History of Today in India – 03 May

Explore the history of today 03 May in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 03 May 2026, 04:21 AM

📜 Important Events on 03 May in World History

03 May 2023: Nine students and a security guard are killed in the Belgrade school shooting, the first attack of its kind in Serbia. Read more
03 May 2023: Ethnic violence breaks out between the Meitei and the Kuki Zo people in the state of Manipur. Read more
03 May 2021: Twenty-six people are killed and ninety-eight are injured after an elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapses. Read more
03 May 2016: Eighty-eight thousand people are evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a wildfire rips through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings. Read more
03 May 2015: Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting. Read more
03 May 2007: The three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Portugal, starting "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history". Read more
03 May 2006: Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea near Sochi International Airport in Sochi, Russia, killing 113 people. Read more
03 May 2001: The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947. Read more
03 May 2000: The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet. Read more
03 May 1999: The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 484 ± 32 kilometres per hour (301 ± 20 mph). In meteorology, the term "May 3" is synonymous with the F5 tornado. Read more
03 May 1999: Infiltration of Pakistani soldiers on Indian side results in the Kargil War. Read more
03 May 1987: A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega. Read more
03 May 1986: Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka. Read more
03 May 1979: The Conservative Party wins the United Kingdom general election. The following day, Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female British Prime Minister. Read more
03 May 1978: The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States. Read more
03 May 1971: Erich Honecker becomes First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, remaining in power until 1989. Read more
03 May 1968: Eighty-five people are killed when Braniff International Airways Flight 352 crashes near Dawson, Texas. Read more
03 May 1963: The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the civil rights movement. Read more
03 May 1957: Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Read more
03 May 1953: Two men are rescued from a semitrailer that crashed over the side of the Pit River Bridge before it fell into the Sacramento River. Amateur photographer Virginia Schau photographs "Rescue on Pit River Bridge", the first and only winning submission for the Pulitzer Prize for Photography to have been taken by a woman. Read more
03 May 1952: Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole. Read more
03 May 1952: The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network. Read more
03 May 1951: London's Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain. Read more
03 May 1951: The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the relief of Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman. Read more
03 May 1948: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable. Read more
03 May 1947: New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect. Read more
03 May 1945: World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay, resulting in more than 7000 deaths. Read more
03 May 1942: World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia. Read more
03 May 1939: The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Read more
03 May 1928: The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days. Read more
03 May 1921: Ireland is partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. Read more
03 May 1921: West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues. Read more
03 May 1920: A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia. Read more
03 May 1913: Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry. Read more
03 May 1901: The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida. Read more
03 May 1855: American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua. Read more
03 May 1849: The May Uprising in Dresden begins: The last of the German revolutions of 1848–49. Read more
03 May 1848: The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire. Read more
03 May 1837: The University of Athens is founded in Athens, Greece. Read more
03 May 1830: The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened; it is the first steam-hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel. Read more
03 May 1815: Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples, is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war. Read more
03 May 1811: The Anglo-Portuguese army under Lord Wellington tries to halt a larger French army under Marshal Masséna marching to relieve Almeida in the battle of Fuentes de Onoro. After intense fighting, the French are repulsed. Read more
03 May 1808: Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia. Read more
03 May 1808: Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are executed near Príncipe Pío hill. Read more
03 May 1802: Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District's founding government. The "City of Washington" is given a mayor-council form of government. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 03 May in World History

03 May 2003: Florian Wirtz, German footballer Florian Richard Wirtz is a German professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or left midfielder for Premier League club Liverpool and the Germany national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best attacking midfielders in the world. Read more
03 May 2001: Rachel Zegler, American actress and singer Rachel Anne Zegler is an American actress and singer. Zegler gained recognition for her performance as María in Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the musical West Side Story (2021), for which she earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Read more
03 May 1999: Tom Hartley, English cricketer Tom William Hartley is an English cricketer who plays for Lancashire and the England national team. In 2024, on his Test Cricket debut against India he took nine wickets, two in the first innings, seven in the second. Read more
03 May 1999: Ella Langley, American singer-songwriter Elizabeth Camille Langley is an American country music singer-songwriter. Her debut album Hungover was released on August 2, 2024, with her breakthrough hits "You Look Like You Love Me" with Riley Green and "Weren't for the Wind". This was followed by her second release Dandelion, led by Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "Choosin' Texas" in 2026. Read more
03 May 1997: Desiigner, American rapper Sidney Royel Selby III, better known by his stage name Desiigner, is an American rapper and singer. He is best known for his 2015 debut single "Panda", which topped the Billboard Hot 100. Shortly after the song gained viral status online, he signed with Kanye West's GOOD Music, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings.
His 2016 follow-up single, "Tiimmy Turner", peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite this, Desiigner is frequently described as a one-hit wonder. Read more
03 May 1997: Dwayne Haskins, American football player (died 2022) Dwayne Haskins Jr. was an American professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons. He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes, setting Big Ten Conference records for single-season passing yards and passing touchdowns as a sophomore in 2018. He won the Sammy Baugh Trophy and Kellen Moore Award, along with several conference honors. Read more
03 May 1996: Mary Cain, American runner Mary Cecilia Cain is an American-born Irish professional middle distance runner from Bronxville, New York. Cain was the 2014 World Junior Champion in the 3000 meter event. She is the youngest female athlete ever to represent the United States at a track and field World Championships meet after competing in the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow aged 17 years and 3 months. Read more
03 May 1996: Alex Iwobi, Nigerian footballer Alexander Chuka Iwobi is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Fulham and the Nigeria national team. Read more
03 May 1996: Domantas Sabonis, Lithuanian-American basketball player Domantas Sabonis is a Lithuanian-American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Lithuanian national team. Son of the Hall of Fame player Arvydas Sabonis, Sabonis is a two-time All-NBA Team member, three-time NBA All-Star, and has led the league in rebounds three times. Read more
03 May 1996: Noah Munck, American actor Noah Bryant Munck is an American actor, musician and YouTuber. He is best known for his roles as Gibby in the Nickelodeon series iCarly and "Naked" Rob Smith in the ABC comedy series The Goldbergs. He also releases music under the aliases Sadworldbeats and Noah Praise God and creates independent comedy videos on YouTube. Read more
03 May 1995: Ivan Bukavshin, Russian chess player (died 2016) Ivan Alexandrovich Bukavshin was a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2011. Bukavshin was three-time European champion in his age category. Read more
03 May 1995: Anwar El Ghazi, Dutch footballer Anwar El Ghazi is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a winger for Qatar Stars League club Al-Sailiya. Read more
03 May 1995: Austin Meadows, American baseball player Austin Wade Meadows is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, and Detroit Tigers. Meadows was an MLB All-Star in 2019. Read more
03 May 1991: Samuel Seo, South Korean musician Samuel Seo is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Born in Seoul, he spent his youth living in his home country, as well as Japan, the United States, and Canada. An aspiring pianist, Seo's exposure to hip hop music in his teens led him to pursue the genre. He released a series of singles before enlisting and serving two years in military service. Read more
03 May 1990: Harvey Guillén, American actor Javier "Harvey" Guillén is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the human familiar Guillermo de la Cruz in the television series What We Do in the Shadows. He is also known for his voice work. Read more
03 May 1990: Brooks Koepka, American golfer Brooks Koepka is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is a former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking. Koepka has won five major championships. Read more
03 May 1990: James Pattinson, Australian cricketer James Lee Pattinson is an Australian cricketer. Pattinson is considered an aggressive fast bowler. After making his Test cricket debut in late 2011, he played Test and limited overs cricket for the Australia national cricket team, although his appearances were limited due to back injuries. Read more
03 May 1989: Jesse Bromwich, New Zealand rugby league player Jesse Bromwich is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who last played as a prop for the Dolphins in the National Rugby League (NRL), who he also captained. Read more
03 May 1989: Katinka Hosszú, Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszú is a Hungarian former competitive swimmer specialized in individual medley events. She is a three-time Olympic champion and a nine-time long-course world champion. She is the owner of a Budapest-based swim school and swim club called Iron Swim Budapest, and a co-owner and was captain of Team Iron, founding member of the International Swimming League. Read more
03 May 1988: Ben Revere, American baseball player Ben Daniel Revere is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, and Los Angeles Angels. Read more
03 May 1988: Paddy Holohan, Irish mixed martial artist Patrick Pearse Holohan is an Irish politician and retired mixed martial artist who previously competed in the flyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A professional MMA competitor from 2007 until his retirement in 2016, Holohan also competed for the promotion Cage Contender and was a competitor on The Ultimate Fighter 18. Read more
03 May 1987: Damla Sönmez, Turkish actress Tilya Damla Sönmez is a Turkish actress and voiceover artist. She gained worldwide recognition for her movies Sibel and I Am You. Her prominent TV roles include Ceylan in Bir Aşk Hikayesi, Gülru in Güllerin Savaşı, and Efsun in Çukur. Read more
03 May 1986: Homer Bailey, American baseball player David Dewitt "Homer" Bailey Jr. is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds from 2007 through 2018, the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics in 2019, and the Minnesota Twins in 2020. Read more
