Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 5

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 * AD 62 – Pompeii was severely damaged by a strong earthquake, which may have been a precursor to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the town 17 years later.
 * 1783 – The first of five strong earthquakes hit the region of Calabria on the Italian Peninsula, killing more than 32,000 people over a period of nearly two months.
 * 1818 – Charles XIV John (pictured) succeeded to the thrones of Sweden and Norway as the first monarch of the House of Bernadotte.
 * 1861 – In a speech before the U.S. Congress, Representative John Edward Bouligny refused to join his fellow Louisiana congressmen in heeding the state's secession convention and resigning.
 * 1869 – Prospectors in Moliagul, Australia, discovered the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found, known as the Welcome Stranger.
 * 1917 – The U.S. Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson's veto to pass the Immigration Act of 1917, establishing new restrictions on immigrants, including the wholesale ban of people from much of Asia.
 * 1923 – Australian cricketer Bill Ponsford made 429 runs to break the world record for the highest first-class score.
 * 2000 – Second Chechen War: As the Battle of Grozny came to a close, Russian forces summarily executed at least 60 civilians in Grozny's Novye Aldi suburb.
 * 2004 – The National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti captured the city of Gonaïves, starting a coup d'état against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government.
 * 2008 – Eighty-seven tornadoes occurred over the course of the Super Tuesday tornado outbreak across multiple U.S. states, causing 56 deaths and over $1 billion in damage.
 * 2004 – At least 21 cockle-gatherers were drowned by an incoming tide in Morecambe Bay, England, prompting the establishment of the British government's Gangmasters Licensing Authority.
 * 2009 – The United States Navy guided missile cruiser Port Royal ran aground (pictured) on a coral reef off the island of Oahu.
 * Born/died: | Philipp Spener |d|1705| William Cullen |d|1790| Johan Ludvig Runeberg |b|1804| Francisco Varallo |b|1910| Colin Robert Chase |b|1935|  Gheorghe Hagi |b|1965| Neymar |b|1992