Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ludwig van Beethoven began sketching the musical ideas for his Fifth Symphony in 1804. This work emerged during a period of intense personal and political struggle while he lived at the Pasqualati House in Vienna.
A mammoth concert took place at the Theater an der Wien on the 22nd of December 1808. Beethoven himself stood on the conductor's podium to lead the performance which lasted more than four hours.
Music critic E.T.A. Hoffmann published this transformative piece in July 1810 within the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. He described radiant beams shooting through deep night within the region of the music.
Brass sections feature two trumpets in C and trombones for the first time in a symphony. The last movement introduces piccolo and contrabassoon instruments for the first time in symphonic writing.
Intelligence agent Courtenay Edward Stevens suggested BBC broadcasts to Special Operations Executives use those four notes played on drums during World War II. Winston Churchill used V for Victory as a catchphrase starting in 1940 and some thirty years after this piece was written the opening phrase rhythm appeared in Morse code letters.