On this day in History - May. 3

• 0612 - Constantine III was born (d. 0641). Byzantine Emperor.
• 1152 - Matilda of Boulogne dies. Queen of England
• 1160 - Peter Lombard dies. Italian scholar and bishop.
• 1270 - Bela IV dies. king of Hungary
• 1294 - John I, Duke of Brabant dies.
• 1404 - João das Regras dies. Portuguese teacher and jurist
• 1415 - Cecily Neville was born (d. 1495). Mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England.
• 1428 - Pedro González de Mendoza was born (d. 1495). Spanish cardinal and statesman.
• 1446 - Margaret of York was born (d. 16503). Wife of Charles I, Duke of Burgundy.
• 1455 - Joao II, the perfect, King of Portugal (1481-95) was born.
• 1469 - Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence (d. 1527). Italian historian, philosopher and political author (The Prince).
• 1481 - Mehmed II dies (b. 1432). Ottoman Sultan
• 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.
• 1519 - Hernan Cortes funda a cidade de Vila Rica de Veracruz, no México.
• 1598 - Anna Guarini dies (b. 1563). Italian singer.
• 1606 - Henry Garnet dies (b. 1555). English Jesuit missionary.
• 1616 - William Shakespeare dies (b. 1564). English playwright, romantic writer, poet.
• 1622 - Pedro Páez dies (b. 1564). Spanish Jesuit missionary to Ethiopia.
• 1662 - Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann was born (d. 1736). Master builder.
• 1679 - Archbishop James Sharp dies assassinated (b. 1613).
• 1693 - Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon dies (b. 1607). French courtier.
• 1695 - Henri Pitot was born (d. 1771). French engineer.
• 1703 - Eglon van der Neer dies. Dutch painter.
• 1704 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber dies (b. 1644). Bohemian composer.
• 1713 - Alexis Clairault was born (d. 1765). French mathematician.
• 1724 - John Leverett the Younger dies (d. 1662). American President of Harvard.
• 1748 - Emmanuel Joseph Sièges was born (20 Jun 1836). French abbé and statesman, one of the chief theorists of the French Revolution
• 1750 - John Willison dies (b. 1680). Scottish minister and writer.
• 1752 - Samuel Ogle dies. British provincial Governor of Maryland
• 1758 - Pope Benedict XIV dies (b. 1675)
• 1761 - August von Kotzebue was born (d. 1819). German dramatist.
• 1763 - George Psalmanazar dies. British imposter
• 1764 - Francesco Algarotti dies (b. 1712). Italian philosopher, critic and writer about opera.
• 1768 - Charles Tennant was born (d. 1838). Scottish chemist and industrialist.
• 1779 - John Winthrop dies (b. 1714). American astronomer.
• 1783 - José Maria de la Riva Aguero was born. Peruvian politician. President of Peru (1823-1827).
• 1791 - The May Constitution of Poland (first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Polish Diet.
• 1793 - Martin Gerbert dies (b. 1720). German theologian and historian.
• 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.
• 1810 - Lord Byron swims the Hellespont.
• 1826 - Charles, Crown Prince of Sweden-Norway was born (d. 1872).
• 1835 - Alfred Austin was born (d. 1913). English poet.
• 1837 - The University of Athens is founded. It is the oldest university in the eastern Mediterranean.
• 1839 - Ferdinando Paer dies (b. 1771). Italian composer.
• 1841 - New Zealand is proclaimed a British colony.
• 1844 - Richard D'Oyly Carte was born (d. 1901). English theatrical impresario.
• 1845 - Thomas Hood dies. English poet.
• 1849 - The May Uprising in Dresden begins - the last of the German revolutions of 1848.
• 1849 - Bernhard von Bülow was born (d. 1929).Chancellor of Germany.
• 1856 - Adolphe Charles Adam dies (b. 1803). French composer.
• 1859 - Andy Adams was born (d. 1935). Author.
• 1860 - Nace en San Vicente (Provincia de Buenos Aires) el destacado médico, filósofo y profesor Alejandro Korn. Falleció en La Plata (Provincia de Buenos Aires) el 9 de octubre de 1936. Su lugar de nacimiento (San Vicente) se denomina actualmente "Alejandro Korn".
• 1860 - Charles XV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
• 1860 - Vito Volterra was born (d. 1940). Italian mathematician.
• 1860 - John Scott Haldane was born (d. 1936). Scottish physiologist.
• 1861 - Emmett Dalton was born (d. 1937). American outlaw.
• 1867 - J.T. Hearne was born (d. 1944). English cricket player.
• 1867 - The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.
• 1873 - Pavlo Skoropadsky was born (d. 1945). Ukrainian general.
• 1874 - François Coty was born (d. 1934). French perfume manufacturer.
• 1874 - V. Walfrid Ekman was born (d. 1954). Swedish oceanographer.