03 May 1986: Pom Klementieff, French actress Pom Alexandra Klementieff is a French actress. She is best known for playing Mantis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2017–2023), and Paris in the final two films of the Mission: Impossible series (2023–2025). Read more
03 May 1985: Ezequiel Lavezzi, Argentinian footballer Ezequiel Iván "Pocho" Lavezzi is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a forward. During his career, his most important attributes were his pace, hardworking style of play, technique, creativity, and dribbling ability; although he was usually deployed as a winger, he was also used as a second striker or as an attacking midfielder on occasion. Read more
03 May 1985: Robin Tonniau, Belgian politician Robin J. E. Tonniau is a Belgian politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of the Workers' Party of Belgium, he has represented East Flanders since June 2024. Read more
03 May 1983: Joseph Addai, American football player Joseph Kwaku Duah Addai Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the 2006 NFL draft out of Louisiana State University. He played for the team for six seasons where he won Super Bowl XLI as a rookie, defeating the Chicago Bears. Read more
03 May 1983: Romeo Castelen, Dutch footballer Romeo Erwan Marius Castelen is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a winger. Read more
03 May 1983: Márton Fülöp, Hungarian footballer (died 2015) Márton Fülöp was a Hungarian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Read more
03 May 1982: Igor Olshansky, Ukrainian-American football player Igor Olshansky is a former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Oregon and was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the second round of the 2004 NFL draft. He also played for the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins. Read more
03 May 1978: Paul Banks, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist Paul Julian Banks is a British-American musician, singer, songwriter, and DJ. Noted for his baritone singing voice, he is best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and studio bassist of the American rock band Interpol. He released a solo album called Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper in 2009 under the name Julian Plenti, though his solo material is now recorded under his real name. Read more
03 May 1978: Lawrence Tynes, American football player Lawrence James Henry Tynes is a Scottish former professional American football placekicker. After he played soccer for Milton High School, a coach suggested he try out for the football team as a kicker. He played college football at Troy and was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent in 2001. He spent two seasons on the practice squad in Kansas City, then played in NFL Europe and in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He came back to Kansas City and played for the Chiefs for three seasons, and was then traded to the Giants in 2007. In his first season with the Giants, he kicked the game-winning field goal in overtime against the Green Bay Packers in the 2007–08 NFC Championship Game, which qualified the Giants for Super Bowl XLII. Four years later, he kicked another overtime field goal against the San Francisco 49ers in the 2011–12 NFC Championship Game, which qualified the Giants for Super Bowl XLVI. He experienced his best success with the Giants, winning Super Bowl championships in 2007 and 2011, defeating the New England Patriots in both games. Read more
03 May 1977: Eric Church, American country music singer-songwriter Kenneth Eric Church is an American singer-songwriter and minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets. He has released seven studio albums through Capitol Nashville since 2005. His debut album, 2006's Sinners Like Me, produced three singles on the Billboard country charts including the top 20 hits "How 'Bout You", "Two Pink Lines", and "Guys Like Me". Read more
03 May 1977: Ryan Dempster, Canadian baseball player and sportscaster Ryan Scott Dempster is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, and Boston Red Sox. Dempster batted and threw right-handed. He was both a starter and a reliever in his career. Read more
03 May 1977: Tyronn Lue, American basketball player and coach Tyronn Jamar Lue is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has won NBA titles as a player and a head coach. Read more
03 May 1977: Ben Olsen, American soccer player and coach Benjamin Robert Olsen is an American soccer executive, coach and former player who is the head coach of Houston Dynamo in Major League Soccer (MLS). He is best known for his long-term association with D.C. United, first as a player then as a coach. Olsen was formerly the president of Washington Spirit in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Read more
03 May 1976: Jeff Halpern, American ice hockey player Jeffrey Craig Halpern is an American former professional ice hockey player. He played for the Washington Capitals twice, Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, and Phoenix Coyotes. In 14 NHL seasons, he had 152 goals and 221 assists in 976 regular-season games. He also had seven goals and 14 points in 39 Stanley Cup playoff games. He was also captain of the United States national team for the 2008 World Championships. Read more
03 May 1976: Brad Scott, Australian footballer and coach Bradley David Walter Scott is a former Australian rules footballer who is currently the coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for Hawthorn and the Brisbane Lions, and was previously the coach of the North Melbourne Football Club from 2010 until 2019. Read more
03 May 1976: Chris Scott, Australian footballer and coach Christopher Michael Scott is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League (AFL) best known for being a dual premiership player with the Brisbane Lions and a dual premiership coach at Geelong in 2011 and 2022. Read more
03 May 1975: Willie Geist, American television journalist and host William Russell Geist is an American television personality and journalist. He is co-anchor of MS NOW's Morning Joe and anchor of Sunday Today with Willie Geist. Geist also frequently serves as a fill-in anchor on both the 7-9 a.m. and 10 a.m. hours of Today. Geist is a correspondent for NBC News and NBC Sports, hosting and contributing to NBC's Olympic coverage. Geist has hosted the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks and Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting on NBC. Read more
03 May 1975: Christina Hendricks, American actress and model Christina Rene Hendricks is an American actress and former model. With an extensive career on screen and stage, she has received various accolades, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Critics' Choice Awards, as well as nominations for six Primetime Emmy Awards. She is known for her role as Joan Holloway on the critically acclaimed AMC period drama series Mad Men (2007–2015). In 2010, a poll of female readers taken by Esquire magazine named her "the sexiest woman in the world". She was also voted "Best Looking Woman in America". Read more
03 May 1975: Sanath Nishantha, Sri Lankan politician (died 2024) Sanath Nishantha Perera, more commonly known as Sanath Nishantha, was a Sri Lankan politician who was a member of parliament and a Minister of State. He was elected from the Puttalam District in 2015 and 2020, and served until his death in 2024. He was a member of the United People's Freedom Alliance and later the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. He served as the Minister of State for Water Supply from 8 September 2022 until his death as well as the Minister of State for the Fisheries during the presidency of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Read more
03 May 1973: Jamie Baulch, Welsh sprinter and television host James Stephen Baulch is a retired Welsh sprint athlete and television presenter. He won the 400 metres gold medal at the 1999 World Indoor Championships. As a member of British 4 × 400 metres relay teams, he won a gold medal at the 1997 World Championships, and got the silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games. He represented Wales at the Commonwealth Games where he got an individual silver and a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay. Read more
03 May 1972: Steve Barclay, English lawyer and politician Stephen Paul Barclay is a British politician who served in various cabinet positions under prime ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak between 2018 and 2024, lastly as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2023 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Cambridgeshire since 2010, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from July to November 2024. Read more
03 May 1971: Douglas Carswell, British politician, the first elected MP for the UK Independence Party John Douglas Wilson Carswell is a British former politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, co-founded Vote Leave, and since 2021 also serves as president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. Read more
03 May 1967: Daniel Anderson, Australian rugby league coach and manager Daniel Stewart Anderson is an Australian professional rugby league coach. Anderson previously coached the New Zealand Warriors and the Parramatta Eels in the NRL and St. Helens in the Super League. He has also coached New Zealand and the Exiles at representative level. Read more
03 May 1967: Kenny Hotz, Canadian producer, writer, director, actor, and comedian Kenneth Joel Hotz is a Canadian comedy writer, filmmaker, entertainer and television personality. He is best known as the star of the former reality comedy show Kenny vs. Spenny (2003–2010) alongside Spencer Rice. Hotz is the creator of the FX series Testees, and Kenny Hotz's Triumph of the Will. Between 2004 and 2006, he served as a staff writer for South Park. Hotz has directed a number of films, including Pitch, It Don't Cost Nothin' to Say Good Morning, The Papal Chase and Subscribe. He also co-directed the music video for the song "Monophobia" by Deadmau5. Hotz is a regular contributor for Vice Media and began his career as a war correspondent and photojournalist during the Gulf War. Read more
03 May 1965: Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II is a Syrian–American Christian prelate who has served as the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church since 29 May 2014. Read more
03 May 1965: Mark Cousins, Northern Irish director, writer, cinematographer Mark Nathaniel Cousins is a Northern Irish director and writer. A prolific documentarian, among his best-known works is the 15-hour 2011 documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Read more
03 May 1965: John Jensen, Danish footballer and coach John Jensen, nicknamed Faxe, is a Danish professional football manager and former player. Read more
03 May 1965: Mikhail Prokhorov, Russian businessman Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov is a Russian-Israeli oligarch and politician. He formerly owned the Brooklyn Nets. Read more
03 May 1964: Sterling Campbell, American drummer and songwriter Sterling Campbell is an American drummer and songwriter who has worked with numerous high-profile acts, including Chic, the B-52s, Duran Duran, Soul Asylum, Cyndi Lauper, Nena, Grayson Hugh, Spandau Ballet, Gustavo Cerati, and David Bowie. Read more
03 May 1964: Ron Hextall, Canadian-American ice hockey player and manager Ronald Jeffrey Hextall is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and executive. He was most recently the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Hextall was a goaltender for 13 seasons for the Philadelphia Flyers, Quebec Nordiques, and New York Islanders from 1986 to 1999. He served as assistant general manager for the Flyers for one season, and was promoted to general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, replacing Paul Holmgren on May 7, 2014. He held this position for four and a half seasons. Before this he served as assistant general manager for the Los Angeles Kings, who won the Stanley Cup in 2012. Read more
03 May 1963: Jeff Hornacek, American basketball player and coach Jeffrey John Hornacek is an American professional basketball coach and a former player who is a coaching consultant for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He previously was the head coach for both the Phoenix Suns (2013–2016) and the New York Knicks (2016–2018). He was also an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets. He played shooting guard in the NBA from 1986 through 2000 and played collegiately at Iowa State University. Read more
