May 3Birthdays & History

On this day: May 3 in history

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

1. 752Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico, assumes the throne.Latin America
2. 996German king Otto III chooses his cousin Bruno of Carinthia as pope following the death of Pope John XV. Bruno becomes pope under the name Gregory V.Europe
3. 1481The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.Europe
4. 1491Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.Europe
5. 1568Angered by the brutal onslaught of Spanish troops at Fort Caroline, a French force burns the San Mateo fort and massacres hundreds of Spaniards.Europe
6. 1616Treaty of Loudun ends a French civil war.Europe
7. 1715A total solar eclipse is visible across northern Europe and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within four minutes accuracy.EuropeAsia
8. 1791The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.Europe
9. 1802Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District's founding government. The "City of Washington" is given a mayor-council form of government.North America
10. 1808Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.Europe
11. 1808Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are executed near Príncipe Pío hill.Europe
12. 1811The Anglo-Portuguese army under Lord Wellington tries to halt a larger French army under Marshal Masséna marching to relieve Almeida in the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro. After intense fighting, the French are repulsed.EuropeOceania
13. 1815Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples, is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war.Europe
14. 1830The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened; it is the first steam-hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel.Europe
15. 1837The University of Athens is founded in Athens, Greece.Europe
16. 1848The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.Europe
17. 1849The May Uprising in Dresden begins: The last of the German revolutions of 1848–49.Europe
18. 1855American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.North AmericaLatin America
19. 1901The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.North America
20. 1913Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.Asia
21. 1920A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.Europe
22. 1921Ireland is partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.Europe
23. 1921West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues.North America
24. 1928The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.AsiaAsia
25. 1939The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.Asia
26. 1942World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.AsiaOceaniaNorth America
27. 1945World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay, resulting in more than 7,000 deaths.Europe
28. 1947New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.Asia
29. 1948The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.North America
30. 1951London's Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain.Europe
31. 1951The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the relief of Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.North America
32. 1952The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network.North America
33. 1952Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.North America
34. 1953Two men are rescued from a semitrailer that crashed over the side of the Pit River Bridge before it fell into the Sacramento River. Amateur photographer Virginia Schau photographs "Rescue on Pit River Bridge", the first and only winning submission for the Pulitzer Prize for Photography to have been taken by a woman.North America
35. 1957Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.North America
36. 1963The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the civil rights movement.North America
37. 1968Eighty-five people are killed when Braniff International Airways Flight 352 crashes near Dawson, Texas.North America
38. 1971Erich Honecker becomes First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, remaining in power until 1989.Europe
39. 1978The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.North America
40. 1979The Conservative Party wins the United Kingdom general election. The following day, Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female British Prime Minister.Europe
41. 1986Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.Asia
42. 1987A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.North America
43. 1999The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 484 ± 32 kilometres per hour (301 ± 20 mph). In meteorology, the term "May 3" is synonymous with the F5 tornado.North America
44. 1999Infiltration of Pakistani soldiers on Indian side results in the Kargil War.Asia
45. 2000The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.North America
46. 2001The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.North America
47. 2006Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea near Sochi International Airport in Sochi, Russia, killing 113 people.Europe
48. 2007The three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Portugal, starting "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".Europe
49. 2015Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.North America
50. 2016Eighty-eight thousand people are evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a wildfire rips through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings.North America
51. 2021Twenty-six people are killed and ninety-eight are injured after an elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapses.Latin America
52. 2023Nine students and a security guard are killed in the Belgrade school shooting, the first attack of its kind in Serbia.Europe
53. 2023Ethnic violence breaks out between the Meitei and the Kuki Zo people in the state of Manipur.Asia

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