Thursday 5th of May 1785

Composer Franz Xaver Schnizer dies of undisclosed causes at the age of 45 in Ottobeuren, Bayern, Germany.

Wednesday 5th of May 1813

Philosopher, theologian and social critic Søren Aabye Kierkegaard is born in Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark.

Tuesday 5th of May 1818

Economist and revolutionary communist Karl Heinrich Marx is born in Trier, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.

Saturday 5th of May 1821

War leader Napoléon Bonaparte dies of stomach cancer at the age of 52 in Longwood House, Longwood, Saint Helena, United Kingdom.

Monday 5th of May 1873

Assassin Leon Frank Czolgosz aka The Man who shot William McKinley is born in Alpena, Michigan, United States.

Friday 5th of May 1905

Murderer Frank Guglielmo is executed by hanging at the age of 23 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

Tuesday 5th of May 1914

Actor Tyrone Edmund Power is born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.

Monday 5th of May 1919

A female torso, presumed victim of 56-year-old Serial killer and cannibal Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann aka Die Bestie vom Schlesischen Bahnhof is found in Luisenstädtischer Kanal, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

On 17 May 1919 the head, pelvis and parts of meat are found in the river Spree close to Jungfernheide railway station.

Monday 5th of May 1941

Artist and pioneer independent artist's book publisher Guy Schraenen is born in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 5th of May 1942

Singer-songwriter Tammy Wynette aka The First Lady of Country Music is born as Virginia Wynette Pugh in Tremont, Mississippi, United States.

Friday 5th of May 1967

Victim of Jeffrey Dahmer aka The Milwaukee Cannibal Ernest Miller is born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Friday 5th of May 1972

115 die in Alitalia Flight 112 Douglas DC-8-43 crash into a mountain in Montagna Longa, Palermo, Sicilia, Italy.

Monday 5th of May 1975

Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion and Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv Siegfried Hausner dies of pulmonary edema at the age of 23 in Justizvollzugsanstalt Stammheim, Asperger Straße 60, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Hausner was severely wounded in the explosion of the German Embassy in Stockholm on 24 April with burns to over 40% of his body and a fractured skull. Despite the recommendations of Swedish doctors Hausner was immediately flown back to West Germany and hospitalized in Stammheim Prison which had neither the equipment or specialist staff to treat severe burns.

Monday 5th of May 1975

48-year-old Serial killer Harvey Louis Carignan aka The Want-Ad Killer aka Harv the Hammer is sentenced to 60 years imprisonment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.

Monday 5th of May 1980

19-year-old Valerie Ann Street aka Shelley Dudley is abducted, sexually assaulted and asphyxiated by serial killer Richard Cottingham aka The Torso Killer in Quality Inn Room 132, Route 17, Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, United States.

Monday 5th of May 1980

7-year-old Anna Bachmeier is raped and strangled by child rapist and murderer Klaus Grabowski in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Anna's mother Marianne shot Grabowski dead in court during his trial on 6 March 1981.

Tuesday 5th of May 1981

Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Robert Gerard Sands dies after 66 days of hungerstriking at the age of 27 in Maze Prison, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

Sands was the first to die in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike.

Tuesday 5th of May 1981

Start of the trial against 35-year-old Serial killer Peter William Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper in Old Bailey Criminal Court, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 5th of May 1982

Bomb #6 mailed to Professor Patrick Fisher by 40-year-old Mathematician and serial bomber Theodore John 'Ted' Kaczynski aka The Unabomber explodes when opened, injuring Fischer’s secretary Janet Smith in Vanderbilt University Computer Science Department, Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

The package was originally sent to Fischer at Pennsylvania State University but was later forwarded. The bomb consisted of smokeless powder and a large number of match heads. The package has a false return address, stating it came from LeRoy Bearnson, a professor of electrical engineering at Utah’s Brigham Young University.

Monday 5th of May 1997

Transvestite serial killer Samuel Jacques Coetzee aka Kim commits suicide by an overdose of medication in Boksburg Correctional Services, Barry Marais Rd, Boksburg, Gauteng, South Africa.

Coetzee stood on trial for the killing of four men and a boy together with his ex-partner John Frank Brown. Coetzee left a note saying he no longer wanted to live.

Wednesday 5th of May 1999

Double murderer Robert Wayne Vickers aka Bonzai Bob is executed by lethal injection at the age of 41 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

On 4 March 1982 Vickers, already on death row for killing fellow inmate Frank Ponciano in 1978, doused fellow inmate Wilmar 'Buster' Holsinger and his cell with some Vitalis he had been saving and then threw burning toilet paper on Holsinger, setting him ablaze. Holsinger died as a result of tracheobronchial bums suffered in the resulting flash fire. Vickers' last meal request was for Green Chili Burros burritos with barbecued steak, french fries and ketchup, vanilla ice cream, cream soda, cigarette. Vickers' last words were "time to go."

Wednesday 5th of May 1999

Murderer Clydell Coleman is executed by lethal injection at the age of 63 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Saturday 5th of May 2001

Racks stacked with abandoned ICC art catalogues in Montebellostraat 31, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Thursday 5th of May 2005

46-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Noise-Electronics-Computerpunk' in Art-Klub Premiera, Svetlanskaya 15a, Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia.

A music performance with electronics and voices with punk guitarist Mityai, followed by a duet with a Tibetan-Mongolian throatsinger.

Saturday 5th of May 2007

114 die in Kenya Airways Boeing 737-8AL Flight 507 crash in Douala International Airport, Mbanga Pongo, Douala, Kenya.

Saturday 5th of May 2007

Chilling reminiscenses of the Stasi past in Untersuchungshaftanstalt Hohenschönhausen, Genslerstraße 66, Berlin, Lichtenberg, Berlin, Germany.