Today In History For May 5th, Cinco De Mayo!

Today is Thursday, May 5, the 125th day of 2011. There are 240 days left in the year.

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America's first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7, a Mercury capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

In 1891, New York's Carnegie Hall (then named "Music Hall") had its official opening night.