“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
— Marcus Garvey

 

May 3 is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years). 242 days remain until the end of the year. Find out some of the important events that occurred on this day, 3rd May, in history.

 

Historical events

1374 BC — Mesopotamian astronomers see a solar eclipse (2m 07s) at Ugarit. “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.” A scribe in ancient Syria wrote those words on a clay tablet to commemorate the solar eclipse.

1616 — The treaty of Loudun ends the French civil war.

1654 — A bridge at Rowley, Massachusetts begins charging tolls for animals.

1661 — Johannes Hevelius observes the third transit of Mercury ever seen.

1715 — Astronomer, mathematician and physicist Edmond Halley observes the total eclipse phenomenon, “Baily’s Beads”.

1808 — This is the day depicted by Spanish painter Francisco de Goya in his “The Third of May 1808” painting of 1814.

 

1830 — The first regular steam train passenger service starts.

1837 — The University of Athens is founded.

1845 — The first African American lawyer, Macon B Allen, admitted to the bar in Massachusetts.

 

3rd May in the 20th Century

1922 — Mayor Hylan closes streets for the building of Yankee Stadium.

1923 — The first nonstop north American transcontinental flight (NY-San Diego) completed.

1926 — Pulitzer prize awarded to Sinclair Lewis for “Arrowsmith”.

1937 — Author Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for “Gone With the Wind”.

1938 — The Vatican recognises Franco-Spain.

1943 — Pulitzer prize awarded to Author Upton Sinclair (Dragon’s Teeth).

1951 — The Festival of Britain opens.

1952 — The first landing by an aeroplane at the geographic North Pole.

1956 — A new range of mountains discovered in Antarctica (2 over 13,000′).

1960 — The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She was a Jewish victim and diarist of the Holocaust.

1963 — Birmingham officials turn high-pressure hoses and dogs on children’s crusade protest against segregation prompting widespread condemnation.

 

More dates

1965 — The first use of satellite TV, Today Show on Early Bird Satellite.

1975 — Christa Vahlensieck runs a female world record marathon (2:40:15.8).

1976 — Panama 747SP lands after record flight around the world (46:26).

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

1983 — US bishops condemn nuclear weapons.

1986 — NASA launches Goes-G. It fails to achieve orbit.

1988 — 4,200 kg Colombian cocaine seized at Tarpon Springs Florida.

1988 — Jasper Johns’ “Diver” sold for $4,200,000.

1991 — The Declaration of Windhoek (on press freedom) signed by African journalists.

1997 — Chess Grandmaster and Political Activist Garry Kasparov begin chess match with IBM supercomputer Deep Blue.

 

3rd May in the 21st Century

2002 — “Spider-Man”, starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin, premieres.

2003 — New Hampshire’s famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.

2018 — The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences members vote to expel actor and comedian Bill Cosby, and Roman Polanski.

2018 — Kilauea volcano on Big Island, Hawaii begins erupting. It forces the evacuation of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and residential areas.