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Nautilus submarine travels under North Pole

Born on This Day

Tony Bennett

1926 - 2023

Jazz and pop singer who sold 50 million records with hits "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and "Rags to Riches."

Martha Stewart

1941 -

Lifestyle guru whose career spanned cookbooks, magazines and television programs.

Tom Brady

1977 -

Football player and broadcaster who won seven Super Bowl titles and who some consider the best quarterback of all time.

Tony BennettNBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via

Martha StewartWireImage

Tom BradyFilmMagic

1936

AUG3

Track-and-field star Jesse Owens, one of 18 Black athletes on the US team at the Berlin Olympics, wins his first of four gold medals—the most of any American at the Games. Back home, only white Olympians were invited to the White House.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on August 3rd

Columbus sets sail from Spain

From the Spanish port of Palos, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets sail in command of three ships—the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina—on a journey to find a western sea route to China, India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. On October 12, the expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the […]

Treaty of Greenville signed, ending the Northwest Indian War

Indigenous nations ceded land under the Treaty of Greenville.

Germany declares war on France

On the afternoon of August 3, 1914, two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead with a long-held strategy, conceived by the former chief of staff of the German army, Alfred von Schlieffen, for a two-front war against France and Russia. One day earlier, France had begun readying its […]

Sir Roger Casement hanged

Sir Roger David Casement, an Irish-born diplomat who in 1911 was knighted by King George V, is executed for his role in Ireland’s Easter Rising. Casement was an Irish Protestant who served as a British diplomat during the early part of the 20th century. He won international acclaim after exposing the illegal practice of slavery […]

Calvin Coolidge takes oath of office after Warren G. Harding’s death

On August 3, 1923, Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, hours after the death of President Warren G. Harding. Born July 4, 1872, in Plymouth, Vermont, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts and worked his way up in the […]

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Chambers accuses Hiss of being a communist spy

In hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Whittaker Chambers accuses former State Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. The accusation set into motion a series of events that eventually resulted in the trial and conviction of Hiss for perjury. Chambers was a little known […]

NBA is born

On August 3, 1949, after a damaging three-year battle to win both players and fans, the rival Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merge to form the National Basketball Association (NBA). The BAA incorporated in 1946, challenging the hegemony of the nine-year old NBL. The BAA established itself in bigger cities […]

Boeing 707 crashes into a mountain near Agadir, Morocco

On August 3, 1975, a chartered Boeing 707 jetliner crashes in the Atlas Mountains near Agadir, a coastal city in Morocco. All 188 people aboard the plane were killed, in the fourth worst air disaster to that date. Owned by the Jordanian airline Alia and chartered to Royal Air Maroc, the 707 left LeBourget Airport […]

“The Spy Who Loved Me” released in U.S. theaters

On August 3, 1977, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” starring Roger Moore as the suave superspy James Bond, known for his love of fast cars and dangerous women, is released in theaters across America. The film features one of the most memorable Bond cars of all time–a sleek, powerful Lotus Esprit sports car that does […]

Sodomy arrest sparks controversy

Michael Hardwick is arrested for “sodomy” after a police officer observes him having sex with another man in his own bedroom in Georgia. Although the district attorney eventually dropped the charges, Hardwick decided to challenge the constitutionality of Georgia’s law. “John and Mary Doe,” who joined in Hardwick’s suit against Michael Bowers, the attorney general […]

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Gymnast Mary Lou Retton scores two perfect '10s' to win Olympic All-Around Gold

She also won four more medals at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

“The Macarena” begins its reign atop the U.S. pop charts

On August 3, 1996, the song “Macarena” hits no. 1 on the American pop charts. It would spend more time on the Billboard Hot 100 (60 weeks) than any other song in history. If pop songs, like hurricanes, were rated on an objective scale according to their ability to devastate the pop-cultural landscape, then “Macarena” […]

Multimillion-dollar baby photos published

On August 3, 2008, the first published photos of former couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s newborn twins, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, go up on People magazine’s website. A 19-page photo spread followed in the magazine’s August 18, 2008, issue. People won the rights to the photos after a bidding war that, according to […]

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