📜 This Day in History
February 5
- 62Pompeii was severely damaged by a strong earthquake, which may have been a precursor to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the town 17 years later.
- 1818Charles XIV John succeeded to the thrones of Sweden and Norway as the first monarch of the House of Bernadotte.
1913Claudio Monteverdi's last opera, L'incoronazione di Poppea, was performed theatrically for the first time in more than 250 years.- 1958After a mid-air collision with a fighter plane during a practice exercise off Tybee Island, Georgia, a U.S. Air Force bomber jettisoned a Mark 15 nuclear bomb, which was presumed lost.
- 2004The National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti captured the city of Gonaïves, starting a coup d'état against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government.
- 2009The United States Navy guided missile cruiser Port Royal ran aground on a coral reef off the island of Oahu.
