Niccolo Machiavelli

1469

Italian philosopher and writer Niccolo Machiavelli born

Born on This Day

Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

1903 - 1977

Mid-20th-century crooner known for his laid-back singing style. Star of films like "White Christmas" and "Going My Way."

The image shows an elderly man with gray hair and a warm, friendly expression, seated in what appears to be a comfortable chair or sofa.

Golda Meir

1898 - 1978

Israeli politician and stateswoman who helped found the State of Israel and later served as its first female Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974.

Photo of Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

1919 - 2014

American folk singer, songwriter and activist known for protest anthems like 'If I Had a Hammer' and 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone?'

Bing Crosby

Getty Images

1986

MAY

3

Willie Shoemaker, at 54, defies 18:1 odds to become the oldest jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. It's a Run for the Roses redemption after his infamous 1957 blunder of celebrating victory before crossing the finish line.

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 May 3rd

1810

Lord Byron swims across tumultuous Hellespont strait in Turkey

George Gordon, Lord Byron, swims across the Hellespont, a tumultuous strait in Turkey now called the Dardanelles. Legendary Greek hero Leander supposedly swam the same four-mile stretch. Byron’s visits to Greece later made him a passionate supporter of Greek independence from Turkey. The 22-year-old Byron was taking an extended tour of the European continent when […]

1:36m read read

1933

Funk master James Brown is born

James Joseph Brown, Jr., the revolutionary musical figure who come to be known as “Soul Brother #1,”The Godfather of Soul,” “Mr. Dynamite,” “Sex Machine” and “The Minister of the New New Super Heavy Funk,” is born on May 3, 1933. The story Brown himself would often tell is that he appeared stillborn when he first […]

1:54m read read

James Brown performing in 1968.

1942

The Battle of the Coral Sea begins

On May 3, 1942, during World War II, the first modern naval engagement in history, the Battle of the Coral Sea, begins. A Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of the Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan’s defensive perimeter. The United States, having broken Japan’s secret war code and forewarned of an impending […]

1:16m read read

1946

Japanese war crimes trial begins

In Tokyo, Japan, the International Military Tribunals for the Far East begins hearing the case against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II. On November 4, 1948, the trial ended with 25 of 28 Japanese defendants being found guilty. Of the three other […]

1:24m read read

1947

New Japanese constitution goes into effect

On May 3, 1947, Japan’s postwar constitution goes into effect. The progressive constitution granted universal suffrage, stripped Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power, stipulated a bill of rights, abolished peerage, and outlawed Japan’s right to make war. The document was largely the work of Supreme Allied Commander Douglas MacArthur and his occupation staff, who […]

3:04m read read

1948

U.S. Supreme Court decides Paramount antitrust case

On May 3, 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court issues a decision in U.S. v. Paramount Pictures, et al., the government’s long-running antitrust lawsuit against Paramount Pictures and seven other major Hollywood movie studios. The forerunner of the case was a 1928 antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission against the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (the forerunner […]

2:50m read read

1951

Congressional hearings on General MacArthur begin

The Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, meeting in closed session, begin their hearings into the dismissal of Gen. Douglas MacArthur by President Harry S. Truman. The hearings served as a sounding board for MacArthur and his extremist views on how the Cold War should be fought. General MacArthur served as commander of U.S. […]

2:32m read read

1952

Joseph Fletcher lands first aircraft on the North Pole

A ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict of California is among the first aircraft to land on the North Pole. A moment later, Fletcher climbed out of the plane and walked to the exact geographic North Pole, probably the first person […]

0:54m read read

1954

Supreme Court rules in Hernandez v. Texas, broadening civil rights laws

The Supreme Court issues a momentous ruling that clarified the way that the American legal system handled charges of discrimination. In Hernandez v. Texas, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment applied to all racial and ethnic groups facing discrimination, effectively broadening civil rights laws to include Hispanics and all other non-whites. The […]

1:58m read read

1962

Trains collide near Tokyo, killing more than 160 people

Two commuter trains and a freight train collide near Tokyo, Japan, killing more than 160 people and injuring twice that number on May 3, 1962. It was Constitution Day in Japan when a commuter train pulled out of Mikawashima station at 9:30 p.m. taking passengers out of Tokyo. Three miles north of the city, a […]

1:06m read read

1968

Students protest at the Sorbonne in Paris, kicking off month of unrest

On May 3, 1968, students at Paris’s Sorbonne University stage a large demonstration calling for more rights and an end to the conflict in Vietnam. Several hundred students were arrested and dozens were injured. By the end of the month, millions of workers were on strike, and France seemed to be on the brink of […]

3:14m read read

1980

MADD founder’s daughter killed by drunk driver

On May 3, 1980, 13-year-old Cari Lightner of Fair Oaks, California, is walking along a quiet road on her way to a church carnival when a car swerves out of control, striking and killing her. Cari’s tragic death compelled her mother, Candy Lightner, to found the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which would grow […]

2:06m read read

1992

Kidnapped Exxon executive dies in a wooden box

Exxon executive Sidney Reso dies in a storage vault in New Jersey. Four days earlier, he was abducted from the driveway of his Morris Township, New Jersey, home. Reso was shot in the arm, bound and gagged, and then placed in a wooden box that was hidden in a virtually airless storage space. Despite his […]

2:10m read read

2007

Three-year-old Madeleine McCann goes missing in Portugal

On May 3, 2007, less than two weeks before her fourth birthday, Madeleine McCann of Rothley, England, vanishes during a family vacation at a resort in southern Portugal. McCann’s disappearance prompted an international search; however, she has never been found. In May 2007, the McCann family—parents Gerry and Kate McCann, Madeleine and her 2-year-old twin […]

2:24m read read

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