who served as President from 1901 to 1909, was running for reelection.
Roosevelt was on the way to deliver a speech when shot. The bullet was deflected by his eyeglasses and a 50-page copy of his speech he was carrying in his jacket. Despite the wound, he insisted on delivering his speech before being taken to the hospital. Roosevelt completed his 90-minute speech with blood seeping through his shirt, opening with, "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best."
Doctors determined it would be too dangerous to remove the bullet, so Roosevelt carried it with him for the rest of his life.
Schrank was declared insane and institutionalized for the remainder of his life.
Samantha Eggar
Born March 5, 1939
English actress. TV: Anna and the King (1972, Anna).
Fred Williamson
Born March 5, 1938
American football player, actor. TV: Julia (Steve Bruce).
Dean Stockwell
Born March 5, 1936 d. 2021
American actor. TV: Quantum Leap (1989-1993, the holographic Al) and Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009, Brother Cavil).
Rex Harrison (Reginald Carey Harrison)
Born March 5, 1908 d. 1990
British Tony-Oscar-winning actor. Film: Anna and the King of Siam (1946, the King), My Fair Lady (1964), and Doctor Dolittle (1967).
Bob Dunn
Born March 5, 1908 d. 1989
American cartoonist. Author and artist for They'll Do It Every Time (1963-89).
Édouard Belin
Born March 5, 1876 d. 1963
French engineer. He made the first telephoto transmission (1907). Using his own invention, he sent one from Paris to Lyon to Bordeaux and back to Paris.
James Merritt Ives
Born March 5, 1824 d. 1895
American lithographer, co-founder of Currier & Ives (1857). Their prints recorded the last half of 19th-century American history.
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac
Born March 5, 1658 d. 1730
French explorer. Founder of Detroit, Michigan (1701) and for whom the Cadillac automobile was named.
William Oughtred
Born March 5, 1574 d. 1660
English mathematician, credited with inventing the slide rule (1621), and introduced the use of 'X' to denote multiplication.
David II
Born March 5, 1324 d. 1371
King of Scotland (1329-71).
Henry II
Born March 5, 1133 d. 1189
King of England (1154-89).
Deaths
Convicted Killer Electrocutes Himself
Michael Anderson Godwin
Died March 5, 1989 b. 1960
American criminal. He accidentally electrocuted himself to death while sitting naked on a metal toilet repairing a set of earphones connected to a plugged-in TV set. He was electrocuted when he bit into the electric cord.
Sentenced to the electric chair for murder, Godwin got his sentence overturned on appeal and commuted to life imprisonment.
John Belushi
Died March 5, 1982 b. 1949
American Emmy-winning comedian.
In 1971, Belushi joined the Second City comedy group and then joined the off-Broadway cast of National Lampoon's Lemmings, and in 1971 was hired as a writer for the syndicated National Lampoon's Radio Hour. In 1975, he became one of the seven original cast members of TV's Saturday Night Live (1975-81), where his physical style of comedy made him a star.
Belushi died from an overdose of heroin and cocaine at the age of 33. The woman who injected the drugs in him, Cathy Smith, was convicted and spent 15 months in prison for supplying him with the drugs. Smith was the subject of Gordon Lightfoot's 1974 song Sundown. Lightfoot was having an affair with Smith when he wrote the song.
TV: Saturday Night Live (1975-81). Film: National Lampoon's Animal House (1978, Bluto Blutarsky) and The Blues Brothers (1980, "Joliet" Jake Blues).
Jay Silverheels (Harold J. Smith)
Died March 5, 1980 b. 1912
Canadian-born Mohawk Indian, actor. TV: The Lone Ranger (1949-57, Yes Kemosabe, it's Tonto).
Jay earned the nickname Silverheels while playing Lacrosse during the 1930s with the North American Amateur Lacrosse Association and was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1997. He also placed 2nd in the 1938 Middleweight class of the Golden Gloves tournament.
Patsy Cline (Virginia Peterson Hensley)
Died March 5, 1963 b. 1932
American Hall of Fame country singer. Music: I Fall to Pieces (1961, #1) and Crazy (1961). She was the first female solo performer elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1973). She died in a plane crash. Her pilot was not instrument rated and was trying to fly in heavy weather. She was returning home after performing at a benefit for the family of disc jockey "Cactus" Jack Call, who had died in an automobile crash a little over a month earlier.
Painting by Isaak Brodsky
Painting by Isaak Brodsky
Joseph Stalin
Died March 5, 1953 b. 1878
Russian dictator (1929-53). In 1893 he entered a seminary to study for the priesthood, but was expelled in 1898 for his Marxist activities. He also founded the newspaper Pravda (1911) and was Time magazine's 1939 and 1942 Man of the Year.
Éole Patent Drawings
Éole Patent Drawings
First Manned, Powered, Heavier-than-Air Flight
Clément Ader
Died March 5, 1926 b. 1841
French inventor. He made the first manned, powered, heavier-than-air flight in 1890, 13 years before the famous Wright Brothers' flight. He flew his Éole, a batwing monoplane that flew 160 feet (50 meters) during secret military tests. However, his craft was not well controlled, leaving controlled flights to later aviators, such as the Wright brothers.
Popularized "Satan's Drink"
Clement VIII
Died March 5, 1605 b. 1536
Italian religious leader, 231st Pope (1592-1605). Declared that, "This Satan's drink (coffee) is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it." He is responsible for the popularity of coffee use among Catholics. Coffee use was previously discouraged because it was believed to be the "bitter invention of Satan" due to its use among Muslims.
Hugo Chávez (Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías)
Died March 5, 2013 b. 1954
President of Venezuela (1999-2013).
Richard Kiley
Died March 5, 1999 b. 1922
American Emmy-winning actor. TV: The Thorn Birds (Emmy) and A Year in the Life (Emmy).
Andy Samuel
Died March 5, 1992 b. 1909
American actor, one of the Little Rascals; he appeared in 19 Our Gang films as one of the oldest of the little gang members.
Alessandro Volta
Died March 5, 1827 b. 1745
Italian physicist, inventor of the electric battery, and for whom the volt, the standard unit of electromotive force, is named.
Franz Mesmer
Died March 5, 1815 b. 1734
German physician. Created the theory of mesmerism, the forerunner to hypnotism.
Saint Lucius I
Died March 5, 254 b. ????
Italian religious leader, 22nd Pope (253-254).