March 5

In literary history

• 1750Richard III was performed in New York, the first documented Shakespeare production on American soil. The company used Colley Cibber's butchered adaptation, cutting two-thirds of Shakespeare's lines and inventing an entirely new first act. The colonists gave it eight nights.

Writers born on March 5

• Frank Norris (1870)

The Daily Canon for March 5

If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (1979).