TODAY HISTORY LESSON: MAY 3
1455 Jews flee Spain
1494 Jamaica discovered by Christopher Columbus; he names it “St Iago”
1568 French forces in Florida slaughter hundreds of Spanish.
1865 President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train arrives in Springfield, Illinois.
1916 Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by the British for their roles in the Easter Rising.
1921 West Virginia imposes 1st state sales tax
1926 Britain’s Trade Union Congress calls for the country’s first ever general strike, begins at 1 minute to midnight in support striking coal miners, lasts 9 days
1926 US marines land in Nicaragua (9-months after leaving), stay until 1933
1945 World War II: German ship “Cap Arcona” laden with prisoners sunk by Royal Air Force in East Sea, 5,800 killed – one of largest maritime losses of life
1947 Japan’s post-war constitution goes into effect, granting universal suffrage, stripping Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power and outlawing Japan’s right to make war
1948 The Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court decision stated that it is unconstitutional for a court to enforce a restrictive covenant which prevents people of a certain race from owning or occupying property.
1952 The first airplane lands at the geographic North Pole.
1958 Truman Capote’s book Breakfast at Tiffany’s is published
1971 James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin, is caught in a jail break attempt.
1971 National Public Radio begins programming; 112 NPR stations premiere “All Things Considered”
1971 Nixon administration arrests 13,000 anti-war protesters in 3 days
1978 The Digital Equipment Corporation sends the world’s first spam email. A representative sent out 600 emails and sold computers for $12 million. Unsolicited bulk emails have since become a scourge of the digital age as spammers attempt to achieve a similar success.
1988 The White House acknowledged that first lady Nancy Reagan had used astrological advice to help schedule her husband’s activities.
1992 Five days of rioting and looting ended in Los Angeles, CA. The riots, that killed 53 people, began after the acquittal of police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
1999 Mark Manes, at age 22, was arrested for supplying a gun to Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold, who later killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado.
1999 A tornado produces the highest wind speeds ever recorded. The F5 tornado hitting parts of Oklahoma City caused the record wind speed of about 301 mph (484 km/h). 45 people were killed, 665 injured.
2001 The United States, a member of the UN Human Rights Commission since its inception, lost its seat. It would be restored the following year.
2003 New Hampshire’s symbol, the granite Old Man of the Mountain, collapsed in the state’s Franconia Mountains.
2006 In Alexandria, VA, Al-Quaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was given a sentence of life in prison for his role in the terrorist attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
