On March 5, 1616, Nicolaus Copernicus’s book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, was placed on the Catholic Church’s Index of Forbidden Books.
This censorship notwithstanding, the Earth continued to revolve around the Sun.
The book had been first published in 1543 in Nuremberg.
| In 1770, the Boston Massacre took place on March 5.
| Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, died at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow on this date in 1953, after a cerebral hemorrhage.
| Composer Sergei Prokofiev died on the same day as Stalin, but it took a while for anyone to take notice, so big was the news of the demise of the dictator. Prokofiev wrote seven symphonies, two violin and five piano concerti, nine piano sonatas and many other works, including operas, ballets, and film scores.
| March 5 is magician Penn Jillette’s birthday.