May 3

May 3 is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 242 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
• 1715 – "Edmund Halley's" total solar eclipse (the last one visible in London, United Kingdom for almost 900 years).
• 1791 – The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• 1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.
• 1808 – Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.
• 1808 – Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are fired upon near Príncipe Pío hill.
• 1815 – Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war.
• 1830 – The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened. It is the first steam hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel.
• 1837 – The University of Athens is founded.
• 1849 – The May Uprising in Dresden begins – the last of the German revolutions of 1848.
• 1860 – Charles XV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
• 1867 – The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.
• 1877 – Labatt Park, the oldest continually operating baseball grounds in the world has its first game.
• 1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.
• 1913 – Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film was released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.
• 1915 – The poem In Flanders Fields is written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.
• 1916 – The leaders of the Easter Rising are executed in Dublin.
• 1920 – A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
• 1921 – West Virginia imposes the first state sales tax.

The Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya (referring to the event in 1808)

• 1924 – Aleph Zadik Aleph is formed in Omaha, Nebraska
• 1928 – Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.
• 1933 – Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint.
• 1937 – Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
• 1939 – The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
• 1942 – World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.
• 1945 – World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.
• 1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• 1947 – New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
• 1948 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.
• 1951 – London's Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain
• 1951 – The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.
• 1951 – The Kentucky Derby is televised for the first time.
• 1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.
• 1957 – Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.
• 1960 – The Off-Broadway musical comedy, The Fantasticks, opens in New York City's Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.
• 1960 – The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• 1963 – The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing newfound attention to the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
• 1973 – The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.
• 1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
• 1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes in an airliner (Flight UL512) at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
• 1987 – A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop restrictor plate racing the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.
• 1999 –The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is devastated by an F5 tornado killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This is the strongest tornado ever recorded with wind speeds of up to 318 mph.
• 2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
• 2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
• 2002 – A military MiG-21 aircraft crashes into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight.
• 2003 – New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.
• 2006 – Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea, killing 113 people on board, with no survivors.
• 2006 – Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia.

