Following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 5:
1955 – The Federal Republic of (West) Germany became a sovereign state after Allied High Commissioners met to abolish their controlling body set up after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. West Germany also joined NATO on this day.
1999 – Indonesia and Portugal signed an agreement leading to independence for the territory of East Timor.
1999 – World’s first filling station for liquid and gaseous hydrogen.
2001 – “Duyfken” (Little Dove) replica vessel leaves Australia for Amsterdam to commemorate 400th anniversary of VOC (United East India Company) using same historic route of original ship.
2002 – Jacques Chirac won 82 percent of the vote in the second round of French presidential elections, crushing far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen with the largest vote in France’s 44-year history.
2003 – Walter Sisulu, a veteran of the struggle against white minority rule in South Africa and long-time friend and mentor to Nelson Mandela, died aged 90.
2004 – Picasso’s “Boy With the Pipe” set a new world record for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction when it fetched $104,168,000 at Sotheby’s in New York.
2006 – Naushad Ali, one of Bollywood’s most loved composers and the first to use Indian classical music in Hindi films, died aged 87.
2008 – World record attempt for largest plate of hummus in Jerusalem.
2010 – Mass protests against austerity in Greece.
2011 – Canadian Armed Forces help Quebec residents with record flooding of Richelieu River.
(Reuters)