March 5th in the history books

March 5th is Customs Chiefs Day in Vanuatu

Through the National Council of Chiefs several programs have been established to protect Vanuatu customs and to make people more aware of the importance of their traditions. A typical government holiday with the usual bank/government offices closures. This is my kind of paradise!
http://www.southpacific.org/guide/vanuatu.html

It's also Missionary Day in French Polynesia, marking the arrival of the first missionaries.

more exciting events of the day:

1558 Smoking tobacco introduced in Europe by Francisco Fernandes
1623 1st American temperance law enacted, Virginia
1770 Boston Massacre, British troops kill 5 in crowd; Crispus Attackus becomes 1st black to die for American freedom
1824 Elisha Harris US, physician/found American Public Health Association
1836 Mexico attacks Alamo
1836 Samuel Colt manufactures 1st pistol, 34-caliber "Texas" model
1864 1st track meet between Oxford & Cambridge
1907 1st radio broadcast of a musical composition aired
1908 Rex [Reginald Carey] Harrison Huyton Lancashire England, actor (My Fair Lady, Dr Doolittle)
1923 Montana & Nevada become 1st states to enact old age pension laws
1933 FDR proclaims 10-day bank holiday
On the morning of Franklin D Roosevelt’s inauguration as US president on March 4, 1933, the governors of New York and Illinois closed their banks. Roosevelt proclaimed a national bank holiday, which closed all the banks in the country until Congress could reconvene to pass banking legislation. The whole system appeared to have ground to a halt. The following Sunday, he addressed the nation on the radio and explained how the banks were to be reopened on a phased basis. “Confidence and courage,” he told listeners, were the essentials of success in carrying out that plan. “It is better to keep your money in a reopened bank than it is to keep it under the mattress.” Seldom has presidential rhetoric been put to the test so quickly. No one knew for sure which banks were sound. If FDR’s appeal failed and depositors withdrew their money, more banks would fail and there was no Plan B. The next day, March 13, Americans put more money into the banks than they withdrew. In the next week most banks reopened. Even bankers were amazed.
1934 Mother-in-law's day 1st celebrated (Amarillo TX)
1953 Josef V Stalin soviet leader responsible for 11 million murders, dies at 73
1956 "King Kong" 1st televised
1960 Elvis Presley ends 2-year hitch in US Army
1963 Patsy Cline country singer (Crazy, I Fall To Pieces), dies in a plane crash at 30
1966 Bob Seagren pole vaults 5.19 meter indoor world record (current record held for 16 years by Sergei Bubka's - 6.15 meters)
1968 US launches Solar Explorer 2 to study the Sun
1969 Gold reaches then record high ($47 per ounce) in Paris France (best I can tell, the current price is $935.37 per ounce)
1970 Nuclear non-proliferation treaty went into effect
1973 Yankee pitchers Peterson & Kekich announce they swapped wives
1976 British £ falls below $2 for 1st time (today our dollar is only worth $0.7963 Euros, but is worth $1.2896 in Canada)
1980 Jay Silverheels actor (Tonto-Lone Ranger), dies at 60
1984 Supreme Court (5-4); city may use public money for Nativity scene
1984 US accuse Iraq of using poison gas
1992 Ethic committee votes to reveal congressmen who bounced checks