Births

• 612 – Constantine III, Byzantine Emperor (d. 641)
• 1415 – Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (d. 1495)
• 1428 – Pedro González de Mendoza, Spanish cardinal and statesman (d. 1495)
• 1446 – Margaret of York, wife of Charles I, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1503)
• 1469 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and political author (d. 1527)
• 1662 – Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect (d. 1736)
• 1695 – Henri Pitot, Italian-born French engineer (d. 1771)
• 1713 – Alexis Clairault, French mathematician (d. 1765)
• 1761 – August von Kotzebue, German dramatist (d. 1819)
• 1764 – Elisabeth of France, sister of Louis XVI (d. 1794)
• 1768 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and industrialist (d. 1838)
• 1814 – Sir Adams George Archibald, Canadian Father of the Confederation (d. 1892)
• 1826 – Charles, Crown Prince of Sweden-Norway (d. 1872)
• 1835 – Alfred Austin, English poet (d. 1913)
• 1844 – Richard D'Oyly Carte, English theatrical impresario (d. 1901)
• 1849 – Jacob August Riis, American journalist (d. 1914)
• 1849 – Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
• 1857 – George Gore, American baseball player (d. 1933)
• 1859 – Andy Adams, American author (d. 1935)
• 1860 – John Scott Haldane, Scottish physiologist (d. 1936)
• 1860 – Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician (d. 1940)
• 1861 – Emmett Dalton, American outlaw (d. 1937)
• 1867 – J.T. Hearne, English cricketer (d. 1944)
• 1870 – Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1948)
• 1873 – Pavlo Skoropadsky, Ukrainian general (d. 1945)
• 1874 – François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (d. 1934)
• 1874 – V. Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer (d. 1954)
• 1877 – Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (d. 1925)
• 1879 – Fergus McMaster, Australian businessman (d. 1950)
• 1886 – Marcel Dupré, French organist and composer (d. 1971)
• 1887 – Marika Kotopouli, Greek actress (d. 1954)
• 1888 – Beulah Bondi, American actress (d. 1981)
• 1891 – Tadeusz Peiper, Polish poet (d. 1969)
• 1892 – George Paget Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
• 1893 – Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor (d. 1975)
• 1895 – Cornelius Van Til, philosopher and Christian apologist (d. 1987)
• 1896 – Dodie Smith, English novelist and playwright (d. 1990)
• 1896 – Karl Allmenroder, German World War I Flying ace (d. 1917)
• 1898 – Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)
• 1901 – Gino Cervi, Italian actor (d. 1974)
• 1902 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
• 1903 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977)
• 1905 – Werner Fenchel, German mathematician (d. 1988)
• 1906 – Anna E. Roosevelt, American radio personality, daughter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (d. 1975)
• 1906 – Mary Astor, Academy Award-winning American actress (d. 1987)
• 1907 – Dorothy Young, American entertainer
• 1910 – Norman Corwin, American radio pioneer
• 1912 – Virgil Fox, American organist (d. 1980)
• 1913 – William Inge, American playwright (d. 1973)
• 1915 – Stu Hart, Canadian professional wrestler and trainer (d. 2003)
• 1916 – Léopold Simoneau, French Canadian tenor (d. 2006)
• 1917 – Betty Comden, American lyricist (d. 2006)
• 1918 – Ted Bates, English former footballer (d. 2003)
• 1919 – John Cullen Murphy, American comic strip artist (d. 2004)
• 1919 – Pete Seeger, American singer
• 1920 – John Lewis, American jazz pianist and composer (Modern Jazz Quartet) (d. 2001)
• 1921 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (d. 1989)
• 1921 – Joe Ames, American singer (d. 2007)
• 1922 – Len Shackleton, English former footballer (d. 2000)
• 1923 – Ralph Hall, American politician
• 1923 – George Hadjinikos, Greek pianist and conductor
• 1924 – Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet (d. 2000)
• 1924 – Ken Tyrrell, English founder of eponymous F1 racing team (d. 2001)
• 1925 – Jean Séguy, French sociologist of religions (d. 2007)
• 1926 – Ann B. Davis, American actress
• 1928 – Dave Dudley, American singer (d. 2003)
• 1932 – Robert Osborne, American film historian
• 1933 – James Brown, American singer and dancer (d. 2006)
• 1933 – Steven Weinberg, American physicist, Nobel laureate
• 1933 – Alex Cord, American actor
• 1934 – Henry Cooper, English boxer
• 1934 – Georges Moustaki, Egyptian born Greek-French singer and songwriter