• 1877 - Karl Abraham was born (d. 1925). German psychoanalyst.
• 1881 - António José de Ávila dies. Portuguese noble. Marquis and Duque of Ávila and Bolama
• 1886 - Marcel Dupré was born (d. 1971). French composer.
• 1888 - Beulah Bondi was born (d. 1981). American actress.
• 1891 - Tadeusz Peiper was born (d. 1969). Polish poet.
• 1892 - George Paget Thomson was born (d. 1975). English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1937
• 1893 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia was born (d. 1975). Georgian writer and public benefactor.
• 1895 - Cornelius Van Til was born (d. 1987). Philosopher and Christian apologist.
• 1896 - Dodie Smith was born (d. 1990). English novelist and playwright.
• 1896 - Karl Allmenroder was born (d. 1917). German World War I Ace.
• 1898 - Golda Meir was born in Kiev (d. 1978). Prime Minister of Israel [1969-1974]
• 1901 - Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, FL.
• 1901 - Gino Cervi was born (d. 1974). Italian actor.
• 1902 - Alfred Kastler was born (d. 1984). French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1905 - Sebastian Shaw was born (d. 1994). English actor.
• 1905 - Werner Fenchel was born (d. 1988). German mathematician.
• 1905 - Adelino da Palma Carlos was born (d. 1992). Portuguese politician and lawyer.
• 1906 - Anna E. Roosevelt was born (d. 1975). American radio personality.
• 1906 - Mary Astor was born (d. 1987). Academy Award-winning American actress.
• 1910 - Aurélio Buarque de Hollanda Ferreira was born (d. 1989). Brazilian lexicographer. philologist and essayst.
• 1910 - Norman Corwin was born. American radio pioneer.
• 1911 - Portugal: Republican Mational Guard is created; the forst Nacional Guard corp / Criação da Guarda Nacional Republicana, primeiro corpo policial extensivo a todo o país, que substitui as Guardas Republicanas de Lisboa e do Porto. Será a Guarda Pretoriana do regime republicano.
• 1912 - The first victims of the RMS Titanic are buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• 1912 - Virgil Fox was born (d. 1980). American organist.
• 1913 - William Inge was born (d. 1973). American playwright.
• 1915 - Stu Hart was born (d. 2003). Canadian professional wrestler and trainer.
• 1916 - Easter Rising leaders are executed in Dublin.
• 1916 - Brazilian Academy of Sciences is founded / Fundação da Academia Brasileira de Ciências.
• 1916 - Léopold Simoneau was born (d. 2006). French Canadian tenor.
• 1919 - Pete Seeger was born. American folk singer.
• 1919 - Betty Comden was born (d. 2002). American lyricist.
• 1919 - John Cullen Murphy was born (d. 2004). American comic strip artist.
• 1920 - John Lewis was born (d. 2001). American jazz pianist and composer (Modern Jazz Quartet).
• 1921 - West Virginia imposes the first state sales tax.
• 1921 - Sugar Ray Robinson was born (d. 12 Apr 1989). American boxer. International Boxing Hall of Fame middleweight champ: only boxer to win world title at one weight five times.
• 1921 - Joe Ames was born. American singer.
• 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.
• 1923 - Ralph Hall was born. American politician.
• 1926 - La Federación Boliviana de Fútbol es aceptada como miembro de FIFA, en el Congreso de Roma
• 1926 - Milton Santos was born in Brotas de Macaúbas, Bahia. Brazilian geographer.
• 1928 - Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.
• 1928 - Dave Dudley was born (d. 2003). American singer.
• 1931 - António da Cruz Pinto Saraiva was born in Peso da Régua. Portuguese footballer, European Champion twice ( Benfica) and three times Portuguese Champion.
• 1932 - Robert Osborne was born. American film historian
• 1933 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first women to head the United States Mint.
• 1933 - James Brown was born (d. 2006). American singer.
• 1933 - Steven Weinberg was born. American phisicist. Winner of the Nobel prize in physics for his work on elementary particle theory.
• 1933 - Alex Cord was born. American actor
• 1934 - Frankie Valli was born. American singer (The Four Seasons).
• 1934 - Georges Moustaki was born in Alexandria, Al Iskandarïyah, Egypt. Composer, singer.
• 1934 - Famous Funnies, the first comic book to go on sale in the United States, hits newsstands.
• 1935 - Ron Popeil was born. American inventor
• 1936 - Em França, a Frente Popular venceu as eleições.
• 1937 - Gone With the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
• 1937 - Nélida Piñon was born. Brazilian writer. President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
• 1938 - Agnaldo Rayol was born. Brazilian singer.
• 1938 - Chris Cannizzaro was borb. Baseball player
• 1939 - The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
• 1940 - Clemens Westerhof was born. Dutch football manager.
