Events
The
Third of May 1808 by Francisco de Goya,
depicting the execution of Madrid citizens
on that date by French forces during the
Peninsular War
1481 – The largest of three earthquakes
strikes the island of Rhodes and causes
an estimated 30,000 casualties.
1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised
by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the
baptismal name of João I.
1791 – The Constitution of May 3 (the first
modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed
by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
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 executed near Príncipe
Pío hill.
1815 – Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King
of Naples is defeated by the Austrians at
the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement
of the war.
1830 – The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway
is opened. It is the first steam hauled
passenger railway to issue season tickets
and include a tunnel.
1837 – The University of Athens is founded
in Athens, Greece.
1849 – The May Uprising in Dresden begins
– the last of the German revolutions of
1848.
1860 – Charles XV of Sweden-Norway is crowned
king of Sweden.
1867 – The Hudson's Bay Company gives up
all claims to Vancouver Island.
1877 – Labatt Park, the oldest continually
operating baseball grounds in the world
has its first game.
1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in
Jacksonville, Florida.
1913 – Raja Harishchandra the first full-length
Indian feature film is released, marking
the beginning of the Indian film industry.
1915 – The poem In Flanders Fields is written
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.
1916 – The leaders of the Easter Rising
are executed in Dublin.
1920 – A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic
Republic of Georgia.
1921 – West Virginia becomes the first state
to legislate a broad sales tax, but does
not implement it until a number of years
later due to issues surrounding its enforcement.
1928 – Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.
1936 – Joe DiMaggio, familiarly referred
to as Joltin' Joe and The Yankee Clipper
makes his major league debut for the New
York Yankees.
1937 – Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret
Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
1939 – The All India Forward Bloc is formed
by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
1942 – World 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.
1945 – World War II: Sinking of the prison
ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland
by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.
1947 – New post-war Japanese constitution
goes into effect.
1948 – The 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.
1951 – London's Royal Festival Hall opens
with the Festival of Britain
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 Truman.
1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher
and William P. Benedict of the United States
land a plane at the North Pole.
1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally
for the first time on the CBS network.
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.
1960 – The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam,
Netherlands.
1963 – The 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 newfound
attention to the African-American Civil
Rights Movement.
1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago
is topped out at 1.451 feet as the world's
tallest building.
1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial
e-mail (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.
1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and
forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes
in an airliner (Flight UL512) at Colombo
airport in Sri Lanka.
1987 – A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega
Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish
line would lead NASCAR to develop restrictor
plate racing the following season both at
Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.
1999 – The southwestern portion of Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma 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 produced the
highest wind speed ever recorded, measured
at 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h).
2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with
the first cache placed and the coordinates
from a GPS posted on Usenet.
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.
2002 – A military MiG-21 aircraft crashes
into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing
eight.
2003 – New Hampshire's famous Old Man of
the Mountain collapses.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
The Most Holy Virgin Mary Queen of Poland
Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church)
Antonia and Alexander
Juvenal of Narni
Philip and James the Less
Pope Alexander I
Sarah the Martyr (Coptic Church)
Moura (Coptic Church)
Theodosius of Kiev (Eastern Orthodox Church)
May 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Roodmas, or Feast of the Finding of the
Holy Cross (Gallican Rite of the Catholic
Church)
Constitution Memorial Day (Japan)
Constitution Day (Poland)
Earliest day on which Teacher's Day can
fall, while May 9 is the latest; celebrated
on the Tuesday of the first full week of
May. (United States)
One of the two dates on which World Naked
Gardening Day may be celebrated; the other
is May 14
World Press Freedom Day (International)
For details, contact Datacentre
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