03 May 1963: Mona Siddiqui, Pakistani-Scottish journalist and academic Mona Siddiqui is a British academic. She is Professor of Religion and Society at King's College London, a member of the Commission on Scottish Devolution and a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. She is also a regular contributor to Thought for the Day, Sunday and The Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4, and to The Times, The Scotsman, The Guardian, and Sunday Herald. Read more
03 May 1961: Steve McClaren, English footballer and manager Stephen McClaren is an English football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of the Jamaica national team. Read more
03 May 1961: David Vitter, American lawyer and politician David Bruce Vitter is an American politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana from 2005 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Vitter served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 to 1999 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005. Read more
03 May 1961: Leyla Zana, Kurdish activist and politician Leyla Zana is a Kurdish politician in Turkey. She was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism, which was deemed by the Turkish courts to be against the unity of the country. She was awarded the 1995 Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament but was unable to collect it until her release in 2004. She was also awarded the Rafto Prize in 1994 after being recognized by the Rafto Foundation for being incarcerated for her peaceful struggle for the human rights of the Kurdish people in Turkey and the neighbouring countries. Read more
03 May 1960: Kathy Smallwood-Cook, English sprinter and educator Kathryn Jane Cook is a former athlete, specialising in sprint and sprint relays. She is one of the most successful female sprinters in British athletics history. She is three-times an Olympic bronze medallist, including at 400 metres in Los Angeles 1984. Her other individual achievements include winning the 200m at the 1981 Universiade, finishing second in the 100m at the 1981 World Cup, and winning a bronze medal in the 200m at the 1983 World Championships. She is also three-times a winner of the British Athletics Writers' Association Female Athlete of the Year Award (1980–82). Cook held the UK National records for 100m, 200m and 400m for over 25 years. Read more
03 May 1959: Uma Bharti, Indian activist and politician, 16th Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharti is an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. She became involved with the Bharatiya Janata Party at a young age, unsuccessfully contesting her first parliamentary elections in 1984. In 1989, she successfully contested the Khajuraho seat, and retained it in elections conducted in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In 1999, she switched constituencies and won the Bhopal seat. Read more
03 May 1959: Ben Elton, English actor, director, and screenwriter Benjamin Charles Elton is a British comedian and writer. He has written and produced for television, radio, films, novels, theatre and musicals, and has performed as a stand-up comedian and on screen. One of the major figures in the alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, he used a style of left-wing political satire in his early stand-up comedy. Read more
03 May 1958: Bill Sienkiewicz, American author and illustrator Boleslav William Felix Robert Sienkiewicz is an American artist known for his work in comic books—particularly for Marvel Comics' The New Mutants, Moon Knight, and Elektra: Assassin. He is the co-creator of the character David Haller / Legion, the basis for the FX television series Legion. Read more
03 May 1958: Sandi Toksvig, Danish-English comedian, writer, and broadcaster Sandra Birgitte Toksvig is a Danish-British broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the now-defunct Women's Equality Party in 2015. She has written plays, novels and books for children. In 1994, she came out as a lesbian. Read more
03 May 1957: Rod Langway, Taiwanese-American ice hockey player and coach Rodney Cory Langway is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played for the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League (NHL) and Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association (WHA). He won the 1979 Stanley Cup with the Canadiens. Read more
03 May 1955: Stephen D. M. Brown, British geneticist Steve David Macleod Brown is a British geneticist and director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Mammalian Genetics Unit, MRC Harwell at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, a research centre on mouse genetics. In addition, he leads the Genetics and Pathobiology of Deafness research group. Read more
03 May 1955: David Hookes, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster (died 2004) David William Hookes was an Australian cricket player and coach. He played for the Australia national cricket team and domestic cricket for South Australia, later coaching Victoria. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in the middle order. His international career got off to a sensational start in the Centenary Test at Melbourne in 1977 when he hit England captain Tony Greig for five consecutive boundaries, but a combination of circumstances ensured that he never became a regular in the Australian team. He wrote in his autobiography, "I suspect history will judge me harshly as a batsman because of my modest record in 23 Tests and I can't complain about that". Read more
03 May 1954: Angela Bofill, American singer-songwriter (died 2024) Angela Tomasa Bofill was an American singer, songwriter and composer. A New York native, she began her professional career in the mid-1970s and is most known for singles such as "This Time I'll Be Sweeter", "Angel of the Night", and "I Try". Her career spanned over four decades. Read more
03 May 1952: Chuck Baldwin, American pastor and politician Charles Obadiah Baldwin is an American right-wing politician, radio host, and as founder he served as pastor of Independent Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. As of 2024 he is leading pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, Montana. He was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. presidential election and had previously been its nominee for vice president in 2004. He hosts a daily one-hour radio program, Chuck Baldwin Live, and writes a daily editorial column carried on its website, as well as on VDare. He is a former editor of NewsWithViews.com. Read more
03 May 1952: Joseph W. Tobin, American cardinal Joseph William Tobin is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. A member of the Redemptorist order, he has been the Archbishop of Newark since 2017. He previously served as the Archbishop of Indianapolis from 2012 to 2016 and as secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life from 2010 to 2012. He has been a cardinal since November 19, 2016. Read more
03 May 1951: Christopher Cross, American singer-songwriter and producer Christopher Cross is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
He won five Grammy Awards for his eponymous debut album released in 1979. The singles "Sailing" (1980), and "Arthur's Theme ", from the 1981 film Arthur, peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Read more
03 May 1951: Ashok Gehlot, Indian politician, 21st Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot is an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan from 1998 to December 2003, then again from 2008 to December 2013, and later from 2018 to December 2023. He represents Sardarpura constituency of Jodhpur as Member of Legislative Assembly of Rajasthan since 1998. He was a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Jodhpur from 1991 to 1998 and from 1980 to 1989 and Union Minister of State for Textile from 1991 to 1993, Tourism and Civil Aviation from 1984 to 1984 and Deputy Union minister for Sports from 1984 to 1984. He was also a national General secretary of Congress Party, in-charge of organisations and training from March 2018 to 23 January 2019. He was also made in-charge of Gujarat state in 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election. Read more
03 May 1951: Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian author and publicist Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstaya is a Russian writer, TV host, publicist, novelist, and essayist from the Tolstoy family. Read more
03 May 1950: Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer-songwriter Mary Hopkin, credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti from her marriage to Tony Visconti, is a Welsh singer best known for her 1968 UK number one single "Those Were the Days". She was one of the first artists to be signed to the Beatles' Apple label. Read more
03 May 1949: Liam Donaldson, English physician and academic Sir Liam Joseph Donaldson is a British physician. He was formerly the Chief Medical Officer for England, being the 15th occupant of the post since it was established in 1855. As such, he was principal advisor to the United Kingdom Government on health matters and one of the most senior officials in the National Health Service (NHS). Read more
03 May 1949: Ron Wyden, American academic and politician Ronald Lee Wyden is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Oregon, a seat he has held since 1996. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until 1996. Upon the death of Representative Don Young in 2022, Wyden became the dean of the West Coast's Congressional delegation. He is the dean of Oregon's congressional delegation and serves as the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. Known for his libertarian-leaning stances within the Democratic Party, Wyden has been a prominent advocate for privacy rights, internet freedom, and limiting government surveillance, positioning him as a defender of civil liberties. Read more
03 May 1948: Denis Cosgrove, British-American academic and geographer (died 2008) Denis Edmund Cosgrove was a British cultural geographer. He taught at Oxford Polytechnic, Loughborough University, Royal Holloway, University of London, where he rose to become dean of the graduate school, and finally at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1998, he received the prestigious Back Award from the Royal Geographical Society. Read more
03 May 1947: Doug Henning, Canadian magician (died 2000) Douglas James Henning was a Canadian magician, illusionist, escape artist and politician. Read more
03 May 1946: Norm Chow, American football player and coach Norman Yew Heen Chow is an American football coach and former player who is an offensive analyst for the Vienna Vikings of the European League of Football (ELF). He was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a position he held from December 2011 until November 2015 and previously held the offensive coordinator position for the Utah Utes, UCLA Bruins, the NFL's Tennessee Titans, USC Trojans, NC State Wolfpack, and BYU Cougars. Read more
03 May 1946: Greg Gumbel, American sportscaster (died 2024) Gregory Girard Gumbel was an American television sportscaster. He was best known for his various assignments for CBS Sports. Gumbel became the first African-American announcer to call play-by-play of a major sports championship in the United States when he announced Super Bowl XXXV for the CBS network in 2001. From 1998 through 2023, Gumbel was the studio host for CBS' men's college basketball coverage and was a play-by-play broadcaster for the NFL on CBS. Read more
03 May 1945: Davey Lopes, American baseball player, coach, and manager David Earl Lopes was an American second baseman, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for four teams from 1972 to 1987, best known for his ten seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he was part of the most durable infield in major league history. The team won four National League (NL) pennants during his tenure, culminating with the 1981 World Series title. A four-time All-Star, he led the NL in stolen bases in 1975 and 1976. In 1978 he played a major role in the Dodgers posting the league's best record, batting .324 over the season's last 5+1⁄2 weeks and earning his only Gold Glove Award. He then batted .389 with a pair of home runs in the NL Championship Series to help the team repeat as league champions, and hit .308 with three home runs in the World Series loss to the New York Yankees. Read more
03 May 1943: Jim Risch, American lawyer and politician, 31st Governor of Idaho James Elroy Risch is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Idaho since 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he served as lieutenant governor of Idaho under governors Dirk Kempthorne and Butch Otter, and briefly as governor between their terms. Read more
