Today in History - May 3
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495 May 3, Pope
Gelasius asserted that his authority was superior to Emperor
Anastasius.
(PTA, 1980, p.98)(HN, 5/3/98)
1010 May 3, Ansfried (~69), 9th
bishop of Utrecht (995-1010), saint, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1294 May 3, Jan I, duke of Brabant
(Belgium-Netherlands), Limburg, poet, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1455 May 3, Jews fled Spain.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1469
May 3, Nicolo Machiavelli (d.1527), political advisor and author, was
born. He was a historian and author of "The Prince." He saw in Cesare
Borgia, the bastard son of Pope Alexander VI, the prospect of an Italy
free of foreign control. "Men are more apt to be mistaken in their
generalizations than in their particular observations."
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(AP, 11/15/98)(HN, 5/3/99)
1493 May 3-4, Pope Alexander VI
issued 3 papal bulls that divided the discoveries of Columbus between
Spain and Portugal. By the Bulls of May 3 and 4 he drew an imaginary
line one hundred leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. The May 4
Bull, “Inter Caetera,” was amended in Sep. granting Spain the right to
hold lands to the “western regions and to India.”
(DAH, 1946, p.2)(www.kwabs.com/bull_of_1493.html)
1568 May 3, French forces in
Florida slaughtered hundreds of Spanish.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1621 May 3, Francis Bacon was
accused of bribery.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1624 May 3, Spanish silver fleet
sailed to Panama.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1654 May 3, A
bridge in Rowley, Mass., was permitted to charge a toll for animals,
while people crossed for free.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1662 May 3, John Winthrop the
Younger, the son of the first governor of Massachusetts was honored by
being made a fellow of the Royal Society, England's new scientific
society. Winthrop gained a new charter from the king, uniting the
colonies of Connecticut and New Haven.
(HN, 5/3/99)
1715 May 3, Edmund Halley observed
a total eclipse phenomenon: "Baily's Beads."
(MC, 5/3/02)
1791 May 3, Poland adopted a new
Constitution. It was designed to redress long-standing political
defects of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its traditional
system of "Golden Liberty." The constitution put Lithuania under Polish
domination. It is generally regarded as Europe's first and the world's
second modern codified national constitution, following the 1788
ratification of the US Constitution.
(SFC, 4/25/09,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_May_3,_1791)(Voruta
#27-28, 7/1996, p.13)
1802 May 3,
Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city, with the mayor appointed
by the president and the council elected by property owners.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1808 May 3, Spanish executions
took place and were later commemorated in Goya’s painting "Executions
of 3rd of May."
(MC, 5/3/02)
1810 May 3, Lord Byron swam the
Hellespont.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1821 May 3, The
Richmond [Virginia] Light Artillery was organized.
(RC handout, 5/27/96)
1830 May 3, The 1st regular steam
train passenger service started.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1844 May 3, Richard D'Oyly Carte,
opera impresario (Gilbert & Sullivan operas, Ivanhoe), was born in
England.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1849 May 3, Jacob Riis (d.1914),
American reporter and reformer (How the Other Half Lives), was born in
Denmark.
(HN,
5/3/01)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAriis.htm)
1854 May 3, William Beale (70),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1855 May 3, Macon B. Allen became
the first African American to be admitted to the Bar in Massachusetts.
(HN, 5/3/99)
1856 May 3, Adolphe Charles Adam
(52), French composer, critic (Giselle), died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1859 May 3, France declared
war on Austria.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1861 May 3, Lincoln asked for
42,000 Army Volunteers and another 18,000 seamen.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1861 May 3, Gen. Winfield Scott
presented his Anaconda Plan to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan.
(www.civilwarhome.com/scottmcclellananaconda.htm)(ON, 12/05, p.12)
1863 May 3, Stonewall Jackson’s
arm was amputated and buried. Jackson told his medical director, Dr.
Hunter McGuire, "If the enemy does come, I am not afraid of them; I
have always been kind to their wounded, and I am sure they will be kind
to me." His words followed an order from Robert E. Lee to move Jackson
to Guiney's Station, fearing that nearby Federal troops might capture
him. Following perhaps his greatest performance, leading a brilliant
flanking maneuver against Union Major General Joseph Hooker at
Chancellorsville, he was mistakenly shot by his own troops while
scouting ahead of their lines after dark. Jackson sustained severe
wounds to the left arm and minor wounds to the right hand that later
led to his death.