• 1941 - Edward "Monk" Malloy was born. American university president (University of Notre Dame).
• 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.
• 1942 - Věra Čáslavská was born. Czech gymnast
• 1942 - Thorvald Stauning dies (b. 1873). Prime Minister of Denmark
• 1944 - Dr. Robert Woodward and Dr. William Doering produced the first synthetic quinine at Harvard University.
• 1945 - World War II: Sinking of the floating-jails Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the RAF in the Lübeck Bay.
• 1945 - Davey Lopes was born. Baseball player and coach.
• 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.
• 1946 - Silvino Francisco was born. South African snooker player
• 1946 - José Genoino was born. Brazilian politician.
• 1946 - Norm Chow was born. American football coach
• 1947 - Doug Henning was born (d. 2000). Canadian magician.
• 1947 - New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect in which women vote for the first time.
• 1948 - U.S. Supreme Court rules that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.
• 1949 - Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo dies (b. 11 May 1871). Spanish painter.
• 1950 - Howard Ashman was born (d. 1991). American lyricist.
• 1950 - Mary Hopkin was born. Welsh singer.
• 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.
• 1951 - Tatyana Tolstaya was born. Russian writer
• 1951 - Christopher Cross was born. American musician.
• 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.
• 1951 - Massimo Ranieri [Giovanni Caloni] was born in Naples, Italy. Pop singer. Winner of Sanremo Festival (1988) for his hit song "Perdere L'amore". Considered by many to be one of the greatest Italian pop music singers of all time.
• 1951 - Muere en Buenos Aires el escritor, poeta y guionista de cine Homero Manzi, sobresaliente autor de letras de tango, como Discepolín" y "Sur". Fue coautor del guión de la película "La guerra gaucha". Nació en Añatuya (Provincia de Santiago del Estero) el 1º de noviembre de 1907.
• 1952 - U.S. lieutenant colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole.
• 1952 - Allan Wells was born. British athlete.
• 1955 - David Hookes was born (d. 2004). Australian cricketer
• 1955 - Steve Jones was born. English musician from rock group The Sex Pistols.
• 1956 - The judo World Championships are first held.
• 1956 - Marc Bellemare was born. Quebec lawyer and politician.
• 1957 - Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York to Los Angeles, California.
• 1957 - Rod Langway was born. American ice hockey player
• 1958 - Frank [Rowbotham] Foster dies (b. 31 Jan 1889). Warwickshire all-round cricketer.
• 1958 - Henry Cornelius dies. South-African born film director.
• 1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced.
• 1959 - Ben Elton was born. British comedian and author
• 1959 - David Ball was born. British musician (Soft Cell)
• 1959 - Uma Bharati was born. Indian politician. first woman chief minister of Madhya Pradesh
• 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.
• 1960 - Ho Chong assume a presidencia da Coreia do Sul.
• 1960 - Amy Steel was born. American actress.
• 1961 - Joe Murray was born. Cartoonist
• 1962 - Anders Graneheim was born. Swedish bodybuilder.
• 1962 - Club Real Santa Cruz, from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, is founded.
• 1963 - Jamie Reeves was born. British strongman
• 1963 - Jeff Hornacek was born. Basketball player
• 1964 - Ron Hextall was born. Canadian ice hockey player
• 1965 - Betty Gofman was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1966 - Darren Morgan was born. Welsh snooker player.
• 1966 - Peter Abbay was born. American actor
• 1968 - A Braniff International Electra crashes during a storm near Dawson, Texas killing 85.
• 1969 - Daryl F. Mallett was born. Author and actor.
• 1969 - Dustin Hoffman / Anne Byrne wed.
• 1969 - Zakir Hussain dies (b. 1897). 3rd President of India.
• 1970 - Davide Bianchini was born. Web designer.
• 1971 - Anti-war protesters calling themselves the Mayday Tribe begin four days of demonstrations in Washington, D.C., aimed at shutting down the nation's capital.
• 1971 - All Things Considered, National Public Radio's flagship news program, broadcasts for the first time.
• 1971 - Erich Honecker foi eleito secretário-geral do PSU, na Alemanha, dez anos após supervisionar a construção do Muro de Berlim.
• 1971 - Josey Scott was born. Lead singer of Saliva
• 1972 - Celeste was born. American actress
• 1972 - Shonie Carter was born. Mixed Martial Arts Fighter.
• 1972 - Bruce Cabot dies (b. 1904). American film director.
• 1973 - The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.
• 1973 - Michel Reiziger was born. Dutch footballer.
• 1974 - The Portuguese Democratic Labour Party is founded in Portugal.
• 1974 - Dulé Hill was born. American actor
• 1974 - Haya bint Hussein was born. Jordanian princess
• 1975 - Maksim Mrvica was born. Croatian pianist.