03 May 1943: Vicente Saldivar, Mexican boxer (died 1985) Vicente Samuel Saldívar García was a Mexican professional boxer who competed between 1961 and 1973. He was a two-time featherweight champion, having held the WBA, WBC, and The Ring titles from 1964 until his retirement in 1967. He came back and once again held the WBC and The Ring titles in 1970. Saldivar has frequently been ranked amongst the greatest in the history of that division by many noted boxing historians and critics. He currently holds the record for the most wins in unified featherweight title bouts and the longest unified featherweight championship reign in boxing history at 8 title bouts and 7 title defenses respectively. Saldívar fought in front of the fourth largest crowd ever, 90,000 in Estadio Azteca, and has also regularly been cited as one of the finest left-handed fighters of all time. Read more
03 May 1942: Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast and coach (died 2016) Věra Čáslavská was a Czechoslovak artistic gymnast and Czech sports official. She won a total of 22 international titles between 1959 and 1968 including seven Olympic gold medals, four world titles and eleven European championships. Čáslavská is the most decorated Czech gymnast in history and is one of only three female gymnasts, along with the Soviet Larisa Latynina and American Simone Biles, to win the all-around gold medal at two Olympics. She remains the only gymnast, male or female, to have won an Olympic gold medal in each individual event. She was also the first gymnast to achieve a perfect 10 at a major competition in the post-1952 era. She held the record for the most individual gold medals among all female athletes in Olympic history as well until it was surpassed by swimmer Katie Ledecky in 2024 after 56 years. Read more
03 May 1942: Butch Otter, American soldier and politician, 32nd Governor of Idaho Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter is an American businessman and politician who served as the 32nd governor of Idaho from 2007 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2006, and re-elected in 2010 and 2014. Otter served as lieutenant governor from 1987 to 2001 and in Congress from 2001 to 2007. Read more
03 May 1941: Nona Gaprindashvili, Georgian chess player, Women's World Champion, 1962-1978 Nona Gaprindashvili is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. Noted for her aggressive style of play, she was the women's world chess champion from 1962 to 1978, and in 1978 was the first woman ever to be awarded the FIDE title of Grandmaster. She was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Presidential Order of Excellence in 2015. Read more
03 May 1940: David Koch, American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist (died 2019) David Hamilton Koch was an American businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and chemical engineer. In 1970, he joined the family business: Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in the United States. He became president of the subsidiary Koch Engineering in 1979 and became a co-owner of Koch Industries in 1983. Koch served as an executive vice president of Koch Industries until he retired due to health issues in 2018. Read more
03 May 1940: Clemens Westerhof, Dutch footballer and manager Clemens Westerhof is a Dutch football manager, who has worked in various football positions on the African continent since 1989. Read more
03 May 1938: Omar Abdel-Rahman, Egyptian terrorist (died 2017) Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, , commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist and jihadist militant who served a life sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Butner near Butner, North Carolina, United States. Formerly a resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995. His prosecution grew out of investigations of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Read more
03 May 1935: Ron Popeil, American businessman, founded the Ronco Company (died 2021) Ronald Martin Popeil was an American inventor and marketing personality, and founder of the direct response marketing company Ronco. He made appearances in infomercials for the Showtime Rotisserie and coined the phrase "Set it, and forget it!" as well as popularizing the phrase, "But wait, there's more!" on television as early as the mid-1950s. Read more
03 May 1934: Henry Cooper, English boxer and sportscaster (died 2011) Sir Henry Cooper was a British professional boxer. He was undefeated in British and Commonwealth heavyweight championship contests for twelve years and held the European heavyweight title for three years. In a 1963 fight against Cassius Clay, he knocked Clay down in round 4, before the fight was stopped by the referee, Tommy Little, in round 5 because of a cut to Cooper's left eye. Read more
03 May 1934: Georges Moustaki, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013) Georges Moustaki was an Egyptian-French singer-songwriter of Greek-Jewish origin. He wrote about 300 songs for some of the most popular singers in France, including Édith Piaf, Dalida, Françoise Hardy, Yves Montand, Barbara, Brigitte Fontaine, Herbert Pagani, France Gall, Cindy Daniel, Juliette Gréco, Pia Colombo, and Tino Rossi, as well as for himself. Read more
03 May 1934: Frankie Valli, American singer and actor Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist of the Four Seasons. He is known for his unusually powerful falsetto voice. Read more
03 May 1933: James Brown, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (died 2006) James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by various nicknames, among them "Mr. Dynamite", "the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business", "Minister of New Super Heavy Funk", "Godfather of Soul", "King of Soul", and "Soul Brother No. 1". In a career that lasted more than 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres. Brown was one of the first ten inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986. His music has been heavily sampled by hip-hop musicians and other artists. Read more
03 May 1933: Steven Weinberg, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2021) Steven Weinberg was an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current". Read more
03 May 1932: Robert Osborne, American actor and historian (died 2017) Robert Jolin Osborne was an American film historian, author, actor and the primary television host for the premium cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) for over twenty years. Read more
03 May 1930: Juan Gelman, Argentinian poet and author (died 2014) Juan Gelman was an Argentine poet. He published more than twenty books of poetry between 1956 and his death in early 2014. He was a naturalized citizen of Mexico, where he arrived as a political exile of the Process, the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Read more
03 May 1929: Helen Walulik, American baseball player (died 2012) Helen Kiely was a pitcher and an outfield/infield utility who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m), 121 lb, she batted and threw right-handed. Read more
03 May 1928: Dave Dudley, American singer-songwriter (died 2003) Dave Dudley was an American country music singer best known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s and his somewhat-slurred bass. His signature song was "Six Days on the Road", and he is also remembered for "Vietnam Blues", "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun", and "Me and Ol' C.B.". His other recordings include a duet with Tom T. Hall, "Day Drinking", and his own top-10 hit, "Fireball Rolled a Seven", supposedly based on the career and death of Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts. Read more
03 May 1928: Jacques-Louis Lions, French mathematician (died 2001) Jacques-Louis Lions was a French mathematician who made contributions to the theory of partial differential equations and to stochastic control, among other areas. He received the SIAM's John von Neumann Lecture prize in 1986 and numerous other distinctions. Lions is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher. Read more
03 May 1925: Marilyn Fisher Lundy, American businesswoman and philanthropist (died 2014) Marilyn Fisher Lundy was an American businesswoman and philanthropist. As the CEO and president of the League of Catholic Women, Lundy led the development of several organizations for women and children within Michigan, including educational institutions. Read more
03 May 1924: Yehuda Amichai, German-Israeli author and poet (died 2000) Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew in modern times. Yehuda Amichai, the poet of everyday life, love, and death, is the most internationally renowned Israeli poet. His 17 books have been translated into more than 20 languages, including Chinese and Japanese. He was a people's poet who believed that his poetry should reflect ordinary life. As he once said, "I am also living among the dead." He changed his last name to "Amichai," meaning "My nation lives." Read more
03 May 1924: Ken Tyrrell, English race car driver, founded Tyrrell Racing (died 2001) Robert Kenneth Tyrrell was a British Formula Two racing driver and the founder of the Tyrrell Formula One constructor. Read more
03 May 1923: Ralph Hall, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (died 2019) Ralph Moody Hall was an American politician who served as the United States representative for Texas's 4th congressional district from 1981 to 2015. He was first elected in 1980, and was the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology from 2011 to 2013. He was also a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. In 2004, he switched to the Republican Party after having been a member of the Democratic Party for more than 50 years. Read more
03 May 1922: Len Shackleton, English footballer and journalist (died 2000) Leonard Francis Shackleton was an English footballer. Known as the "Clown Prince of Football", he is generally regarded as one of English football's finest ever entertainers. He also played cricket in the Minor Counties for Northumberland. Read more
03 May 1921: Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (died 1989) Walker Smith Jr., better known as Sugar Ray Robinson, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is often regarded as the greatest boxer of all time, pound-for-pound, and is ranked as such by BoxRec as of April 2025. Read more
03 May 1920: John Lewis, American pianist and composer (died 2001) John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, best known as the founder and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Read more
03 May 1919: Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (died 2014) Peter Seeger was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and left-wing social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, especially their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, workers' rights, counterculture, environmental causes, and ending the Vietnam War. Read more
03 May 1918: Ted Bates, English footballer and manager (died 2003) Edric Thornton Bates MBE was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. He spent the majority of his career at Southampton F.C. as a player, manager, director and president which earned him the sobriquet "Mr. Southampton". Read more
03 May 1917: Betty Comden, American screenwriter and librettist (died 2006) Betty Comden was an American lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter who contributed to numerous Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green spanned six decades: "the longest running creative partnership in theatre history." The musical-comedy duo of Comden and Green collaborated most notably with composers Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein, as well enjoyed success with Singin' in the Rain, as part of the famed "Freed unit" at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Read more
03 May 1917: George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor (died 2016) George Gaynes was a Dutch-American singer, actor, and voice artist. Born to a Dutch father and a Russian mother in the Grand Duchy of Finland of the Russian Empire, he served in the Royal Netherlands Navy during World War II, and subsequently emigrated to the United States, where he became a citizen and began his acting career on Broadway. Read more
