May 3

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, a 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, opens in 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 aired.
• 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

• World Press Freedom Day
• Roman Catholicism- Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross (often called the Feast of the Invention of the True Cross)
• Israel - Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Israeli Independence Day) for 2006: (the observed date of this national holiday] is determined by the Jewish Calendar).
• Poland – The Constitution Day
• Discordianism- Discoflux (50th day of the season of Discord)
  

  External links

• External list of US polititians who were born on May 3.
• BBC: On This Day

May 2 - May 4 - April 3 - June 3 -- listing of all days