July 5

Today in History
• 1054 - Brightest supernova (Crab Nebula) 1st reported
• 1295 - Scotland and France sign anti-English covenant
• 1626 - Battle at Lenz: Rebel Austrian Boers defeated
• 1643 - 1st recorded tornado in U.S. (Essex County, Massachusetts)
• 1791 - Jose Maria Narvaez discovers Point Grey (now Vancouver BC)
• 1811 - Venezuela, 1st South American country to gain independence from Spain
• 1859 - Captain N. C. Brooks discovers Midway Islands
• 1865 - Secret Service began operating under the Treasury Department


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Armenia Constitution Day
• Foreign Slovaks Day
• Independence Day in Algeria
• Mechanical Pencil Day
• National Hawaii Day
• Saints Cyril and Methodius
• Tynwald Day
• Venezuela Independence Day

Birthdays
• 1321 - Joan of The Tower, Queen consort of Scotland
• 1586 - Thomas Hooker, American colonial clergyman (known as "the father of Connecticut")
• 1653 - Thomas Pitt, British merchant and Governor of Madras
• 1675 - Mary Walcott, American accuser at the Salem witch trials
• 1717 - Pedro III, King of Portugal and the Algarves (1777-86)
• 1801 - David Glasgow Farragut, Tennessee, Vice Admiral Union Navy
• 1810 - P. T. Barnum, American Entertainer
• 1867 - Andrew Ellicott Douglass, Dendrochronologer, study of tree rings