03 May 1917: Kiro Gligorov, Macedonian politician and first president of the Republic of Macedonia (died 2012) Kiro Gligorov was a Macedonian and Yugoslav statesman, economist, and politician who served as the first president of the Republic of Macedonia from 1991 to 1999. He was born and raised in Štip, where he was also educated. He continued his education in Skopje and graduated in law in Belgrade. During World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia, he worked as a lawyer and participated in the partisan resistance. By the end of the war, he was an organiser of the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia, the predecessor of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as a federal Yugoslav state. Read more
03 May 1915: Stu Hart, Canadian wrestler and trainer, founded Stampede Wrestling (died 2003) Stewart Edward Hart was a Canadian amateur and professional wrestler, wrestling booker, promoter, and coach. He is best known for founding and handling Stampede Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta, teaching many individuals at its associated wrestling school "The Dungeon" and establishing a professional wrestling dynasty consisting of his relatives and close trainees. As the patriarch of the Hart wrestling family, Hart is the ancestor of many wrestlers, most notably being the father of Bret and Owen Hart as well as the grandfather of Natalya Neidhart, Teddy Hart and Harry Smith. Read more
03 May 1914: Georges-Emmanuel Clancier, French journalist, author, and poet (died 2018) Georges-Emmanuel Clancier was a French poet, novelist, and journalist. He won the Prix Goncourt (poetry), the Grand Prize of the Académie française, and the grand prize of the Société des gens de lettres. Read more
03 May 1913: William Inge, American playwright and novelist (died 1973) William Motter Inge was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. With his portraits of small-town life and settings rooted in the American heartland, Inge became known as the "Playwright of the Midwest". Read more
03 May 1912: Virgil Fox, American organist and composer (died 1980) Virgil Keel Fox was an American organist, known especially for his years as organist at Riverside Church in New York City, from 1946 to 1965, and his flamboyant "Heavy Organ" concerts of the music of Bach in the 1970s, staged complete with light shows. Many of his recordings on the RCA Victor and Capitol labels, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, have been remastered and re-released on compact disc. Read more
03 May 1912: May Sarton, American poet, novelist and memoirist (died 1995) May Sarton was the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton, a Belgian and American novelist, poet, and memoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalized with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of "lesbian writer", preferring to convey the universality of human love. Read more
03 May 1910: Norman Corwin, American screenwriter and producer (died 2011) Norman Lewis Corwin was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest successes were in the writing and directing of radio drama during the 1930s and 1940s. Read more
03 May 1906: Mary Astor, American actress (died 1987) Mary Astor was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Read more
03 May 1906: Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American journalist and author (died 1975) Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Halsted was an American writer who worked as a newspaper editor and in public relations. Halsted also wrote two children's books published in the 1930s. She was the eldest child and only daughter of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Halsted assisted her father as his advisor during World War II. Read more
03 May 1905: Red Ruffing, American baseball pitcher and coach (died 1986) Charles Herbert "Red" Ruffing was an American professional baseball player. A pitcher, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1924 through 1947. He played for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Chicago White Sox in a Hall of Fame career. Ruffing is most remembered for his time with the highly successful Yankees teams of the 1930s and 1940s. Read more
03 May 1903: Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (died 1977) Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. was an American singer and actor. One of the first multimedia stars, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. Crosby was a leader in record sales, network radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He was one of the first global cultural icons. Crosby made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs. Read more
03 May 1902: Alfred Kastler, German-French physicist and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1984) Alfred Kastler was a German-born French physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics. He is known for the development of optical pumping. Read more
03 May 1898: Septima Poinsette Clark, American educator and activist (died 1987) Septima Poinsette Clark was an African American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. Septima Clark's work was commonly under-appreciated by Southern male activists. She became known as the "Queen Mother" or "Grandmother" of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. commonly referred to Clark as "The Mother of the Movement". Clark's argument for her position in the Civil Rights Movement was one that claimed "knowledge could empower marginalized groups in ways that formal legal equality couldn't." Read more
03 May 1898: Golda Meir, Ukrainian-Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (died 1978) Golda Meir was the prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and, to date, only female head of government. Read more
03 May 1897: William Joseph Browne, Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Solicitor General of Canada (died 1989) William Joseph Browne, was a Canadian lawyer, judge and politician. He served in the Newfoundland House of Assembly and the House of Commons of Canada. Read more
03 May 1896: Karl Allmenröder, German soldier and pilot (died 1917) Leutnant Karl Allmenröder was a German World War I flying ace credited with 30 aerial victories. The medical student son of a preacher father was seasoned in the trenches as an 18-year-old artilleryman in the early days of the First World War, earning promotion via battlefield commission to Leutnant on 30 March 1915. After transferring to aviation and serving some time as an artillery spotter in two-seater reconnaissance airplanes, he transferred to flying fighter aircraft with Jagdstaffel 11 in November 1916. As Manfred von Richthofen's protege, Karl Allmenröder scored the first of his 30 confirmed victories on 16 February 1917. Flying a scarlet Albatros D.III trimmed out with white nose and elevators, Allmenröder would score a constant string of aerial victories until 26 June 1917, the day before his death. On 27 June 1917, Karl Allmenröder was shot down near Zillebeke, Belgium. His posthumous legacy of patriotic courage would later be abused as propaganda by the Nazis. Read more
03 May 1896: V. K. Krishna Menon, Indian lawyer, jurist, and politician, Indian Minister of Defence (died 1974) Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon was an Indian academic, independence activist, politician, lawyer, and statesman. Menon contributed to the Indian independence movement and India's foreign relations. He was among the major architects of Indian foreign policy, was India's first High Commissioner to United Kingdom and later India's Defence Minister. Read more
03 May 1896: Dodie Smith, English author and playwright (died 1990) Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith was an English novelist and playwright. She is best known for writing I Capture the Castle (1948) and the children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956). Other works include Dear Octopus (1938) and The Starlight Barking (1967). The Hundred and One Dalmatians was adapted into a 1961 animated film and a 1996 live-action film, both produced by Disney. Her novel I Capture the Castle was voted number 82 as "one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels" by the British public as part of the BBC's The Big Read (2003), and was adapted into a film released the same year. Read more
03 May 1895: Cornelius Van Til, Dutch philosopher, theologian, and apologist (died 1987) Cornelius Van Til was a Dutch-American Reformed theologian, who is credited as being the originator of modern presuppositional apologetics. Read more
03 May 1893: Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian author (died 1975) Konstantine Gamsakhurdia was a Georgian writer and public figure. Educated and first published in Germany, he married Western European influences to purely Georgian thematic to produce his best works, such as The Right Hand of the Grand Master and David the Builder. Hostile to the Soviet rule, he was, nevertheless, one of the few leading Georgian writers to have survived the Stalin-era repressions, despite exile to a White Sea island and several arrests. His works are noted for their character portrayals of great psychological insight. Another major feature of Gamsakhurdia's writings is a new subtlety he infused into Georgian diction, imitating an archaic language to create a sense of classicism. Read more
03 May 1892: George Paget Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975) Sir George Paget Thomson was a British experimental physicist who shared the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics with Clinton Davisson "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals." His father, J. J. Thomson, won the Nobel Prize in 1906 "for his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases". It has been said that the elder Thomson won the Nobel for showing the electron is a particle, the younger for showing it is a wave. Read more
03 May 1892: Jacob Viner, Canadian-American economist and academic (died 1970) Jacob Viner was a Canadian economist and is considered with Frank Knight and Henry Simons to be one of the "inspiring" mentors of the early Chicago school of economics in the 1930s: he was one of the leading figures of the Chicago faculty. Paul Samuelson named Viner as one of the several "American saints in economics" born after 1860. He was an important figure in the field of political economy. Read more
03 May 1891: Tadeusz Peiper, Polish poet and critic (died 1969) Tadeusz Peiper was a Polish poet, art critic, theoretician of literature and one of the precursors of the avant-garde movement in Polish poetry. Born to a Jewish family, Peiper converted to Catholicism as a young man and spent several years in Spain. He was a co-founder of the Awangarda krakowska group of writers. Read more
03 May 1891: Eppa Rixey, American baseball pitcher (died 1963) Eppa Rixey Jr., nicknamed "Jephtha", was an American baseball player who played 21 seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball from 1912 to 1933 as a left-handed pitcher. Rixey was best known as the National League's leader in career victories for a left-hander with 266 wins until Warren Spahn surpassed his total in 1959. Read more
03 May 1889: Beulah Bondi, American actress (died 1981) Beulah Bondi was an American character actress; she often played eccentric mothers and later grandmothers and wives, although she was known for numerous other roles. She began her acting career as a young child in theater in the late 19th Century, and after establishing herself as a Broadway stage actress in 1925, she reprised her role in Street Scene for the 1931 film version. Read more
03 May 1889: Gottfried Fuchs, German-Canadian Olympic soccer player (died 1972) Gottfried Erik Fuchs, also known as Godfrey Fuchs, was a German Olympic footballer. He scored a then-world record 10 goals for the Germany national team in a 16–0 win against Russia at the 1912 Olympics. He left Germany to escape the Holocaust, as he was Jewish, and ultimately emigrated to Canada. Read more
03 May 1887: Marika Kotopouli, Greek actress (died 1954) Marika Kotopouli was a Greek stage actress during the first half of the 20th century. Read more
03 May 1886: Marcel Dupré, French organist and composer (died 1971) Marcel Jean-Jules Dupré was a French organist, composer, and pedagogue. Read more
03 May 1879: Fergus McMaster, Australian businessman and soldier, co-founded Qantas (died 1950) Sir Fergus McMaster was an Australian businessman and aviation pioneer. He was one of the three founders of the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited, the airline company that became commonly known by its acronym, Qantas. Read more
03 May 1877: Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst and author (died 1925) Karl Abraham was an influential German psychoanalyst, and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud, who called him his 'best pupil'. Read more
