April 3

is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 272 days remaining.

Events

1077 - Creation of the first Parliament of Friuli.
1559 - The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty is signed, ending the Italian Wars.
1860 - The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins, and is completed on April 13.
1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1882 - American Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed in Saint Joseph, Missouri by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.
1885 - Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
1895 - The libel trial instigated by Oscar Wilde against the Marquess of Queensbury begins, eventually resulting in Wilde's arrest, trial and imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
1896 - The first publication of La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper in Italy.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin arrives at Finland Railway Station in Russia from exile, marking the beginning of Bolshevik leadership in the Russian Revolution.
1922 - Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1929 - RMS Queen Mary is ordered from John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering by Cunard Line.
1936 - Richard Bruno Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, the baby son of Anne and world-famous pilot Charles Lindbergh.
1941 - Hungarian and German troops march into Yugoslavia.
1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan falls on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
1948 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1948 - In Jeju, South Korea, locals simultaneously raid the island's police stations, marking the start of a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju massacre.
1953 - TV Guide debuts.
1955 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
1956 - Elvis Presley sings "Heartbreak Hotel" on the Milton Berle Show, with an estimated 25% of the United States population viewing.
1956 - The western part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado (known as the Standale Tornado).
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "mountaintop" speech.
1969 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
1973 - The first portable cell phone call is placed in New York City.
1974 - The Super Outbreak occurs, with 148 tornadoes affecting 13 U.S. states and 1 Canadian province in 18 hours, the biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history. The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.
1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
1996 - An United States Air Force 737 carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on-board.
1997 - Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
2000 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves with explosives.

Births

1151 - Igor Svyatoslavich, Russian prince (d. 1202)
1245 - King Philip III of France (d. 1285)
1367 - King Henry IV of England (d. 1413)
1529 - Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1581)
1593 - George Herbert, English poet and orator (d. 1633)
1639 - Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer (d. 1682)
1643 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, general of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1690)
1683 - Mark Catesby, English naturalist (d. 1749)
1693 - George Edwards, English naturalist (d. 1773)
1715 - John Hanson, American delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1783)
1715 - William Watson, English physician and scientist (d. 1787)
1764 - John Abernathy, English surgeon (d. 1831)
1769 - Christian Gunther von Bernstorff, Danish and Prussian statesman and diplomat (d. 1835)
1781 - Bhagwan Swaminarayan
1783 - Washington Irving, American author (d. 1859)
1814 - Lorenzo Snow, 5th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1901)
1821 - T. Pelham Dale, Anglican clergyman prosecuted for Ritualist practices in the 1870s (d. 1892)
1822 - Edward Everett Hale, American writer (d. 1909)
1823 - William Marcy Tweed, American political boss (d. 1878)
1880 - Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher (d. 1903)
1881 - Alcide De Gasperi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1954)
1885 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born American film director (d. 1981)
1889 - Grigoraş Dinicu, Romanian composer and violinist (d. 1949)
1893 - Leslie Howard, English actor (d. 1943)
1895 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)
1898 - George Jessel, American comedian (d. 1981)
1898 - Henry Luce, American publisher (d. 1967)
1904 - Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (d. 1999)
1905 - Robert Frederick Sink, United States Army Officer (d. 1965)
1913 - Per Borten, Premier of Norway (d. 2005)
1916 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (d. 1997)
1921 - Jan Sterling, American actress (d. 2004)
1924 - Marlon Brando, American actor (d. 2004)
1924 - Doris Day, American actress
1925 - Tony Benn, British politician
1926 - Gus Grissom, astronaut (d. 1967)
1928 - Don Gibson, American country musician (d. 2003)
1928 - Kevin Hagen, American actor (d. 2005)
1929 - Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese actress
1930 - Lawton Chiles, U.S. Senator from Florida and Governor of Florida (d. 1998)
1930 - Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany
1934 - Jane Goodall, English zoologist
1936 - Scott LaFaro, American musician (d. 1961)
1938 - Jeff Barry, American songwriter and record producer
1941 - Eric Braeden, German-born actor
1941 - Philippe Wynne, American musician (d. 1984)
1941 - Jan Berry, American musician (Jan and Dean) (d. 2004)
1942 - Marek Perepeczko, Polish actor (d. 2005)
1942 - Marsha Mason, American actress
1942 - Wayne Newton, American singer
1942 - Billy Joe Royal, American singer
1943 - Jonathan Lynn, British actor and comedy writer
1943 - Richard Manuel, Canadian musician and songwriter (d. 1986)
1944 - Tony Orlando, American musician
1948 - Carlos Salinas, President of Mexico
1949 - Richard Thompson, British musician and songwriter
1949 - Lyle Alzado, American football player
1954 - Elisabetta Brusa, Italian composer
1956 - Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (d. 1996)
1958 - Alec Baldwin, American actor
1959 - David Hyde Pierce, American actor
1960 - Arjen Anthony Lucassen, Dutch musician (Ayreon)
1961 - Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
1962 - Mike Ness, American musician (Social Distortion)
1964 - Bjarne Riis, Danish cyclist
1966 - Miina Tominaga, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
1968 - Sebastian Bach, Canadian musician (Skid Row)
1968 - Charlotte Coleman, British television actress (d. 2001)
1968 - Jamie Hewlett, British illustrator (Tank Girl and Gorillaz)
1972 - Jennie Garth, American actress
1973 - Matthew Ferguson, Canadian actor
1975 - Michael Olowokandi, Nigerian basketball player
1976 - Drew Shirley, American musician (Switchfoot)
1976 - Will Mellor, British actor
1979 - Daniel Lane, British music journalist
1982 - Fler, German rapper
1986 - Amanda Bynes, American actress and show host

