From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). There are 242 days remaining.
[edit] Events
- 1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
- 1494 - Christopher Columbus first sights land that will be called Jamaica.
- 1791 - The May Constitution of Poland (first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Polish Diet.
- 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.
- 1837 - The University of Athens is founded. It is the oldest university in the eastern Mediterranean.
- 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.
- 1901 - Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, FL.
- 1916 - Easter Rising leaders are executed in Dublin.
- 1923 - Lieutenants John Macready and Oakley Kelly land their Fokker T-2 aircraft in San Diego, California. This is the first non-stop transcontinental flight. It took nearly 27 hrs.
- 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 - Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that resulted 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 floating-jails Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the RAF in Lübeck Bay.
- 1946 - World War II: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- 1947 - New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
- 1951 - London's Royal Festival Hall opens.
- 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 S. Truman.
- 1952 - U.S. Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the North Pole.
- 1956 - The judo World Championships are first held.
- 1957 - Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.
- 1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced.
- 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 opened in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- 1973 - The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.
- 1991 - The Declaration of Windhoek is signed.
- 1999 - Oklahoma City is slammed by an F5 tornado killing 42 people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado was one of 66 from the Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak.
- 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time in its history at 11,014.70.
- 2000 - The sport of Geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
- 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.
[edit] 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)
- 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 - Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
- 1857 - George Gore, 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)
- 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)
- 1886 - Marcel Dupré, French composer (d. 1971)
- 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 Ace (d. 1917)
- 1898 - Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)
- 1902 - Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
- 1903 - Bing Crosby, American singer (d. 1977)
- 1905 - Werner Fenchel, German mathematician (d. 1988)
- 1905 - Sebastian Shaw, English actor (d. 1994)
- 1906 - Anna E. Roosevelt, American radio personality (d. 1975)
- 1906 - Mary Astor, Academy Award-winning American actress (d. 1987)
- 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)
- 1919 - Betty Comden, American lyricist (d. 2006)
- 1919 - John Cullen Murphy, American comic strip artist (d. 2004)
- 1919 - Pete Seeger, American singer
- 1921 - Joe Ames, American singer
- 1921 - Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (d. 1989)
- 1923 - Ralph Hall, American politician
- 1928 - Dave Dudley, American singer (d. 2003)
- 1932 - Robert Osborne, American film historian
- 1933 - James Brown, American singer (d. 2006)
- 1933 - Steven Weinberg, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1934 - Georges Moustaki, Greek-French singer and songwriter
- 1934 - Henry Cooper, English boxer
- 1935 - Ron Popeil, American inventor
- 1937 - Frankie Valli, American singer (The Four Seasons)
- 1938 - Chris Cannizzaro, baseball player
- 1940 - Clemens Westerhof, Dutch football manager
- 1941 - Edward "Monk" Malloy, American university president
- 1942 - Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast
- 1945 - Davey Lopes, baseball player and coach
- 1946 - Norm Chow, American football coach
- 1946 - Silvino Francisco, South African snooker player
- 1947 - Doug Henning, Canadian magician (d. 2000)
- 1950 - Howard Ashman, American lyricist (d. 1991)
- 1950 - Mary Hopkin, Welsh musician and comedian
- 1951 - Christopher Cross, American musician
- 1951 - Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian writer
- 1952 - Allan Wells, British athlete
- 1955 - David Hookes, Australian cricketer (d. 2004)
- 1959 - David Ball, British musician (Soft Cell)
- 1959 - Uma Bharati, Indian politician
- 1959 - Ben Elton, British comedian and author
- 1960 - Amy Steel, American actress
- 1961 - Joe Murray, cartoonist
- 1962 - Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
- 1963 - Jamie Reeves, British strongman
- 1963 - Jeff Hornacek, basketball player
- 1965 - Rob Brydon, Welsh comedian
- 1966 - Darren Morgan, Welsh snooker player
- 1966 - Peter Abbay, American actor
- 1971 - Josey Scott, American singer (Saliva)
- 1972 - Celeste, American adult film actress
- 1972 - Shonie Carter, Mixed Martial Arts Fighter
- 1974 - Dulé Hill, American actor
- 1974 - Haya bint Hussein, Jordanian princess
- 1975 - Maksim Mrvica, Croatian pianist
- 1976 - Jeff Halpern, ice hockey player
- 1978 - Paul Banks, American vocalist (Interpol)
- 1980 - Zuzana Ondrášková, Czech tennis player
- 1980 - Marcel Vigneron, American chef (Top Chef)
- 1981 - Farrah Franklin, American singer (Destiny's Child)
- 1983 - Romeo Castelen, Dutch footballer
- 1984 - Jeremy Dick, American filmmaker
- 1984 - Nam Sang-mi, South Korean actress and model
[edit] 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. 1252/1253)
- 1481 - Mehmed II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1432)
- 1598 - Anna Guarini, Italian singer (b. 1563)
- 1606 - Henry Garnet, English Jesuit (executed) (b. 1555)
- 1622 - Pedro Páez, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1564)
- 1679 - James Sharp, English archbishop (assassinated) (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)
- 1942 - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)
- 1958 - Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)
- 1987 - Dalida, French singer (b. 1933)
- 1988 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
- 1988 - Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon) (b. 1907)
- 1989 - Christine Jorgensen, American transexual (b. 1926)
- 1989 - Edward Ochab, Polish Communist politician (b. 1906)
- 1991 - Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-born writer (b. 1933)
- 1994 - Ezra Taft Benson, thirteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899)
- 1996 - Jack Weston, American actor (b. 1924)
- 1996 - Alex Kellner, baseball player (b. 1924)
- 1999 - Steve Chiasson, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1967)
- 2000 - John Joseph Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York (b. 1920)
- 2002 - Barbara Castle, British politician (b. 1910)
- 2003 - Suzy Parker, American actress (b. 1932)
- 2004 - Anthony Ainley, British actor (b. 1932)
- 2004 - Darrell Johnson, baseball player (b. 1928)
- 2006 - Karel Appel, Dutch painter (b. 1921)
- 2006 - Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician (b. 1949)
[edit] Holidays and observances
Roman Catholicism
[edit] External links
