This volume includes contributions presented at the Fifth IFToMM Symposium on the History of Machines and Mechanisms, held at Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Santiago de Queretaro, QRO, Mexico, in June 2016. It contains work on theories and facts concerning mechanisms and machines from antiquity to current times as viewed in the present day. Topics include modern reviews of past works; people, history, and their works; direct memories of the recent past; historic development theories; the history of the design of machines and mechanisms; developments of mechanical design and automation; the historic development of teaching; the history of schools of engineering and the education of engineers.