(HT, 3/97, p.52)(HNQ, 3/11/02)
1863 May 3, In Virginia the Battle
of Chancellorsville raged for a second day, as Confederate General
Robert E. Lee parried Union General Joseph T. Hooker's thrusts. [see
May 1-2]
(HN, 5/3/00)
1865 May 3,
President Lincoln's funeral train arrived in Springfield, Illinois.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1866 May 3, The first submarine in
the Americas, a 39-foot vessel designed in the 1860s by German
immigrant Karl Flach, sank in the Bay of Valparaiso off the coast of
Chile. The crew, two Chileans, two Frenchmen and seven Germans,
including Flach and his 15-year-old son, all died. In 2007 a search
team found the vessel.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
1873 May 3, Nikolay N. Tcherepnin,
composer of ballets, songs, was born in St. Petersburg.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1886 May 3, Police arrived outside
the McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago, where 1,400 IWPA workers were
on strike. They opened-fire on the crowd while anarchist August Spies
was making a speech, killing four of the workers.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1898 May 3, Golda Mier (d.1978),
4th Prime Minister of Israel (1969-1974) and the first woman PM, was
born in Kiev, Ukraine. "Whether women are better than men, I cannot say
-- but I can say they are certainly no worse."
(AP, 5/11/97)(HN, 5/3/02)(MC, 5/3/02)
1902 May 3, Walter Slezak, actor
(Bedtime for Bonzo, Inspector General), was born in Vienna.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1903 May 3, Bing Crosby (d.1977),
singer and actor, was born in Tacoma, Wa. The family soon moved to
Spokane where he grew up.
(HN, 5/3/98)(SSFC, 1/21/01, BR p.10)
1907 May 3, Show business
columnist Earl Wilson was born in Rockford, Ohio.
(AP, 5/3/07)
1910 May 3, Alceo Galliera,
composer, conductor, was born.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1912 May 3, May Sarton, poet and
writer, was born.
(HN, 5/3/01)
1913 May 3, William Inge, American
playwright (Picnic, Bus Stop), was born.
(HN, 5/3/01)
1916 May 3,
Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by the
British for their roles in the Easter Rising.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1919 May 3, Betty Compden,
lyricist, was born.
(HN, 5/3/01)
1919 May 3, Pete Seeger,
folksinger and songwriter (Weavers, Goodnight Irene, Guantanamera), was
born in NYC.
(HN, 5/3/01)(MC, 5/3/02)
1920 May 3, John Lewis, jazz
pianist, was born.
(HN, 5/3/01)
1920 May 3, "Sugar" Ray Robinson
(Walker Smith Jr.), American middleweight boxer, was born. He won
the world title for a record five times.
(HN, 5/3/99)
1921 May 3, West
Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1923 May 3, The
1st non-stop flight across the US was made. Army lieutenants Kelly and
Macready flew from New York to San Diego.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(HN, 4/6/98)
1926 May 3, A Pulitzer prize was
awarded to Sinclair Lewis (Arrowsmith).
(MC, 5/3/02)
1926 May 3, U.S. marines landed
in Nicaragua and remained until 1933.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1926 May 3, There was a British
general strike and 3 million workers supported the miners. The strike
lasted 9 days.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_Kingdom_general_strike)
1926 May 3, Napoleon V Bonaparte
(63), French pretender to the throne, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1928 May 3, James Brown, "The
Godfather of Soul," was born in Augusta, Georgia. The singer is best
remembered for the song "I Feel Good." [see May 3, 1933]
(HN, 5/3/99)(MC, 5/3/02)
1929 May 3, Prussia banned
anti-fascists.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1931 May 3, Frank Hoyt Losey (59),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1933 May 3, James Brown, American
singer and songwriter, was born. [see May 3, 1928]
(HN, 5/3/01)
1933 May 3,
Nellie T. Ross became the first female director of the U.S. Mint.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1933 May 3, A white buffalo calf
was born in western Montana. He was later named “Big Medicine” and
lived until Aug 25, 1959. His hide was molded to a mannequin and that
went on display at the Montana Historical Society on Jul 13, 1961.
(Helena Museum flyer, 9/11/97)
1936 May 3, Joe DiMaggio made his
major-league debut as NY Yankee and got 3 hits.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1937 May 3,
Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, "Gone with the
Wind."