Deaths

33 - Jesus, central figure of Christianity (traditional dating) (b. 1 BC, traditionally)
963 - William III, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 915)
1287 - Pope Honorius IV
1350 - Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1295)
1606 - Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devon, English politician (b. 1563)
1680 - Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (b. 1630)
1682 - Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, Spanish painter (b. 1618)
1691 - Jean Petitot, Swiss enamel painter (b. 1608)
1695 - Melchior d'Hondecoeter, Dutch painter
1717 - Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
1728 - James Anderson, Scottish lawyer (b. 1662)
1792 - George Pocock, British admiral (b. 1706)
1792 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman (b. 1718)
1827 - Ernst Chladni, German physicist (b. 1856)
1849 - Juliusz Słowacki, Polish poet (b. 1809)
1868 - Franz Berwald, Swedish composer and inventor (b. 1796)
1882 - Jesse James, American outlaw (b. 1847)
1897 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (b. 1833)
1901 - Richard D'Oyly Carte, British impresario (b. 1844)
1931 - Andre Michelin, French tire manufacturer (b. 1853)
1932 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
1936 - Bruno Hauptmann, German killer of Charles Lindbergh III (b. 1899)
1950 - Kurt Weill, German composer (b. 1900)
1952 - Miina Sillanpää, Finnish politician, first female Finnish minister (b. 1866)
1965 - Ernst Kirchweger, Austrian communist and resistance fighter
1971 - Joseph Valachi, American gangster (b. 1904)
1972 - Ferde Grofé, American composer (b. 1882)
1982 - Warren Oates, American character actor (b. 1928)
1986 - Peter Pears, English tenor (b. 1910)
1987 - Tom Sestak, American football player (b. 1936)
1990 - Sarah Vaughan, American singer (b. 1924)
1991 - Graham Greene, English writer (b. 1904)
1991 - Charles Goren, American bridge player, writer, and columnist (b. 1901)
1993 - Pinky Lee, American children's television host (b. 1907)
1996 - Ron Brown, U.S. Secretary of Commerce (b. 1941)
1996 - Carl Stokes, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (b. 1927)
1998 - Rob Pilatus, American entertainer and criminal (Milli Vanilli) (b. 1965)
2000 - Terence McKenna, American writer and philosopher (b. 1946)
2002 - Frank Tovey (aka Fad Gadget), British singer and musician (b. 1956)
2005 - Tony Croatto, Italian-born singer (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances

In Iran, people play jokes on each other on April 3, the thirteenth day of the Persian calendar new year (Norooz). This day is called "Sizdah bedar" (Outdoor thirteen). It is believed that people should go out on this date in order to escape the bad luck of number 13.

Liturgical feasts

External links