Portal:Belgium/Anniversaries/February/February 5

1602: birth of Franciscus van den Enden, teacher of Baruch de Spinoza and an early promotor of democracy
1885: King Léopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.
1937: birth of Gaston Roelants, winner of the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo on the 3,000 m steeplechase in a new world record
1940: birth of Panamarenko, artist
1985: birth of Tatiana Silva, Miss Belgium 2005
1995: the draft is abolished in Belgium
2000: death of George Koltanowski, holder of the world record for most simultaneous blindfolded chess games