is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). There are 242 days remaining.

Events

• 1494 - Christopher Columbus first spots 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.
• 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.
• 1901 - Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, FL.
• 1923 - Lieutenants John McCready & Oakley Kelly land their Fokker T-2 airplane in San Diego, California becoming the first persons to cross the United States nonstop in an airplane. The pair had taken off the previous day from Long Island, New York. Their journey lasted 26 hours and 50 minutes.
• 1928 - Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.
• 1933 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced.
• 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 opened in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• 1973 - The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.
• 1991 - The Declaration of Windhoek is signed.
• 1997 - In Dublin, Ireland, Katrina and 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 killing 42 poeople, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado was one of 66 from 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.
• 2000 - The sport of Geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
• 2003 - New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.
• 2006 - Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea, killing 113 people on board, with no survivors.
• 2006 - Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia.

Births

• 612 - Constantine III, Byzantine Emperor (d. 641)
• 1415 - Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (d. 1495)
• 1428 - Pedro González de Mendoza, Spanish cardinal and statesman (d. 1495)
• 1446 - Margaret of York, wife of Charles I, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1503)
• 1469 - Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and political author (d. 1527)
• 1662 - Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect (d. 1736)
• 1695 - Henri Pitot, French engineer (d. 1771)
• 1713 - Alexis Clairault, French mathematician (d. 1765)
• 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)
• 1849 - Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
• 1859 - Andy Adams, American author (d. 1935)
• 1860 - John Scott Haldane, Scottish physiologist (d. 1936)
• 1860 - Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician (d. 1940)
• 1861 - Emmett Dalton, American outlaw (d. 1937)
• 1867 - J.T. Hearne, English cricketer (d. 1944)
• 1873 - Pavlo Skoropadsky, Ukrainian general (d. 1945)
• 1874 - François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (d. 1934)
• 1874 - V. Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer (d. 1954)
• 1877 - Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (d. 1925)
• 1886 - Marcel Dupré, French composer (d. 1971)
• 1888 - Beulah Bondi, American actress (d. 1981)
• 1891 - Tadeusz Peiper, Polish poet (d. 1969)
• 1892 - George Paget Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
• 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)
• 1902 - Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
• 1903 - Bing Crosby, American singer (d. 1977)
• 1905 - Sebastian Shaw, English actor (d. 1994)
• 1906 - Anna E. Roosevelt, American radio personality (d. 1975)
• 1906 - Mary Astor, American actress (d. 1987)
• 1912 - Virgil Fox, American organist (d. 1980)
• 1913 - William Inge, American playwright (d. 1973)
• 1915 - Stu Hart, Canadian professional wrestler and trainer (d. 2003)
• 1919 - Betty Comden, American lyricist
• 1919 - John Cullen Murphy, American comic strip artist (d. 2004)
• 1919 - Pete Seeger, American folk singer
• 1921 - Joe Ames, American singer
• 1921 - Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (d. 1989)
• 1923 - Ralph Hall, American politician
• 1928 - Dave Dudley, American singer (d. 2003)
• 1932 - Robert Osborne, American film historian
• 1933 - James Brown, American singer
• 1933 - Steven Weinberg, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1935 - Ron Popeil, American inventor
• 1937 - Frankie Valli, American singer (The Four Seasons)
• 1941 - Edward "Monk" Malloy, Former University of Notre Dame President
• 1942 - Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast
• 1945 - Davey Lopes, baseball player and coach
• 1946 - Silvino Francisco, South African snooker player
• 1947 - Doug Henning, Canadian magician (d. 2000)
• 1950 - Howard Ashman, American lyricist (d. 1991)
• 1950 - Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer
• 1951 - Christopher Cross, American musician
• 1951 - Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian writer
• 1952 - Allan Wells, British athlete
• 1955 - David Hookes, Australian cricketer (d. 2004)
• 1959 - David Ball, British musician (Soft Cell)
• 1959 - Uma Bharati, Indian politician
• 1959 - Ben Elton, British comedian and author
• 1962 - Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
• 1965 - Rob Brydon, Welsh comedian
• 1966 - Darren Morgan, Welsh snooker player
• 1971 - Josey Scott, lead singer of Saliva
• 1972 - Celeste, American adult actress
• 1974 - Dulé Hill, actor playing Charlie Young, the personal aide to the president on NBC's The West Wing
• 1975 - Maksim Mrvica, Croatian pianist
• 1978 - Paul Banks, lead singer of Interpol

