On This Day - What happened 5 February

This earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.0, affected a large area including most of the southern Italian peninsula and shook the whole island of Sicily. Many villages were damaged and as many as 180 almost completely destroyed, with more than 25,000 casualties. A tsunami affected the coastline on both sides of the Straits of Messina, destroying the harbor walls at Messina. The earthquake had already caused widespread death and destruction in Messina. Homes were razed to the ground, the medieval Duomo was badly damaged and most of the historic buildings were reduced to rubble.

The delegates to the Convention anticipated a Washington presidency and left it to him to define the office once elected. The state electors under the Constitution voted for the president on February 4, 1789, and Washington suspected that most republicans had not voted for him. The mandated March 4 date passed without a Congressional quorum to count the votes, but a quorum was reached on April 5. The votes were tallied the next day, and Congressional Secretary Charles Thomson was sent to Mount Vernon to tell Washington he had been elected president. Washington won the majority of every state's electoral votes; John Adams received the next highest number of votes and therefore became vice president.

Alfred married Mary Silvina Burghardt on February 5, 1867, in Housatonic, a village in Great Barrington.

On February 5, 1896 live imaging devices were developed by both Italian scientist Enrico Salvioni (his "cryptoscope") and Professor McGie of Princeton University (his "Skiascope"), both using barium platinocyanide.

Hitler journeyed to Salzburg on 5 February 1914 for medical assessment.

Carranza had consolidated enough power to go forward with the drafting of a new constitution in 1917.

On 5 February 1932, he was given a command in Coruña.

The Colossus attacked its first message on 5 February 1944.

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro born in 5 February 1985, in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.

On 5 February 1994, Sarajevo suffered its deadliest single attack of the entire siege with the first Markale massacre, when a 120 millimeter mortar shell landed in the centre of the crowded marketplace, killing 68 people and wounding another 144.

On February 5, the DJIA dropped 1,175 points, making it the largest point drop in history.

On 5 February 2019 HTC released its first "Crytophone", focused on providing universal finance through Bitcoin and creating a portal towards realizing a truly decentralized web.

On February 5, Trump was acquitted of both charges in a vote nearly along party lines, with Republican Mitt Romney being the only senator – and the first senator in U.S. history – to cross party lines by voting to convict on one of the charges.

Leopold I, the German emperor, signed a peace treaty with France.