1531        Apr 5, Richard Roose was boiled to death for trying to poison an archbishop.

1614        Apr 5, 2nd parliament of King James I began session (no enactments).

1792        Apr 5, George Washington cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

1946        Apr 5, Vincent Millie Youmans (47), US composer (Tea For Two), died.

1967        Apr 5, Pres. Johnson appointed Ellsworth Bunker (1894-1984) as the new ambassador to Saigon, South Vietnam. Bunker replaced Lodge and continued as ambassador to 1973.

1982        Apr 5, Abe Fortas (b.1910), former Supreme court justice (1965-1969), died. He had resigned on May 14, 1969, under pressure for the acceptance of an allegedly illegal payment from a former business associate.

1988        Apr 5 Gov. Michael S. Dukakis won a solid victory in Wisconsin’s Democratic presidential primary while, on the Republican side, Vice President George Bush overwhelmed his opposition.

1989        Apr 5, Joseph Hazelwood, former captain of the Exxon Valdez supertanker that leaked nearly 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, surrendered to authorities in New York.

1990        Apr 5, Paul Newman won a court victory over Julius Gold to keep giving all profits from Newman foods to charity.

1992        Apr 5, Pres. Fujimori seized dictatorial power by sending tanks to shut down Peru’s Congress and judiciary. Former president Alan Garcia fled Peru to avoid arrest by the Fujimori regime. In 2008 Peru’s Cabinet chief testified at the trial of former President Alberto Fujimori that security forces attempted to assassinate Garcia following the shut down of Congress.

1994        Apr 5, President Clinton presided over a 90-minute town hall meeting in Charlotte, N.C., in which he called himself the victim of “false charges” in connection with the Whitewater controversy.

1999        Apr 5, In Laramie, Wyo., Russell Henderson pleaded guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student.

1999        Apr 5, In Turkey a suicide bomber killed himself and a teenage girl in an apparent attempt on the life of Gov. Suleyman Kamci.

2000        Apr 5, In Brazil Jose Rainha Jr., leader of the Landless Rural Workers Movement, was acquitted of the 1989 killing of farm owner Jose Machado Neto.

2001        Apr 5, Wang Zhizhi of China, 7 feet and 1 inch tall, made his NBA debut for the Dallas Mavericks. Wang Zhizhi became the first Chinese player to play in the NBA when he took the court for Dallas against Atlanta. He scored six points and grabbed three rebounds as the Mavericks beat the Hawks 108-to-94.

2001        cApr 5, Presidents Robert Kocharian of Armenia and Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan met in Key West, Fla., for negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh. A new $2.7 billion oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan, Turkey, was expected to pass just north of the area. Halliburton Co., was a finalist in engineering bids for the line and Vice President Chaney was the former chief executive of Halliburton. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice formerly served on the Board of Directors for Chevron, a player in the pipeline bid.

2002        Apr 5, US mediator Anthony Zinni met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah as Israeli forces continued their offensive. At least 35 Palestinians were killed on the bloodiest day of fighting since the beginning of Israel’s week-old military offensive.

2004        Apr 5, Pulitzer Prize winners were announced. Edward P. Jones won the fiction award for “The Known World.” Steven Hahn won the history award for “A Nation Under Our Feet” Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration.” Anne Applebaum won the general non-fiction award for “Gulag: A History.”

2004        Apr 5, Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, declared a radical Shiite cleric an “outlaw” after his supporters rioted in Baghdad and four other cities in fighting that killed at least 52 Iraqis, eight U.S. troops and a Salvadoran soldier. A warrant was issued for al-Sadr related to the murder of a rival Shiite leader in 2003.

2005        Apr 5, Peter Jennings (b.1938), Canada-born ABC News anchorman revealed, he had lung cancer. He died in August 2005.

2006        Apr 5, Mike Pressler, the lacrosse coach of Duke Univ., resigned amid allegations that 3 players rape a stripper at an off-campus party in March. Duke cancelled the lacrosse season.

2006        Apr 5, Actor Michael Douglas presented UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with an award for his dedication to ridding the world of land mines, marking the first international day to honor the cause.

2007        Apr 5, Ramzan Kadyrov was inaugurated as the new president of Chechnya on a blessing from the Kremlin, which has relied on him to stabilize the region after more than a decade of separatist fighting.

2008        Apr 5, Youssef Adel, an Assyrian Orthodox priest, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a bomb exploded on a minibus carrying morning commuters on the busy Palestine Street, killing at least four passengers and wounding 15.

2009        Apr 5, In the Czech Rep. President Barack Obama set out his vision for ridding the world of nuclear arms, declaring the US ready to lead steps by all states with atomic weapons to reduce their arsenals. Obama said the US will proceed with development of a missile defense system in Europe as long as there is an Iranian threat of nuclear weapons. Obama also urged the EU to accept Turkey as a full member of the 27-nation bloc, in remarks rejected outright by France and met coolly by Germany.

2010        Apr 5, PM Vladimir Putin said Russia may sell $5 billion worth of weapons to Venezuela following his visit to the South American nation.

2012        Apr 5, Pres. Obama signed the “Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups” aka Jobs Act. The Republican crafted bill to loosen securities regulations was passed by Congress on March 27.

2012        Apr 5, The Montana Attorney General’s office said Greg Mortenson, founder of the Central Asia Institute and author of “Three Cups of Tea” (2006), mismanaged the organization and misspent its money. He would remain the face of the charity, but would have to repay $1 million.

2012        Apr 5, Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika (78) died after a heart attack. Under the constitution, Vice President Joyce Banda (b.1950) is next in line. But that succession is politically fraught because Mutharika kicked her out of the ruling party in 2010 as he chose to groom his brother as heir apparent instead of her.

2012        Apr 5, Alexei Kudrin, Russia’s former finance minister (2000-2011), announced the creation of an independent committee to shape policies alternative to those of the government.

2013        Apr 5, Israel forces took Mohammad Khalek (14) into custody. 8 assault-rifle wielding soldiers shackled and blindfolded the boy as his five siblings watched. The military said Mohammad hurled rocks at Israeli vehicles on April 2 and at Israeli forces on several occasions. On April 17 the Palestinian-American teenager was sentenced to two weeks in prison for throwing rocks at Israeli forces.

2014        Apr 5, Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli inaugurated Central America’s first subway system, the most-emblematic project of a five-year term marked by fast economic growth and more than a hint of hubris.