• 1934 – Frankie Valli, American singer (The Four Seasons)
• 1935 – Ron Popeil, American inventor
• 1937 – Nélida Piñon, Brazilian writer
• 1938 – Chris Cannizzaro, American baseball player
• 1938 – Omar Abdel-Rahman, Egyptian Islamist terrorist
• 1940 – Konrad "Conny" Plank, German record producer and musician
• 1940 – Clemens Westerhof, Dutch football manager
• 1941 – Edward "Monk" Malloy, American university president
• 1942 – Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast
• 1942 – Dave Marash, American journalist
• 1942 – C.L. Otter, American politician, governor of Idaho
• 1943 – Jim Risch, American politician, junior senator of Idaho
• 1945 – Davey Lopes, American baseball player and coach
• 1946 – Norm Chow, American football coach
• 1946 – Greg Gumbel, American broadcaster
• 1946 – Silvino Francisco, South African snooker player
• 1948 – Chris Mulkey, American actor
• 1947 – Doug Henning, Canadian magician (d. 2000)
• 1949 – Ron Wyden, American politician, senior senator of Oregon
• 1949 – Ken Hom, Chinese American chef
• 1950 – Mary Hopkin, Welsh Singer
• 1951 – Christopher Cross, American musician
• 1951 – Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian writer
• 1952 – Charles Baldwin, American political figure
• 1952 – Caitlin Clarke. American actress (d. 2004)
• 1952 – Allan Wells, British athlete
• 1953 – Gary Young, American drummer (Pavement)
• 1955 – David Hookes, Australian cricketer (d. 2004)
• 1956 – Marc Bellemare, French Canadian lawyer and politician
• 1957 – Rod Langway, American ice hockey player
• 1958 – Kevin Kilner, American actor
• 1958 – Sandi Toksvig, Danish born writer and broadcaster
• 1958 – Susanna Kwan, Hong Kong singer
• 1959 – David Ball, English musician (Soft Cell)
• 1959 – Uma Bharati, Indian politician
• 1959 – Ben Elton, British comedian and author
• 1960 – Amy Steel, American actress
• 1961 – Steve McClaren, English football manager
• 1961 – Joe Murray, American cartoonist
• 1961 – David Vitter, American politician, junior senator of Louisiana
• 1962 – Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
• 1963 – Jeff Hornacek, American basketball player
• 1963 – Jamie Reeves, British strongman
• 1964 – Ron Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1965 – Rob Brydon, Welsh comedian
• 1965 – Nina Garcia, Colombian-American fashion expert and television personality
• 1965 – John Jensen, Danish footballer
• 1965 – Mikhail Prokhorov, Russian self-made businessman
• 1966 – Peter Abbay, American actor
• 1966 – Firdous Bamji, Indian-American actor
• 1966 – Darren Morgan, Welsh snooker player
• 1968 – Shane Minor, American singer
• 1969 – Daryl F. Mallett, American writer/editor
• 1970 – Jeffrey Sebelia, American fashion designer
• 1971 – Damon Dash, American label executive
• 1971 – Josey Scott, American singer (Saliva)
• 1972 – Shonie Carter, American MMA fighter
• 1972 – Suzi Suzuki, former Japanese adult actress
• 1973 – Brad Martin, American musician
• 1973 – Rea Garvey, Irish musician
• 1974 – Princess Haya bint Hussein of Jordan
• 1974 – Peter Everitt, Australian football player
• 1975 – Willie Geist, American television personality
• 1975 – Christina Hendricks, American actress
• 1975 – Dulé Hill, American actor
• 1975 – Valentino Lanús, Mexican actor
• 1975 – Maksim Mrvica, Croatian pianist
• 1976 – Jeff Halpern, American ice hockey player
• 1976 – Brad Scott, Australian rules footballer and coach
• 1977 – Mashima Hiro, Japanese Mangaka of Rave Master and Fairy Tail
• 1977 – Ryan Dempster, American baseball player
• 1977 – Tyronn Lue, American basketball player
• 1978 – Paul Banks, American vocalist (Interpol)
• 1978 – Autumn Phillips, member of the British royal family
• 1978 – Lawrence Tynes, American football player
• 1979 – Steve Mack, American professional wrestler
• 1980 – Zuzana Ondrášková, Czech tennis player
• 1980 – Marcel Vigneron, American chef (Top Chef)
• 1981 – Farrah Franklin, American singer (former member of Destiny's Child)
• 1981 – U;Nee, South Korean singer and actress (d. 2007)
• 1982 – Igor Olshansky, Ukrainian-born American football player
• 1983 – Joseph Addai, American football player
• 1983 – Romeo Castelen, Dutch footballer
• 1983 – Márton Fülöp, Hungarian footballer
• 1983 – Myriam Fares, Lebanese singer
• 1984 – Cheryl Burke, American dancer
• 1987 – Lina Grinčikaitė, Lithuanian sprinter
• 1990 – Miranda Chartrand, Canadian singer
• 1990 – Levi Johnston, American actor and model; former fiancé of Bristol Palin

