May 5
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/may-5/allies-end-occupation-of-west-germany
On May 5, 1961, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
On May 5, 1904, 37-year-old Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in modern Major League Baseball history as the Boston Americans defeat the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0. Young strikes out eight of the 27 batters he faces and benefits from excellent defense in a game that is completed in only 83 minutes. "Unparalleled feat,” a newspaper calls the achievement. A perfect game is achieved when a pitcher retires all the batters he faces in order, with no one reaching base.
Two other pitchers—Lee Richmond and John Ward—recorded perfect games in 1880, but the rules then were significantly different from modern baseball rules, which were established in 1893. Before the modern rules, it took eight balls to walk a batter and the distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate was 45 feet. (The distance is 60 feet, 6 inches today.)
1955 The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) becomes a sovereign state when the United States, France and Great Britain end their military occupation, which had begun in 1945. With this action, West Germany was given the right to rearm and become a full-fledged member of the western alliance against the Soviet Union.