03 May 1874: François Coty, French businessman and publisher, founded Coty (died 1934) François Coty was a French perfumer, businessman, newspaper publisher, politician and patron of the arts. He was the founder of the Coty perfume company, today a multinational. He is considered the founding father of the modern perfume industry. Read more
03 May 1874: Vagn Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer and academic (died 1954) Vagn Walfrid Ekman was a Swedish oceanographer. Read more
03 May 1873: Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine (died 1945) Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadsky was a Ukrainian aristocrat, military leader and statesman who served as the hetman of the Ukrainian State throughout 1918 following a coup d'état on 29 April, of the same year. However, he would abdicate on 14 December. Read more
03 May 1871: Emmett Dalton, American criminal (died 1937) Emmett Dalton was an American outlaw, train robber and member of the Dalton Gang in the American Old West. Part of a gang that attempted to rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas, on October 5, 1892, he was the only member of five to survive, despite receiving 23 gunshot wounds. Two of his brothers were killed. After serving 14 years in prison for the crime, Dalton was pardoned. He later capitalized on his notoriety, both as a writer and as an actor. His 1918 serial story Beyond the Law was adapted as a like-named silent film in which he played himself. His 1931 book When the Daltons Rode was adapted after his death as a 1940 film of the same name. Read more
03 May 1870: Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (died 1948) Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, informally known by her family as Thora, was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. From July 1917, she was addressed simply as Princess Helena Victoria. Read more
03 May 1867: Andy Bowen, American boxer (died 1894) Andy Bowen was an American lightweight boxer best known for fighting the world's longest boxing match, which took place in 1893 against Jack Burke. Read more
03 May 1867: J. T. Hearne, English cricketer (died 1944) John Thomas Hearne was a Middlesex and England medium-fast bowler. His aggregate of 3061 first-class wickets is the greatest for any bowler of medium pace or above, and his 257 wickets in 1896 is the tenth highest total on record. In 1891, 1896, 1898, 1904 and 1910 Hearne headed the first-class bowling averages. Read more
03 May 1860: Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (died 1940) Vito Volterra was an Italian mathematician and physicist, known for his contributions to mathematical biology and integral equations, being one of the founders of functional analysis. Read more
03 May 1859: August Herrmann, American executive in Major League Baseball (died 1931) August "Garry" Herrmann was an American political operative for Cincinnati political boss George B. Cox, an executive of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, and president of the National Baseball Commission. In 1946, he was named in the Honor Rolls of Baseball. Read more
03 May 1854: George Gore, American baseball player and manager (died 1933) George F. Gore, nicknamed "Piano Legs", was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for 14 seasons, eight for the Chicago White Stockings, five for the New York Giants, one for the St. Louis Browns (1892) of the National League (NL), and the New York Giants of the Players' League (1890). Read more
03 May 1849: Jacob Riis, Danish-American journalist and photographer (died 1914) Jacob August Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, "muck-raking" journalist, and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in the United States of America at the turn of the twentieth century. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. Read more
03 May 1849: Bernhard von Bülow, German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (died 1929) Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin, Prince of Bülow was a German politician who served as the imperial chancellor of the German Empire and minister-president of Prussia from 1900 to 1909. A fervent supporter of Weltpolitik, Bülow devoted his chancellorship to transforming Germany into a global power. Despite presiding over sustained economic growth and major scientific breakthroughs within his country, his government's bellicose foreign policy did much to antagonize France, Great Britain and Russia thereby significantly contributing to the outbreak of World War I. Read more
03 May 1844: Richard D'Oyly Carte, English talent agent and composer (died 1901) Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establishing an opera company that ran continuously for over a hundred years and a management agency representing some of the most important artists of the day. Read more
03 May 1826: Charles XV of Sweden (died 1872) Charles XV and IV was King of Sweden and King of Norway, there often referred to as Charles IV, from 8 July 1859 until his death in 1872. Charles was the third Swedish monarch from the House of Bernadotte. He was the first one to be born in Sweden, the first to grow up speaking Swedish as his first language, and the first to be raised from birth in the Lutheran faith. Read more
03 May 1814: Adams George Archibald, Canadian lawyer and politician, 4th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (died 1892) Sir Adams George Archibald was a Canadian lawyer and politician, and a Father of Confederation. He was based in Nova Scotia for most of his career, though he also served as first Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba from 1870 to 1872. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 03 May in World History

03 May 2024: Dick Rutan, American military aviator and officer (born 1938) Richard Glenn Rutan was an American military aviator and officer, as well as a record-breaking test pilot who in 1986 piloted the Voyager aircraft on the first non-stop, non-refueled around-the-world flight with co-pilot Jeana Yeager. He was the older brother of famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan, whose many earlier original designs Dick piloted on class record-breaking flights, including Voyager. Read more
03 May 2021: Lloyd Price, American R&B vocalist (born 1933) Lloyd Price was an American R&B and rock and roll singer known as "Mr. Personality" after his 1959 million-selling hit, "Personality". His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", was a hit for Specialty Records in 1952. He continued to release records, but none were as popular until several years later, when he refined the New Orleans beat and achieved a series of national hits. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Read more
03 May 2020: Victoria Barbă, Moldovan animated film director (born 1926) Victoria Ivanovna Barbă was a Moldovan animated film director, focused on movies for children. Having been born in modern Russia, she studied in Saint Petersburg and then in Chișinău, today in Moldova. She had a productive career, with an extensive filmography and numerous earned distinctions. Read more
03 May 2020: Dave Greenfield, English rock keyboardist (born 1949) David Paul Greenfield was an English keyboardist, singer and songwriter who was a member of rock band the Stranglers. He joined the band in 1975, within a year of its formation, and played with them for 45 years until his death. Read more
03 May 2017: Daliah Lavi, Israeli actress, singer and model (born 1942) Daliah Lavi was an Israeli actress, singer, and model. Read more
03 May 2016: Ian Deans, Canadian politician (born 1937) Ian Deans was a Scottish-Canadian politician. He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1979 and was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1980 to 1986. Read more
03 May 2016: Jadranka Stojaković, Yugoslav singer-songwriter (born 1950) Jadranka Stojaković was a Bosnian singer-songwriter popular in the former Yugoslavia, known for her unique voice. Her best known hits are "Sve smo mogli mi", "Što te nema", and "Bistre vode Bosnom teku". Read more
03 May 2015: Revaz Chkheidze, Georgian director and screenwriter (born 1926) Revaz "Rezo" Chkheidze was a Georgian film director, People's Artist of the USSR, best known for his Soviet-era drama films, including his 1964 World War II-themed Father of a Soldier. Read more
03 May 2015: Danny Jones, Welsh rugby player (born 1986) Danny Jones was a Wales international rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He played at club level for Halifax, and the Keighley Cougars, as a stand-off or scrum-half. Read more
03 May 2015: Warren Smith, American golfer and coach (born 1915) Warren F. Smith, Jr. was an American professional golfer. Read more
03 May 2014: Gary Becker, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1930) Gary Stanley Becker was an American economist who received the 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, and was a leader of the third generation of the Chicago school of economics. Read more
03 May 2014: Francisco Icaza, Mexican painter (born 1930) Francisco Icaza was a Mexican artist best known for his drawings about his travels and his oil paintings. He spent much of his life living in and visiting various countries around the world. He began painting as a child while living as a refugee in the Mexican embassy in Germany. Icaza exhibited his work both in Mexico and abroad in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia and India, most notably at his three major solo exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. He also painted a mural dedicated to Bertolt Brecht, La Farándula, at the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca, a focus of controversy when the work was moved and restored in the early 2000s. He painted additional murals for the Mexican Pavilion at the HemisFair in Texas ; for the Mexican Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada ; and for the Mexican Pavilion in Osaka at Expo '70. This last mural is held at the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez in Zacatecas City. He was an active member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and also a member and founder of several important Mexican artistic movements including Los Interioristas, El Salón Independiente, and La Confrontación 66. Read more
03 May 2014: Jim Oberstar, American educator and politician (born 1934) James Louis Oberstar was an American politician and congressman who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2011. Hailing from Minnesota and a member of the state's local Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, he represented the northeastern eighth congressional district, which included the cities of Duluth, Brainerd, Grand Rapids, International Falls, and Hibbing, within an area of Minnesota known as the Iron Range. He chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2007 until his departure, having been the ranking minority member since 1995. In November 2010, he was defeated by a margin of 4,407 votes by Republican Chip Cravaack. He had the longest tenure of any Congressman from Minnesota. Read more
03 May 2013: Joe Astroth, American baseball player (born 1922) Joseph Henry Astroth was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and remained with the team when they moved west and became the Kansas City Athletics in 1955. He batted and threw right-handed, stood 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and weighed 187 pounds (85 kg). Read more
03 May 2013: Herbert Blau, American engineer and academic (born 1926) Herbert Blau was an American director and theoretician of performance. He was named the Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor in the Humanities at the University of Washington. Read more
03 May 2013: Cedric Brooks, Jamaican-American saxophonist and flute player (born 1943) Cedric Roy "Im" Brooks was a Jamaican saxophonist and flautist known for his solo recordings and as a founding member of The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, The Sound Dimensions, Divine Light, The Light of Saba, United Africa, and The Skatalites. Read more
03 May 2013: Keith Carter, American swimmer and soldier (born 1924) Keith Eyre Carter was an American competition swimmer, a six time All American, an Olympic silver medalist and world record holder in the 200 yard breaststroke. Read more
03 May 2013: Brad Drewett, Australian tennis player and sportscaster (born 1958) Brad Drewett was an Australian tennis player and ATP official. He was the 1975 and 1977 Australian Open junior champion and the youngest player at age 17 to win the title since Ken Rosewall and John Newcombe. He was also the third-youngest Australian Open quarterfinalist in his first Grand Slam appearance, at 17 years 5 months in 1975, behind Boris Becker, 17 years 4 days in 1984 and Goran Ivanišević, 17 years 4 months in 1989. Read more
