February 5 birthdays & history

Famous people born on February 5

• 1985Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
• 1992Neymar, Brazilian footballer
• 1946Charlotte Rampling, English actress
• 1914William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist
• 1976Abhishek Bachchan, Indian actor
• 1788Robert Peel, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1984Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer
• 1915Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1965Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer and manager
• 1975Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer and manager

What happened on February 5

• 1818Charles XIV John succeeded to the thrones of Sweden and Norway as the first monarch of the House of Bernadotte.
• 1852The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.
• 1859Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Moldavia, is also elected as prince of Wallachia, joining the two principalities as a personal union called the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered in the birth of the modern Romanian state.
• 1869Prospectors in Moliagul, Australia, discovered the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found, known as the Welcome Stranger.
• 1885King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.
• 1901J. P. Morgan incorporates U.S. Steel in the state of New Jersey, although the company would not start doing business until February 25 and the assets of Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company, Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company, and William Henry Moore's National Steel Company were not acquired until April 1.
• 1905In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, initially with four basic specialties.
• 1907Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.
• 1909Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.
• 1913Claudio Monteverdi's last opera, L'incoronazione di Poppea, was performed theatrically for the first time in more than 250 years.
• 1917The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
• 1923Australian cricketer Bill Ponsford made 429 runs to break the world record for the highest first-class score.

Also observed on February 5

• Kashmir Solidarity Day (Pakistan)
• Runeberg Day (Finland)