• 1976 - Jeff Halpern was born. Ice hockey player
• 1978 - Paul Banks was born. American vocalist (Interpol)
• 1979 - Margaret Thatcher leads the Conservative Party to victory in Britain's general elections; the next day she is sworn in as the nation's first female prime minister.
• 1980 - The Communist Party of Togo is founded.
• 1980 - Zuzana Ondrášková was born. Czech tennis player
• 1980 - Marcel Vigneron was born. American chef (Top Chef)
• 1981 - Farrah Franklin was born. American singer (Former member of Destiny's Child)
• 1982 - Falklands War: The Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Exocet missile.
• 1983 - Romeo Castelen was born. Dutch soccer player
• 1983 - Armando José Fernandes dies (b. 1906). Portuguese composer.
• 1984 - Jeremy Dick was born. American filmmaker
• 1984 - Nam Sang-mi was born. South Korean actress and model
• 1986 - Twenty-one people are killed and 41 injured after a bomb explodes in an airliner (Flight UL512) at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
• 1986 - In Bergen, Norway, Sandra Kim wins the thirty-first Eurovision Song Contest for Belgium singing "J'aime la vie" (I love life).
• 1987 - Dalida dies (b. 1933). French singer.
• 1987 - Davey Allison wins his first NASCAR Winston Cup race at the Winston 500 in Talladega, Alabama.
• 1988 - The White House acknowledges that first lady Nancy Reagan has used astrological advice to help schedule her husband's activities.
• 1988 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin dies (b. 1908). Soviet mathematician
• 1988 - Milt Caniff dies (b. 1907). American cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon)
• 1989 - Christine Jorgensen dies (b. 1926). American transsexual.
• 1989 - Edward Ochab dies (b. 1906). Polish Communist politician.
• 1990 - József Antall assume o cargo de primeiro-ministro da Hungria.
• 1991 - The Declaration of Windhoek is signed.
• 1991 - The last episode of the soap opera Dallas aired.
• 1991 - Narita Bryan was born (d. 1998). Japanese racehorse.
• 1991 - Jerzy Kosinski dies (b. 1933). Polish-born writer.
• 1991 - O bioquímico mexicano Francisco Bolivar Zapata recebe o Prêmio Príncipe de Astúrias de Investigação Científica e Técnica
• 1992 - Sidney Reso dies. Exxon executive
• 1992 - George Murphy dies (4 Jul 1902). American dancer, actor and politician.
• 1994 - Ezra Taft Benson dies (b. 1899). President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• 1994 - 29th Academy of Country Music Awards: Garth Brooks wins.
• 1996 - Jack Weston dies (b. 1924). American actor.
  1996 - Alex Kellner dies (b. 1924). Baseball player.
• 1997 - In Dublin, Ireland, Katrina & the Waves win the forty-second Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Love Shine a Light".
• 1997 - Narciso Yepes dies (b. 14 Nov 1927). The great master of spanish guitar.
• 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.
• 1999 - Steve Chiasson dies (b. 1967). Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1999 - Joe Adcock dies (b. 1927). American baseball player.
• 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.
• 2000 - John Joseph Cardinal O'Connor dies (b. 1920). Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
• 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.
• 2001 - AfonsoPraça dies (b. 1939). Portuguese journalist / Morte do jornalista português Afonso [Emílio] Praça (n. 13 Jan 1939). Primeiro presidente da Direcção do Sindicato dos Jornalistas após o 25 de Abril
• 2001 - Billy Higgins dies (b. 1936). American drummer.
• 2002 - A military MiG-21 aircraft crashed into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight.
• 2002 - Barbara Castle dies (b. 1910). Baroness Castle of Blackburn, British Labour politician.
• 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.
• 2003 - Suzy Parker dies (b. 1932). American actress.
• 2003 - Belgium: Brugges draw (1-1) against Saint Truiden and conquers the Belgian football Championship.
• 2003 - New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.
• 2004 - Exército dos Estados Unidos pune 13 militares acusados de tortura na prisão de Abu Gharib - Iraque
• 2004 - Lygia Pape dies (b. 1929). Brazilian artist.
• 2004 - Anthony Ainley dies (b. 1932). British actor.
• 2004 - Darrell Johnson dies (b. 1928). Baseball player.
• 2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith's soundtrack is released
• 2005 - The first democratically elected government in the history of Iraq is sworn in.
• 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.
• 2006 - Karel Appel dies (b. 1921). Dutch painter.
• 2006 - Pramod Mahajan dies (b. 1949). Indian politician.
• 2006 - Earl Woods dies (b. 1932). Father of golfer Tiger Woods.
• Constitution Day in Poland and Japan
• World Press Freedom Day (UN) / Dia Mundial da Liberdade de Imprensa (ONU)
• Discoflux (Discordianism).