August 5

• August 5, 25
  Guangwu of Han, one of the many descendants of the Han imperial family, establishes Eastern Han dynasty in China
• August 5, 1391
  Castilian sailors in Barcelona, Spain set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 people and setting off four days of violence against the Jews
• August 5, 1763
  Colonel Henry Bouquet decisively defeat the Indians at the Battle of Bushy Run in Pennsylvania during Pontiac's rebellion
• August 5, 1815
  A peace treaty with Tripoli, which follows treaties with Algeria and Tunis, brings an end to the Barbary Wars and the American practice of paying tribute to the pirate states
• August 5, 1864
  Spectrum of a comet observed for first time, by Giovanni Donati, who determines their physical composition of the comet 1864b, which spectrum he finds containing three emitting lines
• August 5, 1891
  American Express begins the first company to develop a large-scale traveller's cheque system
• August 5, 1960
  Upper Volta, today known as Burkina Faso, gains independence from France
• August 5, 1962
  Nelson Mandela is arrested for incitement and illegally leaving South Africa
• August 5, 2016
  2016 Summer Olympics are opened in Rio de Janeiro