Deaths

• 1152 - Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England (b. 1105)
• 1160 - Peter Lombard, Italian scholar and bishop (b. c.1100)
• 1270 - Bela IV, king of Hungary (b. 1206)
• 1294 - John I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1252/1253)
• 1481 - Mehmed II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1432)
• 1598 - Anna Guarini, Italian singer (b. 1563)
• 1606 - Henry Garnet, English Jesuit missionary (b. 1555)
• 1616 - William Shakespeare, English playwright (b. 1564)
• 1622 - Pedro Páez, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1564)
• 1679 - James Sharp, English archbishop (assassinated) (b. 1613)
• 1693 - Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French courtier (b. 1607)
• 1704 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (b. 1644)
• 1724 - John Leverett the Younger, American President of Harvard (b. 1662)
• 1750 - John Willison, Scottish minister and writer (b. 1680)
• 1752 - Samuel Ogle, British provincial Governor of Maryland (b. c.1692)
• 1758 - Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)
• 1763 - George Psalmanazar, British imposter (b. 1679)
• 1764 - Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher (b. 1712)
• 1779 - John Winthrop, American astronomer (b. 1714)
• 1793 - Martin Gerbert, German theologian and historian (b. 1720)
• 1839 - Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (b. 1771)
• 1856 - Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (b. 1803)
• 1942 - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)
• 1958 - Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)
• 1987 - Dalida, French singer (b. 1933)
• 1988 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
• 1988 - Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon) (b. 1907)
• 1989 - Christine Jorgenson, American transexual (b. 1926)
• 1989 - Edward Ochab, Polish Communist politician (b. 1906)
• 1988- Chris Johnson, Jew that moved to America
• 1991 - Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-born writer (b. 1933)
• 1994 - Ezra Taft Benson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899)
• 1996 - Jack Weston, American movie and television actor (b.1924)
• 2002 - Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, British politician (b. 1910)
• 2003 - Suzy Parker, American actress (b. 1932)
• 2004 - Anthony Ainley, British actor (b. 1932)
• 2006 - Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician (b. 1949)
• 2006 - Earl Woods, father of golfer Tiger Woods (b. 1932)
• 2006 - Karel Appel, Dutch painter (b. 1921

Holidays and observances

• World Press Freedom Day.
• Constitution Day in Poland and Japan.
• Discoflux (Discordianism).

Liturgical Feast days

• Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, aka the Invention of the True Cross.
• Saint Apostle Philip
• Saint Apostle James the Lesser
• Saint Alexander I
• Saint Juvenalis (d. 376)
• Saint Ansfrid (c. 1008)
• Saints Eventius and Alexander, Saint Theodulus (martyrs of 119)
• Saint Emily Bicchiere (1238 - 1314
• Antonia and Alexander (martyrs of 313)
• Black Madonna of Częstochowa Queen and Protector of Poland (since April 1, 1656)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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

3 Mei | 3 مايو | 3 de mayo | 3 mê | 3 de mayu | মে ৩ | 3 траўня | 3. maj | 3 май | 3 de maig | Çу, 3 | Mayo 3 | 3. květen | 3 di maghju | 3 Mai | 3. maj | 3. Mai | 3. mai | 3 Μαΐου | 3 de mayo | 3-a de majo | Maiatzaren 3 | 3. mai | 3 mai | 3 maaie | 3 di Mai | 3 Bealtaine | 3 de maio | 5월 3일 | 3. svibnja | 3 di mayo | 3 Mei | 3 de maio | 3 may | 3. maí | 3 maggio | 3 במאי | 3 Mei | 3 მაისი | 3 môja | 3'ê gulanê | 3 Maii | 3. Mee | Gegužės 3 | 3 mei | Május 3 | 3 мај | मे ३ | 3 Mei | 3 mei | 5月3日 | 3 'e maggio | 3. mai | 3. mai | 3 de mai | Mayu 3 | 3 maja | 3 de Maio | 3 mai | 3 мая | Mayo 3 | 3 Mey | 3 Maj | 3 di maiu | May 3 | 3. máj | 3. maj | 3. мај | 3. toukokuuta | 3 maj | Mayo 3 | 3. May | మే 3 | 3 พฤษภาคม | 3 tháng 5 | 3 Mayıs | 3 травня | 3 مئی | 3 d' may | 5月3日