03 May 2013: David Morris Kern, American pharmacist, co-invented Orajel (born 1909)
David Morris Kern was an American pharmacist and businessman. Kern developed and co-invented Orajel, a topical medication applied to relieve pain from toothaches and mouth sores. Read more
03 May 2013: Curtis Rouse, American football player (born 1960) Curtis Lamar Rouse was an American professional football offensive lineman who played six seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Minnesota Vikings and the San Diego Chargers. Read more
03 May 2013: Branko Vukelić, Croatian politician, 11th Minister of Defence for Croatia (born 1958) Branko Vukelić was a Croatian politician who served as Minister of Defence of Croatia from 2008 to 2010 and as Minister of the Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship from 2003 to 2008. He was one of the most prominent political figures from the city of Karlovac during the 1990s and 2000s. Read more
03 May 2012: Jorge Illueca, Panamanian politician, 30th President of Panama (born 1918) Jorge Enrique Illueca Sibauste was a Panamanian politician and diplomat who served as 25th President of Panama in 1984. Read more
03 May 2012: Felix Werder, German-Australian composer, conductor, and critic (born 1922)

Felix Werder AM was a German-born Australian composer of classical and electronic music, and also a noted critic and educator. The son of a distinguished liturgical composer, he composed all his life. His published and recorded music includes symphonies, chamber music for all combinations, solo concerti, choral works and operas. Read more
03 May 2011: Jackie Cooper, American actor, television director, producer and executive (born 1922) John Cooper Jr., known professionally as Jackie Cooper, was an American actor and director. He began his career as a child actor and was a featured member of the Our Gang ensemble 1929–1931. At age nine, he became the only child and youngest person nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for the 1931 film Skippy. He then successfully transitioned to adolescent roles in the 1930s and adult roles from 1940 on. Read more
03 May 2011: Sergo Kotrikadze, Georgian footballer and manager (born 1936) Sergo (Sergei) Parmenovich Kotrikadze was a Georgian association footballer from the former Soviet Union who played for FC Dinamo Tbilisi and FC Torpedo Kutaisi. He was part of the USSR's squad for the 1962 FIFA World Cup, but did not win any caps, although he played in two Olympic qualifiers. Read more
03 May 2011: Thanasis Veggos, Greek actor and director (born 1927) Thanasis Veggos was a Greek actor and director born in Neo Faliro, Piraeus. He performed in around 130 films, predominantly comedies in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, starring in more than 50 among them. He is considered one of the best Greek comedy actors of all time. His famous comedic catchphrase was Καλέ μου άνθρωπε. Read more
03 May 2010: Roy Carrier, American accordion player (born 1947) Joseph Roy Carrier Sr., known professionally as Roy Carrier, was an American Zydeco musician. He was the father of Chubby and Dikki Du Carrier, who followed their father into Zydeco music and the brother of Zydeco T Carrier Read more
03 May 2010: Peter O'Donnell, English soldier and author (born 1920) Peter O'Donnell was an English writer of mysteries and of comic strips, best known as the creator of Modesty Blaise, an action heroine/undercover trouble-shooter. He was also a gothic historical romance novelist who wrote under the female pseudonym Madeleine Brent; in 1978, his novel Merlin's Keep won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award of the Romantic Novelists' Association. Read more
03 May 2010: Guenter Wendt, German-American engineer (born 1923) Günter F. Wendt was a German-born American mechanical engineer noted for his work in the U.S. human spaceflight program. An employee of McDonnell Aircraft and later North American Aviation, he was in charge of the spacecraft close-out crews at the launch pads for the entire Mercury and Gemini programs (1961–1966) and the crewed phases of the Apollo, Skylab, and Apollo–Soyuz programs (1968–1975) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). His official title was Pad Leader. Read more
03 May 2009: Renée Morisset, Canadian pianist (born 1928) Renée Morisset, was a Canadian pianist. She and her husband, Victor Bouchard, were one of the foremost piano duos in Canadian classical music. Read more
03 May 2009: Ram Balkrushna Shewalkar, Indian author and critic (born 1931)

Ram Balkrushna Shewalkar was a Marathi orator, writer, and literary critic from Maharashtra, India. Read more
03 May 2008: Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish engineer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1926) Leopoldo Ramón Pedro Calvo-Sotelo y Bustelo, 1st Marquess of Ría de Ribadeo, was a Spanish civil engineer and politician. He was Prime Minister of Spain during 1981 and 1982. Read more
03 May 2007: Warja Honegger-Lavater, Swiss illustrator (born 1913) Warja Lavater was born in Winterthur, Switzerland. She was a Swiss artist and illustrator noted primarily for working in the artist's books genre by creating accordion fold books that re-tell classic fairy tales with symbols rather than words. Read more
03 May 2007: Wally Schirra, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (born 1923) Walter Marty Schirra Jr. was an American naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. In 1959, he became one of the original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury, which was the United States' first effort to put humans into space. On October 3, 1962, he flew the six-orbit, nine-hour, Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, in a spacecraft he nicknamed Sigma 7, becoming the fifth American and ninth human to travel into space. In December 1965, as part of the two-man Gemini program, he achieved the first space rendezvous, station-keeping his Gemini 6A spacecraft within 1 foot (30 cm) of the sister Gemini 7 spacecraft. In October 1968, he commanded Apollo 7, an 11-day low Earth orbit shakedown test of the three-man Apollo Command/Service Module and the first crewed launch for the Apollo program. Read more
03 May 2007: Knock Yokoyama, Japanese politician (born 1932) Knock Yokoyama was a Japanese politician and comedian. Read more
03 May 2006: Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet (born 1921) Christiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement CoBrA in 1948. He was also an avid sculptor and has had works featured in MoMA and other museums worldwide. Read more
03 May 2006: Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician (born 1949) Pramod Venkatesh Mahajan was an Indian politician from Maharashtra. A second-generation leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he belonged to a group of relatively young "technocratic" leaders. At the time of his death, he was in a power struggle against Nitin Gadkari for the leadership of the BJP, given the imminent retirement of its aging top brass. Read more
03 May 2006: Earl Woods, American colonel, baseball player, and author (born 1932) Earl Dennison Woods was a U.S. Army infantry officer and father of American professional golfer Tiger Woods. Woods started his son in golf at a very early age and coached him exclusively over his first years in the sport. He later published two books about the process. Read more
03 May 2004: Ken Downing, English race car driver (born 1917) Kenneth Henry Downing was a British racing driver. From a wealthy family connected to G.H. Downing & Co., he began racing as a privateer in the late 1940s, and with Connaught in 1951, winning 17 races throughout the year. He then competed in the 1952 Formula One championship. Read more
03 May 2004: Darrell Johnson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1928) Darrell Dean Johnson was an American professional catcher, coach, manager and scout in Major League Baseball (MLB). As a manager, he led the 1975 Boston Red Sox to the American League pennant, and was named "Manager of the Year" by both The Sporting News and the Associated Press. Read more
03 May 2003: Suzy Parker, American model and actress (born 1932) Suzy Parker was an American model and actress active from 1947 until 1970. Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s, when she appeared on the covers of dozens of magazines and in advertisements and movie and television roles. Read more
03 May 2002: Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, English politician, First Secretary of State (born 1910) Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, Baroness Castle, was a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1979, making her one of the longest-serving female MPs in British history. Regarded as one of the most significant Labour Party politicians, Castle developed a close political partnership with Prime Minister Harold Wilson and held several roles in the Cabinet. She is the first and, to date, the only woman to have held the office of First Secretary of State. Read more
03 May 2002: Yevgeny Svetlanov, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1928) Yevgeny Fyodorovich Svetlanov was a Soviet and Russian conductor, composer, and pianist. Read more
03 May 2000: Júlia Báthory, Hungarian glass designer (born 1901) Júlia Báthory was a Hungarian glass designer. Read more
03 May 2000: John Joseph O'Connor, American cardinal (born 1920) John Joseph O'Connor was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1984 until his death in 2000, and was made a cardinal in 1985. O'Connor's tenure was marred by his handling of the AIDS crisis, including roles in municipal and national policy committees where he lobbied against condoms and the teaching of safer sex. Read more
03 May 1999: Joe Adcock, American baseball player and manager (born 1927) Joseph Wilbur Adcock was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1950 to 1966, most prominently as a member of the Milwaukee Braves teams that won two consecutive National League pennants and the 1957 World Series. Read more
03 May 1999: Steve Chiasson, Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1967) Steven Joseph Chiasson was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman with the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings, Calgary Flames, Hartford Whalers and Carolina Hurricanes. Read more
03 May 1999: Godfrey Evans, English cricketer (born 1920) Thomas Godfrey Evans was an English cricketer who played for Kent and England. Described by Wisden as 'arguably the best wicket-keeper the game has ever seen', Evans collected 219 dismissals in 91 Test match appearances between 1946 and 1959 and a total of 1066 in all first-class matches. En route he was the first wicket keeper to reach 200 Test dismissals and the first Englishman to reach both 1000 runs and 100 dismissals and 2000 runs and 200 dismissals in Test cricket. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1951. Read more
03 May 1998: Gene Raymond, American actor (born 1908) Gene Raymond was an American film, television, and stage actor of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to acting, Raymond was also a singer, composer, screenwriter, director, producer, and decorated military pilot. Read more
03 May 1997: Sébastien Enjolras, French race car driver (born 1976) Sébastien Olivier Enjolras was a French racing driver. Considered to be one of the most promising French drivers of his generation, he was killed in a crash during practice for the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans race, aged 21. Read more
03 May 1997: Narciso Yepes, Spanish guitarist and composer (born 1927) Narciso Yepes was a Spanish guitarist. He is considered one of the finest virtuoso classical guitarists of the twentieth century. Read more
03 May 1996: Dimitri Fampas, Greek guitarist, composer, and educator (born 1921) Dimitris Fampas was a Greek classical guitarist and composer. Read more
03 May 1996: Alex Kellner, American baseball player (born 1924) Alexander Raymond Kellner was an American starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics (1948–1958), Cincinnati Reds (1958) and St. Louis Cardinals (1959). Kellner batted right-handed and threw left-handed. He was born in Tucson, Arizona. His younger brother, Walt, also was a major league pitcher. Read more
03 May 1996: Jack Weston, American actor (born 1924) Jack Weston was an American actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1976 and a Tony Award in 1981. Read more