(AP, 5/3/97)
1938 May 3, The concentration camp
at Flossenburg opened.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1938 May 3, Vatican recognized
Franco's Catholic and fascist Spain.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1941 May 3, There was a German air
raid on Liverpool.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1942 May 3, Executive Order 9066,
signed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, was issued by Lt. Gen’l. John
DeWitt from his headquarters in the SF Presidio. It called for the
evacuation of Japanese-Americans from Los Angeles effective May 9. Some
110,000-112,000 Japanese-Americans were settled in 10 relocation camps,
the first of which was in Manzanar in Owens Valley, Ca. In the Bay Area
most Japanese-Americans were sent to the Tanforan racetrack where they
were put up in stables and later relocated to Topaz, Utah. Soon after,
the War Relocation Authority hired Dorothea Lange, a photographer
already well-known for her striking Depression-era photos of migrant
workers, to document the internment process. Lange's poignant photos
reflected her disagreement with government policy and brought her into
conflict with her employers.
(SFC, 10/30/96, p.C2)(SFEC, 4/13/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC,
11/19/96, p.A17)(HNPD, 4/24/99)
1942 May 3, The Luftwaffe bombed
Exeter.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1942 May 3, Nazis executed 72 in
reprisal in Sachsenhausen, Netherlands. Johan H. Westerveld, lt.-Col,
leader Order Service, was among the executed.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1944 May 3, "Meet Me in St Louis"
opened on Broadway.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1944 May 3,
Wartime rationing of most grades of meats ended in the United States.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1945 May 3, The US Submarine
Lagarto (SS-371) sank in the Gulf of Thailand following depth charges
from the Japanese mine-layer Hatsutaka. 85 sailors died. In 2005 the
wreck of the Lagarto was found. The USS Hawksbill sank the Hatsutaka on
May 15.
(SSFC, 6/18/06,
p.A5)(www.thaiwreckdiver.com/lagarto.htm)
1945 May 3, Allies arrested German
nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1945 May 3, German ship "Cap
Arcona" sank and 5,800 were killed.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1945 May 3,
Allied forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.
(AP, 5/3/07)
1945 May 3, Ireland’s PM Eamon de
Valera conveyed official condolences to diplomat Eduard Hempel. Pres.
Douglas Hyde also visited German diplomat Eduard Hempel, a day after
Ireland received reports of Hitler's death. Documents confirming Hyde’s
visit were made public in 2005.
(AP, 12/30/05)
1945 May 3, Japanese forces on
Okinawa launched their only major counter-offensive, but failed to
break the American lines.
(AP, 5/3/05)
1946 May 3, The International
Military Tribunal for the Far East convened in Tokyo for Japanese War
Crimes. 28 defendants were tried. Radhabinod Pal, the judge from India,
was the only judge with an international law background and the only
judge to find all the defendants innocent on all counts.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A15)(MC, 5/3/02)
1947 May 3, Japan's postwar
constitution took effect.
(AP, 5/3/07)
1948 May 3, Pulitzer Prizes were
awarded to playwright Tennessee Williams for "A Streetcar Named Desire"
and to novelist James Michener for "Tales of the South Pacific."
(AP, 5/3/98)
1948 May 3, The
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real
estate to blacks and other minorities were legally unenforceable.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1951 May 3, The Festival of
Britain, a national exhibition, officially opened.
(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.T4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_of_Britain)
1952 May 3, The first airplane
landed at geographic North Pole. It was a ski-modified U.S. Air Force
C-47, piloted by Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict (d.1974) of
California and Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma. In
2002 Charles B. Compton authored "Born to Fly: Some Life Sketches of
Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict."
(Polar Times, Fall, 97)(CBC)
1954 May 3, Pulitzer prize was
awarded to Charles A. Lindbergh and John Patrick.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1957 May 3, A low flying Navy
bomber, while practicing evasion maneuvers, sheared two high-voltage
lines in the East Bay of San Francisco causing a power outage in SF and
the Peninsula.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.B2)
1958 May 3, Ismael Valenzuela
(1935-2009) rode Tim Tam to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
(SFC, 9/4/09,
p.D6)(www.kentuckyderby.com/2009/history/statistics/1951-1975)
1960 May 3, The musical “The
Fantasticks” opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich
Village. It featured the song “Try to Remember” by Tom Jones &
Harvey Schmidt and was 1st produced at Barnard College in 1959. Lore
Noto (d.2002), former actor and agent, produced the show, which became
the world’s longest-running musical. It closed Jan 13, 2002 after
17,162 shows.
(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A20)
1960 May 3, Austria became a
founding member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), along
with Britain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland. The
agreement took effect in 1994.
