April 3Birthdays & History

On this day: April 3 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 686Maya king Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' assumes the crown of Calakmul.Latin America
2. 956Polyeuctus of Constantinople is elected as patriarch of Constantinople.Middle East
3. 1043Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.Europe
4. 1077The Patriarchate of Friûl, the first Friulian state, is created.Europe
5. 1559The second of two treaties making up the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis is signed, ending the Italian Wars.Europe
6. 1589The janissaries revolt in response to the debasement of coins.Middle East
7. 1721Robert Walpole becomes, in effect, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, though he himself denied that title.Europe
8. 1851Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand after the death of his half-brother, Rama III.Asia
9. 1860The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins.North America
10. 1865American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.North America
11. 1882American Old West: Robert Ford kills Jesse James.North America
12. 1885Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for a light, high-speed, four-stroke engine, which he uses seven months later to create the world's first motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen.Europe
13. 1888Jack the Ripper: The first of 11 unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.Europe
14. 1895The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.Europe
15. 1905Association football club Boca Juniors is founded in Buenos Aires, ArgentinaLatin America
16. 1920Attempts are made to carry out the failed assassination attempt on General Mannerheim, led by Aleksander Weckman by order of Eino Rahja, during the White Guard parade in Tampere, Finland.Europe
17. 1922Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.Europe
18. 1933First flight over Mount Everest, the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston.EuropeNorth America
19. 1936Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.North America
20. 1942World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.AsiaNorth AmericaAsia
21. 1946Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.AsiaAsia
22. 1948In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju uprising begins.Asia
23. 1948Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.North America
24. 1955The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.North America
25. 1956Hudsonville–Standale tornado: The western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado.North America
26. 1961LAN-Chile Flight 621 crashes in the Andes mountains, killing 21 people, including Argentinian football player Eliseo Mouriño.Latin America
27. 1968Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech; he was assassinated the next day.North America
28. 1969Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.AsiaNorth America
29. 1973Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.North America
30. 1974The 1974 Super Outbreak occurs, the second largest tornado outbreak in recorded history (after the 2011 Super Outbreak). The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.North America
31. 1975Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.AsiaEurope
32. 1975Vietnam War: Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children in the closing stages of the war begins.Asia
33. 1980US Congress restores a federal trust relationship with the 501 members of the Shivwits, Kanosh, Koosharem, and the Indian Peaks and Cedar City bands of the Paiute people of Utah.North AmericaAsia
34. 1981The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.North America
35. 1989The US Supreme Court upholds the jurisdictional rights of tribal courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Mississippi Choctaw Band v. Holyfield.North America
36. 1993The outcome of the Grand National horse race is declared void for the first (and only) time.Europe
37. 1996Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States.North America
38. 1996A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.North AmericaEurope
39. 1997The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.Africa
40. 2000United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.North America
41. 2004Islamic terrorists involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.Europe
42. 2007Conventional-Train World Speed Record: A French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line sets an official new world speed record of 574.8 km/h (159.6 m/s, 357.2 mph).Europe
43. 2008Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS's YFZ Ranch. Eventually 533 women and children will be taken into state custody.North America
44. 2008ATA Airlines, once one of the ten largest U.S. passenger airlines and largest charter airline, files for bankruptcy for the second time in five years and ceases all operations.North America
45. 2009Jiverly Antares Wong opens fire at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, killing thirteen and wounding four before committing suicide.North America
46. 2010Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.North America
47. 2013More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina.Latin America
48. 2016The Panama Papers, a leak of legal documents, reveals information on 214,488 offshore companies.Latin America
49. 2017A bomb explodes in the St Petersburg metro system, killing 14 and injuring several more people.Europe
50. 2018YouTube headquarters shooting: A 38-year-old gunwoman opens fire at YouTube Headquarters in San Bruno, California, injuring three people before committing suicide.North America

Source: Wikipedia "April 3" / CC BY-SA 4.0