03 May 1996: Keith Daniel Williams, American rapist and triple murderer (born 1947) Keith Daniel Williams was an American triple murderer who was executed by the state of California for the October 1978 murders of three people in Merced, California. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1979 and was subsequently executed in 1996 at San Quentin State Prison by lethal injection. Read more
03 May 1992: George Murphy, American actor, dancer, and politician (born 1902) George Lloyd Murphy was an American actor and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1944 to 1946, and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1951. Murphy served from 1965 to 1971 as U.S. Senator from California, the first notable American actor to be elected to statewide office in California, predating Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who each served two terms as governor. He is the only United States senator represented by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Read more
03 May 1991: Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist and screenwriter (born 1933) Jerzy Kosiński was a Polish-born American writer and two-time president of the American chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. Read more
03 May 1989: Christine Jorgensen, American trans woman (born 1926) Christine Jorgensen was an American actress, singer, and transgender activist. A trans woman, she was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery. Read more
03 May 1988: Lev Pontryagin, Russian mathematician and academic (born 1908) Lev Semyonovich Pontryagin was a Soviet mathematician. Completely blind from the age of 14, he made major discoveries in a number of fields of mathematics, including algebraic topology, differential topology and optimal control. Read more
03 May 1987: Dalida, Italian singer, actress, dancer, and model (born 1933) Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, professionally known as Dalida, was an Italian naturalized French singer and actress. Throughout her international career, Dalida sold more than 140 million records worldwide. Some of her best known songs include "Bambino", "Ciao amore, ciao", "Gigi l'amoroso", "Il venait d'avoir 18 ans", "Laissez-moi danser", "Salma ya salama", "Helwa ya baladi", "Mourir sur scène", and "Paroles, paroles" featuring spoken word by film star Alain Delon. Read more
03 May 1986: Robert Alda, American actor (born 1914) Robert Alda was an American actor, singer and dancer. He was the father of actors Alan and Antony Alda. Alda was featured in a number of Broadway productions, then moved to Italy during the early 1960s. He appeared in many European films over the next two decades, occasionally returning to the U.S. for film appearances such as The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969). Read more
03 May 1981: Nargis, Indian actress (born 1929) Nargis Dutt, known mononymously as Nargis, was an Indian actress and politician who worked in Hindi cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Hindi cinema, Nargis often portrayed sophisticated and independent women in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama. She was among the highest paid actresses of the 1950s and 1960s. Read more
03 May 1978: Bill Downs, American journalist (born 1914) William Randall Downs, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He worked for CBS News from 1942 to 1962 and for ABC News beginning in 1963. He was one of the original members of the team of war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys. Read more
03 May 1972: Kenneth Bailey, Australian lawyer and diplomat, Australian High Commissioner to Canada (born 1898) Sir Kenneth Hamilton Bailey was a senior Australian public servant and lawyer, best known for his time as Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department between 1946 and 1964. Read more
03 May 1972: Emil Breitkreutz, American runner and coach (born 1883) Emil William Breitkreutz was an American middle-distance runner who won a bronze medal in the Olympic 800 meters final in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. Read more
03 May 1972: Bruce Cabot, American actor (born 1904) Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong (1933) and for his roles in films such as The Last of the Mohicans (1936), Fritz Lang's Fury (1936), and the Western Dodge City (1939). He was also known as one of "Wayne's Regulars", appearing in a number of John Wayne films beginning with Angel and the Badman (1947), and concluding with Big Jake (1971). Read more
03 May 1970: Cemil Gürgen Erlertürk, Turkish footballer, coach, and pilot (born 1918) Cemil Gürgen Erlertürk was a Turkish footballer and Sailplane pilot. Read more
03 May 1969: Zakir Husain, Indian academic and politician, 3rd President of India (born 1897) Zakir Husain Khan was an Indian educationist and politician who served as the vice president of India from 1962 to 1967 and president of India from 13 May 1967 until his death on 3 May 1969. Read more
03 May 1958: Frank Foster, English cricketer (born 1889) Frank Rowbotham Foster was an English amateur cricketer who played for Warwickshire County Cricket Club from 1908 to 1914, and in Test cricket for England in 1911 and 1912. He was born in Birmingham, educated at Solihull School and died in St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton. His career was cut short after a motor-cycle accident during World War I. Read more
03 May 1949: Fanny Walden, English footballer and cricketer (born 1888) Frederick Ingram Walden was an English professional footballer who played outside right for Northampton Town, Tottenham Hotspur and at international level for England during the 1910s and 1920s. He also played cricket for Northamptonshire and was an English cricket umpire. Read more
03 May 1948: Ernst Tandefelt, Finnish assassin of Heikki Ritavuori (born 1876) Knut Ernst Robert Tandefelt was a Swedish-speaking Finnish nobleman. Read more
03 May 1943: Harry Miller, American engineer (born 1875) Harold Arminius Miller, commonly called Harry, was an American race car designer and builder who was most active in the 1920s and 1930s. Griffith Borgeson called him "the greatest creative figure in the history of the American racing car". Cars built by Miller won the Indianapolis 500 nine times, and other cars using his engines won three more. Millers accounted for 83% of the Indy 500 fields between 1923 and 1928. Read more
03 May 1942: Thorvald Stauning, Danish politician, 24th Prime Minister of Denmark (born 1873) Thorvald August Marinus Stauning was the first social democratic prime minister of Denmark. He served as prime minister from 1924 to 1926 and again from 1929 until his death in 1942. Read more
03 May 1939: Madeleine Desroseaux, French author and poet (born 1873) Madeleine Desroseaux is the pseudonym of Florentine Monier (1873-1939), a Breton poet and novelist. Read more
03 May 1935: Jessie Willcox Smith, American illustrator (born 1863) Jessie Willcox Smith was an American illustrator during the Golden Age of American illustration. She was considered "one of the greatest pure illustrators". A contributor to books and magazines during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Smith illustrated stories and articles for clients such as Century, Collier's, Leslie's Weekly, Harper's, McClure's, Scribners, and the Ladies' Home Journal. She had an ongoing relationship with Good Housekeeping, which included a long-running Mother Goose series of illustrations and also the creation of all the Good Housekeeping covers from December 1917 to 1933. Smith illustrated over sixty books, including notable works like Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and An Old-Fashioned Girl, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Evangeline, and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. Read more
03 May 1932: Charles Fort, American journalist and author (born 1874) Charles Hoy Fort was an American writer and researcher who specialized in anomalous phenomena. The terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are sometimes used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold well and are still in print. His work continues to inspire admirers, who refer to themselves as "Forteans", and has influenced some aspects of science fiction. Read more
03 May 1925: Clément Ader, French engineer, designed the Ader Avion III (born 1841) Clément Ader was a French inventor and engineer who was born near Toulouse in Muret, Haute-Garonne, and died in Toulouse. He is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation. In 1870 he was also one of the pioneers in the sport of cycling in France. Read more
03 May 1921: Théodore Pilette, Belgian race car driver (born 1883) Théodore Eugène Pilette was a Belgian racing driver and businessman. He started racing in 1903. Read more
03 May 1919: Elizabeth Almira Allen, American educator (born 1854) Elizabeth Almira Allen was an American teacher, teachers' rights advocate, and the first woman president of the New Jersey Education Association. Allen was born in Joliet, Illinois, daughter of James and Sarah J (Smith) Allen on February 27, 1854, and the eldest of five children. By 1867, the family had moved to New Jersey. Read more
03 May 1918: Charlie Soong, Chinese businessman and missionary (born 1863) Charles Jones Soong, also known by his courtesy name Soong Yao-ju, was a Chinese businessman who first achieved prominence as a publisher in Shanghai. His children became some of the most prominent politicians of the Kuomintang-ruled Nationalist China. Read more
03 May 1916: Tom Clarke, Irish rebel (born 1858) Thomas James Clarke was an Irish republican and a leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Clarke was arguably the person most responsible for the 1916 Easter Rising. A proponent of armed struggle against British rule in Ireland for most of his life, Clarke spent 15 years in English prisons prior to his role in the Easter Rising and was executed by firing squad after it was defeated. Read more
03 May 1916: Thomas MacDonagh, Irish poet and rebel (born 1878) Thomas Stanislaus MacDonagh was an Irish political activist, poet, playwright, educationalist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and Commandant of the 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, which fought in Jacob's biscuit factory. He was executed for his part in the Rising at the age of thirty-eight. Read more
03 May 1916: Patrick Pearse, Irish teacher and rebel leader (born 1879) Patrick Henry Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist, republican political activist and revolutionary who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. Following his execution along with fifteen others, Pearse came to be seen by many as the embodiment of the rebellion. Read more
03 May 1910: Howard Taylor Ricketts, American pathologist (born 1871) Howard Taylor Ricketts was an American pathologist after whom the bacteria family Rickettsiaceae and the order Rickettsiales are named. Read more
03 May 1882: Leonidas Smolents, Austrian–Greek general and army minister (born 1806) Leonidas Smolents, Smolenits or Smolenskis was an Austrian military officer of Greek origin, who after 1830 settled in the newly independent Kingdom of Greece and became a general and Minister for Military Affairs. Read more
03 May 1856: Adolphe Adam, French composer and critic (born 1803) Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle (1841) and Le corsaire (1856), his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and Si j'étais roi (1852) and his Christmas carol "Minuit, chrétiens!". Read more
03 May 1856: Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis, Arab-French servant to Napoleon I (born 1788) Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis was a member of the Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard, leading him to be known in his lifetime as "Mamelouk Ali". He was most notable as a faithful servant to Napoleon I during his two exiles on Elba and Saint Helena. Read more
03 May 1839: Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (born 1771) Ferdinando Paer was an Italian composer known for his operas. He was of Austrian descent and used the German spelling Pär in application for printing in Venice, and later in France the spelling Paër. Read more

Why is 03 May Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 03 May, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on 03 May in World history?

On 03 May, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

Is History of Today important for competitive exams?

Yes, History of Today is frequently asked in UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, and State PSC exams as part of static GK and current awareness sections.