(Econ, 11/24/07, SR
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Free_Trade_Association)
1962 May 3, William A, Eddy
(b.1896), former US minister to Saudi Arabia (1944-1946), died. In 2008
Thomas W. Lippman authored “Arabian Knight: Colonel Bill Eddy, USMC,
and the Rise of American Power in the Middle East.”
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.102)
1963 May 3, In
Birmingham, Alabama, police Commissioner Bull Connor unleashed dogs and
high-powered fire hoses on boycott-bound school children.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, p.T5)
1968 May 3, A Black Student Sit-In
at the Bursar's Office began. It lasted for 38 hours, after the
Northwestern University refused to accede to the demands of For Members
Only, the black undergraduate student group.
(www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/onthisday/2009/05/)
1968 May 3, After three days of
battle, the US Marines retook Dai Do complex in Vietnam, only to find
the North Vietnamese had evacuated the area.
(HN, 5/3/99)
1971 May 3, The National Public
Radio “All Things Considered” program premiered on 112 NPR stations.
NPR, the US national, non-commercial radio network, was founded in 1970
and hit the airwaves in April, 1971.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Radio)(SFC, 12/30/99,
p.E3)
1971 May 3, John Toland
(1912-2004), American author and historian, won a Pulitzer prize
for “Rising Sun” (1970) which chronicles Imperial Japan from its
Manchurian involvement following World War I to the end of World War II.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Toland_(author))
1971 May 3, James Earl Ray
(1928-1998), Martin Luther King's assassin (1968), was caught in a jail
break attempt in Tennessee.
(HN,
5/3/98)(www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915028,00.html)
1971 May 3,
Anti-war protesters calling themselves the Mayday Tribe began four days
of demonstrations in Washington aimed at shutting down the nation's
capital. 13,000 anti-war protesters were arrested in 3 days.
(AP, 5/3/97)(MC, 5/3/02)
1973 May 3, Chicago's Sears Tower,
the world's tallest building (443 m), topped out. Sears soon moved its
headquarters to the Sears Tower. The building was designed by Bruce
Graham (d.2010 at 84) of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In 2009 the
name of the structure was changed to Willis Tower as Willis Group
Holdings, a London-based insurance broker, consolidated its area
offices in the building.
(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.B1)(SFC, 3/9/10,
p.C4)(http://tinyurl.com/dhd3y6)
1975 May 3, Gov.
Jerry Brown of California began a round of private meetings to resolve
the issues between the UFW, agribusiness, and the Teamsters Union.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.22)
1978 May 3, "Sun
Day" fell on a Thursday as thousands of people extolling the virtues of
solar energy held events across the country.
(AP, 5/3/01)
1979 May 3,
Britain held general elections. Conservative Party leader Margaret
Thatcher was chosen to become Britain's first female prime minister as
the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary
elections. In 2008 Claire Berlinski authored “There Is No Alternative:
Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.”
(AP, 5/3/97)(HN, 5/3/98)(WSJ, 11/18/08, p.A19)
1979 May 3, In the Philippines a
UN Conference on Trade and Development opened as thousands of squatters
around Manila were forcibly moved out of sight.
(SFC, 11/18/96,
p.A12)(www.lawphil.net/executive/execord/eo1978/eo_497_1978.html)
1982 May 3, Sinbad the Sailor, the
star horse of Ronald Reagan’s “Death Valley Days” TV series, died when
he was struck by lightning at Kanab, Utah.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.C12)
1986 May 3, In
NASA's first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket lost
power in its main engine shortly after liftoff, forcing safety officers
to destroy it by remote control.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1986 May 3, In
Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers bombed an Airlanka plane at Colombo airport and
killed 16 people.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1987 May 3, The
Miami Herald, in its Sunday edition, said its reporters had observed a
young woman spending "Friday night and most of Saturday" at a
Washington, D.C., townhouse belonging to Democratic presidential
candidate Gary Hart. The woman was later identified as Donna Rice; the
scandal torpedoed Hart's presidential bid.
(SFEC, 12/19/99, p.C12)(AP, 5/3/07)
1988 May 3, The White House
acknowledged that first lady Nancy Reagan had used astrological advice
to help schedule her husband's activities. The unflattering revelations
surfaced in a yet-to-be published memoir by former chief of staff
Donald Regan.
(AP, 5/3/98)
1988 May 3, Milton A. Caniff
(b.1907), US cartoonist (Terry & the Pirates), died.
