Calendar: What happened on September 5?

The September 5 calendar includes historical events, anniversaries, birthdays and deaths linked to the date.

In 2025, the U.S. Defense Department was renamed the “War Department,” a move the U.S. government said would emphasize the country’s military strength. Doubts remained over the legal binding force of an order signed by President Donald Trump.

In 2006, construction began on Berlin Brandenburg Airport after almost 15 years of planning. The airport was scheduled to open in 2011 but eventually opened in 2020. In 1986, five Palestinians hijacked a Pan Am aircraft carrying almost 400 people in Karachi. Twenty-one people died when Pakistani forces stormed the plane.

Other entries recall the 1946 Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement, signed by Austria and Italy in Paris to protect the German-speaking population of South Tyrol, and the opening of Berlin’s New Synagogue in 1866 after nearly seven years of construction.

The calendar lists birthdays for Dutch actress Carice van Houten, American actor Michael Keaton, German footballer Paul Breitner and British singer Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991. It also records the death of German actor Horst Krause in 2025.