Historical Events on May 3

May 3 Calendar

Events 1 - 200 of 207

Fifth Council of the Lateran

1512 Pope Julius II opens the Fifth Council of Lateran at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome

1537 Strategic city of Santa Cruz de Mompox founded on the Magdalena River (modern Colombia) by Spanish conquistadors
1558 Ferdinand I officially appointed Holy Roman Emperor after his brother Charles abdicated in 1556
1616 Treaty of Loudun ends French civil war

Fall of Francis Bacon

1621 After confessing to corruption, Lord Chancellor of England Francis Bacon is sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London, a large £40,000 fine and banishment from court, Parliament and public office

1624 Spanish silver fleet sails to Panama
1629 French huguenot leader Duke De Rohan signs accord with Spain

Event of Interest

1640 English Upper house accepts Act of Attainder to execute Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, a leading advisor to Charles II

1654 Bridge at Rowley, Massachusetts begins charging tolls for animals
1660 Sweden, Poland, Brandenburg & Austria sign Peace of Oliva
1661 Johannes Hevelius observes 3rd transit of Mercury ever to be seen
1662 Royal charter granted to Connecticut
1678 French conquering fleet at Curacao, 1200 die

Halley Observes Baily's Beads

1715 Edmond Halley observes total eclipse phenomenon "Baily's Beads"

1722 Pierre de Marivaux's play "La Double Inconstance" premieres in Paris
1747 William IV Prince of Orange appointed Stadtholder of Holland and Utrecht
1765 1st North American medical college opens in Philadelphia
1791 Constitution of May 3 is proclaimed by the Great Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, becoming the 1st modern constitution in Europe
1802 Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city

1808 Day depicted by Spanish painter Francisco Goya in his "The Third of May", painted 1814

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

Byron Swims the Hellespont

1810 English poet Lord Byron swims across the dangerous Hellespont Strait in Turkey (modern day Dardanelles)

1815 Battle at Tolentino: Austria beats King Joachim of Naples
1822 Society for the Propagation of the Faith founded in Lyon, France
1830 First regular steam train passenger service in the US starts in South Carolina, with U.S.-built locomotive “The Best Friend of Charleston”
1837 The University of Athens is founded by King Otto of Greece - first modern university in the Eastern Mediterranean
1841 New Zealand is proclaimed a colony independent of New South Wales
1845 1st African American lawyer, Macon B. Allen, admitted to the bar in Massachusetts
1845 Fire kills 1,600 in a popular theater in Canton, China
1846 Mexican Army begins the Siege of Fort Texas near Brownsville, Texas, during the Mexican–American War
1849 The May Uprising in Dresden begins - the last of the German revolutions of 1848
1851 Sixth major fire in San Francisco destroys 1500-2000 buildings
1855 Antwerp-Rotterdam railway opens
1860 Charles XV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden
1861 General Winfield Scott presents his Anaconda Plan for the North against the South in American Civil War
1861 Lincoln asks for 42,000 Army Volunteers and another 18,000 seamen
1863 Battle of Salem Church, Virginia
1863 The Second Battle of Fredericksburg occurs in Virginia, part of the Chancellorsville Campaign of the American Civil War
1864 3rd day in Battle at Alexandria Louisiana: Confederate assault
1867 The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.
1886 M. A. Maclean elected 1st mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia
1887 Nanaimo Mine Disaster: explosion in the mine kills 150 men - British Columbia's worst mine disaster [1]
1898 Camp Merriman forms at Presidio San Francisco (see 0517)
1901 Fire destroys 1,700 buildings in Jacksonville, Florida
1906 British-controlled Egypt takes Sinai peninsula from Turkey
1910 Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States is renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

In Flanders Fields

1915 Canadian poet and physician John McCrae writes the poem "In Flanders Fields" at Ypres on the Western Front

1916 Irish Nationalists Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas Clarke are executed by firing squad following their involvement in the Easter Rising

Schelomo

1917 Ernest Bloch's "Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque" and "Israel Symphony" premiere in Carnegie Hall, NYC, with Artur Bodanzky conducting the former, and the composer conducting the latter

1919 Afghanistan Emir Amanoellah begins war against Great Britain
1921 Northern Ireland is created under the UK Government of Ireland Act partitioning off six north eastern counties with a Protestant majority
1921 West Virginia imposes 1st state sales tax
1922 Mayor Hylan closes 2 streets for building of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NYC
1922 Salt layer find at Winterswijk
1923 1st nonstop north American transcontinental flight (NY-San Diego) completed
1924 Aleph Zadik Aleph is formed in Omaha, Nebraska by Sam Beber

1926 Britain's Trade Union Congress calls for the country's first ever general strike, begins at 1 minute to midnight in support of striking coal miners and lasts 9 days

1926 Pulitzer prize awarded to Sinclair Lewis (Arrowsmith)
1926 US Marines land in Nicaragua (9 months after leaving), stay until 1933
1928 Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China
1929 Prussia bans anti-fascists
1932 24 tourists begin 1st air-charter holiday from London, England to Basel, Switzerland
1933 Nellie T. Ross takes office as the first female director of the US Mint
1936 French People's Front win elections

Joe DiMaggio Debuts

1936 NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio makes his major-league debut, gets 3 hits

Gone With The Wind Wins Pulitzer

1937 Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer Prize for her Novel "Gone With The Wind"

1938 Concentration camp at Flossenburg goes into use
1938 Lefty Grove defeats Tigers 4-3 for 1st of record 20 consecutive wins at his home field Fenway Park; he doesn't lose there until May 12 1941
1939 The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Subhash Chandra Bose
1941 German air raid on Liverpool
1941 WPAT-AM radio in Patterson, New Jersey begins broadcasting
1942 German Luftwaffe again bombs Exeter, destroying its town centre
1942 Japanese troop attack Tulagi, Gavutu & Tanambogo, Solomon Islands during WWII
1942 Nazis execute 71 Dutch resistance fighters in reprisal at Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany
1942 Nazis require Dutch Jews to wear a Jewish star

Pulitzer to Upton Sinclair

1943 Pulitzer prize awarded to Upton Sinclair for his novel "Dragon's Teeth" about the Nazi rise to power

1943 Strike against obligatory labor camps ends, after 200 killed
1943 US 1st armour division occupies Mateur, Tunisia

Going My Way

1944 "Going My Way", directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby premieres in New York (Academy Award for Best Picture, 1945)

1944 Meat rationing ends in US
1945 1st Polish Armoured Division of the Polish Armed Forces in the West occupies Wilhelmshafen in Germany

1945 German ocean liner SS Cap Arcona, laden with prisoners is sunk by the Royal Air Force in the western Baltic Sea, killing 5,800. One of the largest maritime losses of life in World War II.
1945 Louis de Visser, Dutch Communist politician (CPN), killed in Allied bombing of German prison ship SS Cap Arcona at 66
1946 International military tribunal in Tokyo begins

Post-War Constitution

1947 Japan's post-war constitution goes into effect, granting universal suffrage, stripping Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power and outlawing Japan's right to make war

1948 1st broadcast of "CBS Evening News" - longest running network news show in the US

Michener and Williams Win Pulitzers

1948 Pulitzer prize awarded to James Michener for his novel "Tales of the South Pacific" and Tennessee Williams for his play "A Streetcar Named Desire"

1949 1st firing of a US Viking rocket; reached 80 km
1951 Gil McDougald ties major league record with 6 RBIs in 1 inning
1951 NY Yankee Gil McDougald is 5th to get 6 RBIs in an inning (9th)
1951 Royal Festival Hall opens in London
1951 The Festival of Britain opens
1952 1st landing by an airplane at geographic North Pole
1953 Westchester conference of American Library Association proclaims "Freedom to Read"
1953 WTVO TV channel 17 in Rockford, IL (NBC) begins broadcasting
1954 KTEN TV channel 10 in Ada-Ardmore, Oklahoma(ABC) begins broadcasting

Event of Interest

1954 Pulitzer prizes awarded to Charles Lindbergh for his biography "The Spirit of St. Louis" and John Patrick for drama for his play "The Teahouse of August Moon"

1954 WHA TV channel 21 in Madison, Wisconsin (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 A new range of mountains discovered in Antarctica (2 over 13,000')
1958 WINS suspends disc jockey Alan Freed for being charged with inciting a riot at a Boston concert, he quits, charges are dropped
1959 Tiger's Charlie Maxwell hits 4 consecutive HRs in a doubleheader
1960 Musical "Fantasticks" by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, opens in Greeenwich Village, NYC, becomes “the longest-running musical in the universe”

Event of Interest

1960 The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1962 Express train crashed into wreckage of a commuter train & a freight, killing 163, injuring 400 in Tokyo, Japan
1963 Birmingham officials turn high pressure hoses and dogs on children's crusade protest against segregation prompting widespread condemnation
1963 Leslie Narum is only Baltimore Oriole to homer on his 1st at bat
1965 1st use of satellite TV, Today Show on Early Bird Satellite
1965 Cambodia drops diplomatic relations with the US
1965 Don Steele, begins a 40+ year radio career at KRTH (Los Angeles California)
1965 KTCI TV channel 17 in St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN (PBS) 1st broadcast
1965 Pulitzer prize awarded to Irwin Unger (Greenback Era)
1966 WDHO (now WNWO) TV channel 24 in Toledo, OH (ABC) begins broadcasting
1967 African American students seize finance building at Northwestern University
1968 Holland Pirate Radio Station VRON becomes Radio Veronica Intl
1970 Trans-Arabian Pipeline delivery from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean interrupted in Syria, driving oil tanker rates to all time highs
1970 World premiere of The Beatles' "Let it Be" documentary film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, in New York City
1971 "All Things Considered" premieres on 112 National Public Radio stations

1971 Pulitzer prize for General Non-Fiction awarded to John Toland for "The Rising Sun"
1971 US National Public Radio begins programming with newscast "All Things Considered"
1971 US President Nixon administration authorizes arrest of 13,000 anti-war protesters in 3 days
1973 Chicago's Sears Tower, world's tallest building (443 m), tops out
1975 Christa Vahlensieck runs female world record marathon (2:40:15.8)
1976 Panama 747SP lands after record flight around world (46:26)

Event of Interest

1976 Pulitzer prize for Fiction awarded to Saul Bellow for "Humboldt's Gift"

1977 1977 NFL Draft: Ricky Bell from USC first pick by Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1978 "Sun Day" - solar energy events held in the US
1978 First unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail ("spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the US west coast
1978 Last cricket test match appearance for Bobby Simpson, at Kingston
1978 West Indies all set to lose the cricket test v Australia at Kingston till riots end game
1979 1979 NFL Draft: Tom Cousineau from Ohio State first pick by Buffalo Bills
1979 Martin Sherman's play "Bent" premieres in London

Baseball Record

1979 MLB Cleveland Indian Bobby Bonds hits his 300th HR (2nd to have 300 HRs & 300 stolen bases)

1981 "Moony, Shapiro Songbook" opens & closes at Morosco Theater NYC
1982 ABC's All Talk network begins on radio (2 west coast stations)
1982 NY Times reports that military will get 25% of NASA's budget

Event of Interest

1983 Soviet leader Yuri Andropov decreases nuclear weapons in Europe

1983 US bishops condemn nuclear weapons
1985 Date of $5 million check in "A View To A Kill"
1986 Bomb explodes aboard Air Lanka Flight 512 on the ground at Colombo airport, killing 21
1986 Cubs 3rd baseman Ron Cey hits his 300th & 301st HR
1986 NASA launches Goes-G, it fails to achieve orbit

Sports History

1986 New York Yankees Don Mattingly is 6th to hit 3 sacrifice flies in a game

1987 Miami Herald reports a woman spent Friday & Saturday with Gary Hart
1988 4,200 kg Colombian cocaine in seized at Tarpon Springs Florida
1988 Jasper Johns' painting "Diver" sells for $4,200,000

Television Finale

1991 356th & final episode of CBS second longest running series TV show "Dallas", (2nd only to "Gunsmoke")

Sports History

1991 Future Hockey HOF right wing Cam Neely injures knee on a cheap shot by Ulf Samuelsson in Wales Conference Finals; injury limits him to only 162 games for remainder of NHL career; retires at 31

1991 The Declaration of Windhoek (on press freedom) signed by African journalists
1992 Baltimore Orioles Gregg Olson, 25, is youngest to record 100 saves

1992 Ohio Glory wins 1st WLAF game (after 6 loses), beat Frankfurt 20-17
1994 D66/Dutch Liberal Party win Dutch 2nd Parliamentary election
1995 Australia beat West Indies to regain the Frank Worrell Cricket Trophy
1995 David Bell debuts for the Indians (3rd generation player, Gus & Buddy)
1996 Martin Moxon and Michael Vaughan make 362 for the 1st wicket, Yorkshire v Glamorgan

Sports History

1997 Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov begins chess match with IBM supercomputer Deep Blue

1999 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is slammed by an F5 tornado killing forty-two people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado was one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak.
1999 The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time in its history at 11,014.70.
1999 World Snooker Championship, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield: Stephen Hendry of Scotland defeats Welshman Mark Williams, 18-11 for a record 7th world crown
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.

Spider-Man

2002 "Spider-Man", starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin, premieres

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

From Under the Cork Tree

2005 Fall Out Boy's breakthrough album "From Under the Cork Tree" is released through Island Records

2006 Al-Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison for his part in the 9/11 attacks, in Alexandria, Virginia
2006 Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea, killing 113 people on board, with no survivors
2007 British girl Madeleine McCann disappears from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal
2013 Aorun zhaoi, a Theropod dinosaur, dating from 161 million years ago, is discovered in China

2015 Chelsea wins the 2014–15 English football Premier League

Appointment of Interest

2015 Chris Isaak is confirmed as a judge on the seventh season of "The X Factor Australia"

Event of Interest

2016 Ted Cruz suspends his campaign to be the Republican Presidential nominee

2018 Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan becomes NFL's first $30m per season player after agreeing to $150m contract extension

Film & TV History

2018 Bollywood actors both posthumously recognized at India's National Film Awards; Sridevi Kapoor Best Actress for "Mum" and Vinod Khanna receives Dadasaheb Phalke award.

2018 Indian government confirms around 110 people have died in dust storms in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the last 9 days
2018 Kilauea volcano on Big Island, Hawaii begins erupting forcing the evacuation of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and residential areas
2019 Cyclone Fani strikes Odisha State, India and Bangladesh, killing 33 people after one of the biggest human evacuations ever - 1.2 million in India in 24 hours
2020 Brazilian confirmed COVID-19 cases pass 100,000 with the death toll at 7,025, the 9th country to do so

Event of Interest

2020 Investor Warren Buffett dumps his holdings in four major US airlines saying "the world has changed" for aviation, reflecting an increasingly bleak outlook for the industry

2020 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says China responsible for the spread and severity of COVID-19 and should be held accountable

2021 DR Congo announces the end of the latest Ebola outbreak after three months with a death toll of six
2021 Former U.S. Senator and astronaut Bill Nelson, becomes Administrator of NASA
2021 German police announce operation and arrests into 'Boystown' world's largest child abuse image website with 400,000 members worldwide [1]
2021 Subway overpass carrying a train collapses in Mexico City killing at least 24 people
2021 US Environmental Protection Agency takes first significant step against climate change by announcing new limits on hydrofluorocarbons (-85% over 15 years) [1]
2021 World Snooker Championship, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield: Englishman Mark Selby wins his 4th world title with an 18-15 win over countryman Shaun Murphy

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