On this day in history - February 5

What Happened On This Day – February 5

• 1924 The Greenwich Time Signal is broadcast for the first time

  The “BBC pips” are 5 short and 1 long tones that are broadcast by many BBC radio stations to mark the precise start of the hour.

• 1919 United Artists is founded

  Charlie Chaplin was one of the film studio's founders.

• 1909 The world's first synthetic plastic is developed

  Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite at a meeting of the American Chemical Society that day.

• 1869 The biggest gold nugget in history is found

  The “Welcome Stranger” was found at Moliagul in Australia and had a calculated refined weight of 71.081 kg.

• 1852 The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg opens to the public

  It is one of the world's largest and oldest museums and was originally founded in 1764.