TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MAY 3
1374 BC Solar eclipse (2m 07s) seen at Ugarit by Mesopotamian astronomers “On the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar, the Sun was put to shame, and went down in the daytime, with Mars in attendance.”
1494 Jamaica discovered by Christopher Columbus; he names it “St Iago”
1568 French forces in Florida slaughtered hundreds of Spanish.
1765 1st North American medical college opens in Philadelphia
1791 Constitution of May 3 is proclaimed by the Great Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, becoming the 1st modern constitution in Europe
1845 1st African American lawyer, Macon B Allen, admitted to the bar in Massachusetts
1906 British-controlled Egypt takes Sinai peninsula from Turkey
1921 West Virginia imposes 1st state sales tax
1926 US Marines land in Nicaragua (9 months after leaving), stay until 1933
1945 Allies arrest German physicist Werner Heisenberg
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
1963 Birmingham officials turn high pressure hoses and dogs on children’s crusade protest against segregation prompting widespread condemnation
1970 Trans-Arabian Pipeline delivery from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean interrupted in Syria, driving oil tanker rates to all time highs
1971 James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin, is caught in a jail break attempt
1971 National Public Radio begins programming
1971 Nixon administration arrests 13,000 anti-war protesters in 3 days
1978 First unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (“spam”) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the US west coast
1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman prime minister of Great Britain.
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.
1997 The “Republic of Texas” surrendered to authorities ending an armed standoff where two people were held hostage. The group asserts the independence of Texas from the U.S.
1999 Kansas and Oklahoma were hit by an outbreak of more than 55 tornadoes, including one measured at F5 on the Fujita scale.
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.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