Deaths

• 1152 – Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England (b. 1105)
• 1160 – Peter Lombard, Italian scholar and bishop (b. c. 1100)
• 1270 – King Béla IV of Hungary (b. 1206)
• 1294 – John I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1252)
• 1481 – Mehmed II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1432)
• 1598 – Anna Guarini, Italian singer (b. 1563)
• 1606 – Henry Garnet, English Jesuit (b. 1555)
• 1616 – William Shakespeare, English writer and actor (b. 1564) (his death is commonly accepted to be on April 23, according to the Julian calendar)
• 1622 – Pedro Páez, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1564)
• 1679 – James Sharp, Scottish archbishop (b. 1613)
• 1693 – Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French courtier (b. 1607)
• 1704 – Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (b. 1644)
• 1724 – John Leverett the Younger, American President of Harvard (b. 1662)
• 1750 – John Willison, Scottish minister and writer (b. 1680)
• 1752 – Samuel Ogle, British provincial Governor of Maryland (b. c.1692)
• 1758 – Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)
• 1763 – George Psalmanazar, British impostor (b. 1679)
• 1764 – Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher (b. 1712)
• 1779 – John Winthrop, American astronomer (b. 1714)
• 1793 – Martin Gerbert, German theologian and historian (b. 1720)
• 1839 – Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (b. 1771)
• 1856 – Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (b. 1803)
• 1918 – Charlie Soong, Christian missionary
• 1921 – Théodore Pilette, Belgian racing driver (b. 1883)
• 1942 – Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)
• 1958 – Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)
• 1969 – Zakir Hussain, 3rd President of India, (b. 1897)
• 1972 – Bruce Cabot, American film actor (b. 1904)
• 1978 – Bill Downs, American broadcast journalist (b. 1914)
• 1987 – Dalida, French singer (b. 1933)
• 1988 – Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
• 1989 – Christine Jorgensen, American transsexual (b. 1926)
• 1989 – Edward Ochab, Polish Communist politician (b. 1906)
• 1991 – Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-born writer (b. 1933)
• 1991 – Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Egyptian singer and composer (b. 1907)
• 1992 – George Murphy, American dancer, actor and politician (b. 1902)
• 1996 – Dimitri Fampas, Greek guitarist (b. 1921)
• 1996 – Alex Kellner, American baseball player (b. 1924)
• 1996 – Jack Weston, American actor (b. 1924)
• 1997 – Sébastien Enjolras, French racing driver (b. 1976)
• 1997 – Narciso Yepes, Spanish classical guitarist (b. 1927)
• 1999 – Joe Adcock, American baseball player (b. 1927)
• 1999 – Steve Chiasson, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1967)
• 1999 – Godfrey Evans, English cricketer (b. 1920)
• 2000 – John Joseph O'Connor, Cardinal Archbishop of New York (b. 1920)
• 2000 – Julia Bathory, Hungarian glass-designer (b. 1901)
• 2001 – Billy Higgins, American drummer (b. 1936)
• 2002 – Barbara Castle, British politician (b. 1910)
• 2002 – Evgeny Svetlanov, Russian composer and pianist (b. 1928)
• 2003 – Suzy Parker, American actress (b. 1932)
• 2004 – Anthony Ainley, British actor (b. 1932)
• 2004 – Ken Downing, British racing driver (b. 1917)
• 2004 – Darrell Johnson, American baseball player (b. 1928)
• 2006 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter (b. 1921)
• 2006 – Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician (b. 1949)
• 2006 – Earl Woods, athlete and father of Tiger Woods (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Warja Honegger-Lavater, Swiss illustrator (b. 1913)
• 2007 – Wally Schirra, American astronaut (b. 1923)
• 2007 – Knock Yokoyama, Japanese comedian and politician (b. 1932)
• 2008 – Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, Spanish former Prime Minister (b. 1926)
• 2009 – Ram Shewalkar, Indian Marathi writer (b.1931)
• 2010 – Guenter Wendt, German-American engineer (b.1923)
• 2010 – Roy Carrier, American Zydeco musician (b. 1947)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day
  • Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church)
  • Antonia and Alexander
  • Juvenal of Narni
  • Philip and James the Less
  • Pope Alexander I
  • Sarah the Martyr (Coptic Church)
  • Moura (Coptic Church)
  • Theodosius of Kiev (Eastern Orthodox Church)
  • May 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Constitution Memorial Day (Japan)
• Constitution Day (Poland)
• Discoflux (Discordianism)
• Earliest date on which National Teacher's Day can fall, while May 9 is the latest; celebrated on the Tuesday of the first full week of May. (United States)
• Roodmas, or Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross (Gallican Rite of the Catholic Church)
• World Press Freedom Day (International)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada