Historical Events on 3rd May
All Events Birthdays
Events 1 - 200 of 212
1374 BC - Solar eclipse (2m07s) seen at Ugarit by Mesopotamian astromoners "On the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar, the Sun was put to shame, and went down in the daytime, with Mars in attendance."
1294 - John II becomes duke of Brabant/Limburg
1342 - Count Hartmann II becomes ruler of Vaduz (Liechtenstein)
1382 - Battle of Beverhoutsveldn near Bruges - Ghent town army beats drunken Bruges militia
1455 - Jews flee Spain
1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
1512 - Pope Julius II opens 5th Council of Lateran at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome
1515 - Persian Gulf: Portugese fleet occupies Ormuz
1558 - Ferdinand I officially appointed Holy Roman Emperor after his brother Charles abdicated in 1556
1616 - Treaty of Loudun ends French civil war
1621 - Francis Bacon accused of bribery
1624 - Spanish silver fleet sails to Panama
1629 - French huguenot leader duke De Rohan signs accord with Spain
Statesman/Philosopher Francis Bacon 1640 - English Upper house accept Act of Attainder
1654 - Bridge at Rowley Mass 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
1715 - Edmund Halley observes total eclipse phenomenon "Baily's Beads"
1722 - Pierre de Marivaux' "La Double Inconstance" premieres in Paris
1747 - Willem IV appointed viceroy of Holland/Utrecht
1765 - 1st US medical college opens in Philadelphia
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 - Day depicted by Spanish painter Goya in his "The of 3rd 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.
1810 - English poet Lord Byron swims the Hellespont (modern day Dardanelles)
1815 - Battle at Tolentino: Austria beats king Joachim of Naples
1822 - Society for the Propagation of the Faith founded (Lyon, France)
1830 - 1st regular steam train passenger service starts
1837 - The University of Athens is founded.
1841 - New Zealand proclaimed a colony independent of New South Wales
1845 - 1st African American lawyer (Macon B Allen) admitted to the bar (Mass)
1845 - Fire kills 1,600 in popular theater in Canton, China
1846 - Mexican army surrounds fort in Texas
1849 - The May Uprising in Dresden begins - the last of the German revolutions of 1848.
1851 - Most of San Francisco destroyed by fire; 30 die
1855 - Antwerp-Rotterdam railway opens
1860 - Charles XV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
1861 - Gen Winfield Scott presents his Anaconda Plan for the North against the South in American Civil War
1861 - Lincoln asks for 42,000 Army Volunteers & another 18,000 seamen
1863 - Battle of Fredricksburg, VA (Marye's Heights)
1863 - Battle of Salem Church, VA
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, BC
1898 - Camp Merriman forms at Presidio (SF) (see 0517)
1900 - 26th Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Boland aboard Lieut Gibson wins in 2:06.25
1901 - Fire destroyed 1,700 buildings in Jacksonville, Florida
1902 - 28th Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Winkfield on Alan-a-Dale wins in 2:08.75
1903 - AVC Heracles (SC Heracles '74) soccer team forms in Almelo
1906 - British-controlled Egypt takes Sinai peninsula from Turkey
1909 - 35th Kentucky Derby: Vincent Powers on Wintergreen wins in 2:08.2
World War I Soldier & Poet John McCrae 1915 - John McCrae writes the poem "In Flanders Fields"
1916 - Irish Nationalists Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas Clarke are executed by firing squad following their involvement in the Easter Rising
1917 - 1st performance of Ernest Bloch's symphony "Israel"
1919 - Afghanistan Emir Amanoellah begins war against Great Britain
1921 - West Virginia imposes 1st state sales tax
1922 - Mayor Hylan closes streets for building of Yankee Stadium
1922 - Salt layer find at Winterswijk
1923 - 1st nonstop transcontinental flight (NY-San Diego) completed
1924 - Aleph Zadik Aleph is formed in Omaha, Nebraska by Sam Beber.
1926 - British general strike: 3 million workers support miners
1926 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Sinclair Lewis (Arrowsmith)
1926 - US marines land in Nicaragua (9-mo after leaving), stay until 1933
1928 - Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.
1929 - Prussia bans anti-fascists
1932 - 24 tourists begin 1st air-charter holiday (London-Basle, Switz)
1933 - 1st female director (Nellie T Ross) of US Mint takes office
Cricket Legend Donald Bradman 1934 - Bradman scores 206 Aust v Worcestershire, 210 mins, 27 fours
1936 - French People's Front wins elections
1936 - NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio makes his major-league debut, gets 3 hits
1937 - Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for "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
1938 - Vatican recognizes Franco-Spain
1939 - The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
1941 - -4] German air raid on Liverpool
1941 - 67th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Arcaro aboard Whirlaway wins in 2:01.4
1942 - Japanese troop attack Tulagi, Gavutu & Tanambogo, Solomon Islands during WWII
1942 - German Luftwaffe bombs Exeter, UK during WWII
Author Margaret Mitchell 1942 - Nazis execute 72 OD'ers in reprisial in Sachsenhausen, Netherlands
1942 - Nazis require Dutch Jews to wear a Jewish star
1943 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Upton Sinclair (Dragon's Teeth)
1943 - Strike against obligatory labor camps ends, after 200 killed
1943 - US 1st armour division occupies Mateur Tunisia
1944 - "Meet Me in St Louis" opens on Broadway
1944 - Meat rationing ends in US
1945 - 1st Polish armour brigade occupies Wilhelmshafen
1945 - Allies arrests German nuclear physics Werner Heisenberg
1945 - British troop join in Rangoon
1945 - WWII: German ship "Cap Arcona" laden with prisoners sunk by Royal Air Force in East Sea, 5,800 killed - one of largest maritime losses of life
1946 - International military tribunal in Tokyo begins
Author Upton Sinclair 1947 - 73rd Kentucky Derby: Eric Guerin aboard Jet Pilot wins in 2:06.8
1947 - New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
1948 - Pulitzer prize awarded to James Michener & Tennessee Williams
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 - "Call Me Madam" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 644 performances
1952 - 1st landing by an airplane at geographic North Pole
1952 - 78th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Arcaro aboard Hill Gail wins in 2:01.6
1953 - WTVO TV channel 17 in Rockford, IL (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 - Westchester conference of American Library Association proclaims "Freedom to Read"
Playwright Tennessee Williams 1954 - KTEN TV channel 10 in Ada-Ardmore, OK (ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Charles A Lindbergh & John Patrick
1954 - WHA TV channel 21 in Madison, WI (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 - Frank Loesser's musical "Most Happy Fella" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 678 performances
1956 - A new range of mountains discovered in Antarctica (2 over 13,000')
1958 - 84th Kentucky Derby: Ismael Valenzuela aboard Tim Tam wins in 2:05
1958 - WINS suspends Alan Freed for causing a riot in Boston, he quits
1959 - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Land of the Sky Golf Tournament
1959 - Tiger's Charlie Maxwell hits 4 consecutive HRs in a doubleheader
1960 - Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones' musical "Fantasticks" premieres in NYC
1960 - The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
1961 - Warren Spahn pitches a 2 hitter after pitching a no hitter
1962 - Express train crashed into wreckage of a commuter train & a freight, killing 163, injuring 400 (Tokyo, Japan)
Jewish Victim & Diarist of the Holocaust Anne Frank 1963 - Leslie Narum is only Balt Oriole to homer on his 1st at bat
1964 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Clifford Ann Creed Golf Invitational
1965 - 1st use of satellite TV, Today Show on Early Bird Satellite
1965 - 3rd Mayor's Trophy Game, Mets beat Yanks 2-1 in 10
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
1969 - "Trumpets of the Lord" closes at Brooks Atkinson NYC after 7 perfs
LPGA Golfer Mickey Wright 1969 - 95th Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack on Majestic Prince wins in 2:01.8
1970 - 24th NBA Championship: NY Knicks beat LA Lakers, 4 games to 3
1970 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Shreveport Kiwanis Golf Invitational
1970 - Trans-Arabian Pipeline delivery from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean interrupted in Syria, driving oil tanker rates to all time highs
1971 - "All Things Considered" premieres on 112 National Public Radio stations
1971 - Erich Honecker succeeds Walter Ulbricht as East German party leader
1971 - National Public Radio begins programming
1971 - Nixon administration arrests 13,000 anti-war protesters in 3 days
1971 - Pulitzer prize awarded to John Toland (Rising Sun)
1973 - Chicago's Sears Tower, world's tallest building (443 m), topped out
1975 - 101st Kentucky Derby: Jacinto Vasquez on Foolish Pleasure wins 2:02
1975 - Christa Vahlensieck runs female world record marathon (2:40:15.8)
1976 - Panama 747SP lands after record flight around world (46:26)
Novelist Saul Bellow 1976 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Saul Bellow (Humboldt's Gift)
1978 - "Sun Day" - solar energy events are held in US
1978 - Anderlecht wins 18th Europe Cup II
1978 - Last cricket test match appearance for Bobby Simpson, at Kingston
1978 - WI all set to lose cricket test v Aust at Kingston till riots end game
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
1979 - Bobby Bonds hits his 300th HR (2nd to have 300 HRs & 300 stolen bases)
1979 - Martin Sherman's "Bent" premieres in London
1980 - 106th Kentucky Derby: Jacinto Vasquez on Genuine Risk wins in 2:02
1980 - Giants 1st baseman Willie McCovey hits his 521st & final HR
1980 - Texas Ranger Ferguson Jenkins becomes 4th to win 100 games in AL & NL
1981 - "Can-Can" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 5 performances
1981 - "Moony, Shapiro Songbook" opens & closes at Morosco Theater NYC
1981 - Sally Little wins LPGA CPC Women's Golf International
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
US President & Actor Ronald Reagan 1982 - President Reagan begins 5 minute weekly radio broadcasts
1983 - Bruins 3-Isles 8-Wales Conference Championship-Isles hold 3-1 lead
1983 - Soviet leader 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 - 112th Kentucky Derby: Bill Shoemaker aboard Ferdinand wins in 2:02.8
1986 - Air Lanka crashes, killing 22
1986 - Cubs 3rd baseman Ron Cey hits his 300th & 301st HR
1986 - NASA launches Goes-G, it failed to achieve orbit
1986 - NY Yankee Don Mattingly is 6th to hit 3 sacrifice flies in a game
1987 - "Mikado" closes at Virginia Theater NYC after 46 performances
1987 - Cindy Hill wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic
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' "Diver" sold for $4,200,000
1991 - 356th & final episode of CBS 2nd longest running series Dallas, 2nd only to Gunsmoke
1991 - The Declaration of Windhoek is signed.
NHL Right Winger Cam Neely 1991 - Cam Neely is injured on a cheap shot by Ulf Samuelsson, an injury that would limit him to only 162 games for the remainder of his NHL career and force him to retire at 31
1992 - Balt's Gregg Olson, 25, is youngest to record 100 saves
1992 - Danielle Ammaccapane wins LPGA Centel Golf Classic
1992 - NY Met Eddie Murray is 24th to hit 400 HRS
1992 - Ohio Glory wins 1st WLAF game (after 6 loses), beat Frankfurt 20-17
1992 - Sandra Palmer wins LPGA Centel Senior Golf Challenge
1993 - "Kiss of the Spider Woman" opens at Broadhurst NYC for 906 perfs
1994 - 29th Academy of Country Music Awards: Garth Brooks wins
1994 - D66/Dutch Liberal Party win Dutch 2nd Parliamentary election
1994 - US space probe Clementine launched
1995 - "My Thing of Love" opens at Beck Theater NYC for 16 performances
Country Music Singer and Songwriter Garth Brooks 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 & Michael Vaughan make 362 1st wkt Yorks v Glam
1997 - 123rd Kentucky Derby: Gary Stevens aboard Silver Charm wins in 2:02.3
1997 - ABC Bud Light Masters Bowling Tournament won by Jason Queen
1997 - 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 - Stephen Hendry defeats Mark Williams 18-11 to win the World Snooker Championship for a record seventh time.
2000 - The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
— Historical Events on this Day —