May 3
May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years ). There are 242 days remaining.
Events
1494 - Christopher Columbus discovers 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.
1810 - Lord Byron swims the Hellespont .
1860 - Charles XV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden .
1867 - The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island .
1912 - The first victims of the RMS Titanic are buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia .
1933 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first women to head the United States Mint .
1937 - Gone With the Wind novel by Margaret Mitchell , wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction .
1945 - World War II : Sinking of the floating-jails Cap Arcona , Thielbek and Deutschland by the RAF in the 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 geographic 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 .
1960 - The Off-Broadway musical comedy , The Fantasticks New York City 's Greenwich Village , eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.
1968 - A Braniff International Electra crashes during a storm near Dawson, Texas killing 85.
1971 - All Things Considered National Public Radio 's flagship news program, broadcasts for the first time.
1982 - Falklands War : The Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Exocet missile.
1986 - In Bergen , Norway , Sandra Kim wins the thirty-first Eurovision Song Contest for Belgium singing "J'aime la vie" (I love life).
1987 - Davey Allison wins his first NASCAR Winston Cup race at the Winston 500 in Talladega, Alabama .
1991 - The Declaration of Windhoek is signed.
1991 - The last episode of the soap opera Dallas 1997 - In Dublin , Ireland , Katrina & the Waves win the forty-second Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Love Shine a Light".
1999 - Oklahoma City is slammed by an F5 tornado. The tornado was part of a storm system that produces 66 tornadoes. The Oklahoma City tornado kills 38 people and injures 665, and causes $1 billion in damage. (see 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. A little under a year later on January 14 , 2000 it closed at its highest level to date at 11,722.98.
2000 - Datapoint , the company that commissioned the Intel 8008 microprocessor, declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2000 - The sport of Geocaching begins with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS are posted on Usenet .
2003 - New Hampshire 's Old Man of the Mountain mysteriously falls from its perch after 10,000 years
2003 - Funny Cide becomes the first New York -bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby .
Births
612 - Constantine III , Byzantine Emperor (d. 641 )
1469 - Niccolò Machiavelli , Italian historian and political author (d. 1527 )
1662 - Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann , master builder (d. 1736 )
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 )
1859 - Andy Adams , author (d. 1935 )
1860 - John Scott Haldane , Scottish physiologist (d. 1936 )
1861 - Emmett Dalton , outlaw (d. 1937 )
1867 - J.T. Hearne , English cricket player (d. 1944 )
1874 - François Coty , French perfume manufacturer (d. 1934 )
1888 - Beulah Bondi , actress (d. 1981 )
1893 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia , Georgian writer and public benefactor (d. 1975 )
1895 - Cornelius Van Til , philosopher and Christian apologist (d. 1987 )
1898 - Golda Meir , Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978 )
1903 - Bing Crosby , American singer (d. 1977 )
1905 - Sebastian Shaw , actor (d. 1994 )
1906 - Anna E. Roosevelt , radio personality (d. 1975 )
1906 - Mary Astor , actress (d. 1987 )
1913 - William Inge , playwright (d. 1973 )
1915 - Stu Hart , professional wrestler and wrestling trainer (d. 2003 )
1919 - Pete Seeger , American folk singer
1919 - Betty Comden , lyricist
1921 - Sugar Ray Robinson , American boxer (d. 1989 )
1921 - Joe Ames , singer
1923 - Ralph Hall , American politician
1933 - James Brown , singer
1937 - Frankie Valli , American pop singer
1946 - Silvino Francisco , South African snooker player
1947 - Doug Henning , magician (d. 2000 )
1950 - Howard Ashman , lyricist (d. 1991 )
1950 - Mary Hopkin , singer
1951 - Christopher Cross , musician
1952 - Allan Wells , British athlete, Jennifer Broadbridge
1955 - David Hookes , cricketer (d. 2004 )
1959 - Ben Elton , British comedian and author
1959 - Uma Bharati , first woman chief minister of Madhya Pradesh
1962 - Anders Graneheim , Swedish bodybuilder
1966 - Darren Morgan , Welsh snooker player
1969 - Daryl F. Mallett , author and actor
1975 - Maksim Mrvica , pianist
1991 - Narita Bryan , Japanese racehorse (d. 1998 )
Deaths
1160 - Peter Lombard , scholar and bishop
1622 - Pedro Páez , Jesuit missionary to Ethiopia (b. 1564 )
1679 - Archbishop James Sharp , assassinated (b. 1613 )
1758 - Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675 )
1856 - Adolphe Charles Adam , French composer (b. 1803 )
1942 - Thorvald Stauning , Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873 )
1958 - Frank Foster , Warwickshire all-round cricketer (b. 1889 )
1987 - Dalida , French singer (b. 1933 )
1988 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin , Soviet mathematician
1989 - Christine Jorgensen , transsexual (b. 1926 )
1991 - Jerzy Kosinski , writer (b. 1933 )
1994 - Ezra Taft Benson , president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899 )
1992 - Sidney Reso , Exxon executive
2002 - Barbara Castle , Baroness Castle of Blackburn, British Labour politician (b. 1910 )
2003 - Suzy Parker , American actress (b. 1932 )
Holidays and observances
External links
May 2 - May 4 - April 3 - June 3 -- listing of all days
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