(www.comic-art.com/bios-1/caniff01.htm)
1989 May 3, PLO leader Yasser
Arafat, ending a two-day visit to France, said the PLO charter calling
for the destruction of Israel had been "superseded" by a declaration
urging peaceful coexistence of the Jewish state and a Palestinian
state.
(AP, 5/3/99)
1989 May 3, An
Israeli soldier, Ilan Saadon, disappeared while hitchhiking north of
the Gaza Strip. He was said to have been kidnapped by Hamas militants.
In 1996 his bones were unearthed south of Tel Aviv.
(SFC, 8/12/96, p.C1)
1989 May 3, Christine Jorgensen
(b.1926), Denmark-born 1st transsexual (1952), died in California. Her
book “Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography” was published in
1967, and its film adaptation was released in 1970 as The Christine
Jorgensen Story.
(www.glbtq.com/arts/jorgensen_c.html)
1990 May 3, The US federal
government approved the use of the drug AZT to treat children infected
with the AIDS virus.
(AP, 5/3/00)
1991 May 3, The US government
reported the nation’s civilian unemployment rate fell in April to 6.6%.
(AP, 5/3/01)
1991 May 3, Exxon Corporation and
the state of Alaska withdrew from a one billion-dollar settlement of
the “Exxon Valdez” oil spill (another settlement was reached later).
(AP, 5/3/01)
1991 May 3, J.P.
Morgan and Walt Disney companies were added to the Dow Jones.
Caterpillar was also added to replace Navistar.
(WSJ, 6/3/96, p.C1)
1991 May 3, Jerzy Kosinski (57),
author (Being There), was found dead in his New York City apartment.
(AP, 5/3/01)
1991 May 3, Carol Lutz (24) was
locked in the trunk of her car near Cleveland, Ohio, and burned to
death. In 2009 Daniel Wilson (39) was executed for her killing.
(SFC, 6/4/09,
p.A4)(http://zenas.org/bacheca/index.php?carol+lutz)
1992 May 3, In
Los Angeles, soldiers continued to patrol streets and guard fire-gutted
and ransacked stores in the wake of rioting that erupted following the
Rodney King-taped beating acquittals.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1992 May 3,
Hollywood song-and-dance-man-turned-politician George Murphy died at
age 89.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1992 May 3, In Bosnia armed men
cruised into Doboj and began a process of ethnic cleansing that pushed
62,000 non-Serbs from their homes in the surrounding area.
(WSJ, 11/3/97, p.A22)
1992 May 3, Yugoslav Army seized
Bosnian Pres. Alija Izetbegovic on his return from peace talks in
Lisbon. He was released the next day.
(www.nytimes.com/specials/bosnia/context/apchrono.html)
1993 May 3, "Kiss of the Spider
Woman" opened at Broadhurst in NYC for 906 performances. John Kander
composed the music and Fred Ebb (d.2004) wrote the lyrics.
(www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm57.html)(SFC,
9/13/04, p.B4)
1993 May 3, American sailor Terry
M. Helvey confessed to stomping to death Allen Schindler, a homosexual
shipmate, but told his court-martial in Japan that he was drunk and did
not plan the killing. Helvey was later sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/3/98)
1994 May 3, President Clinton
presided over a televised forum from Atlanta, during which he denied
suggestions he'd vacillated on foreign policy, but said global problems
were more difficult than he'd imagined.
(AP, 5/3/99)
1995 May 3, The US government
reported that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators dropped half a
percentage point in March 1995, its biggest tumble in two years.
(AP, 5/3/00)
1996 May 3,
Gregory Clepper was charged with killing 12 women on the South side of
Chicago in a string of slayings that began in 1991.
(SFC, 5/3/96, A-10)
1996 May 3, Jack Weston (71),
actor (Ishtar, Rad, Cuba), died of lymphoma.
(http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?c=223731)
1996 May 3, A weak compromise
treaty was passed in Geneva that aimed to phase out non-detectable
plastic mines, and introduced rules to limit the lifespan of
anti-personnel mines planted outside marked fields to 3 months. The new
treaty will go into effect once it is signed by 20 countries and
revised an outdated 1980 weapons protocol signed by 57 nations. It has
few enforcement provisions. The international conference in Geneva
ended 30 months of arduous negotiations over whether to ban land mines
with a weak compromise treaty giving countries nine years to switch to
detectable, self-destructive devices.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-1)(AP, 5/3/97)
1996 May 3,
Chandraswami, aka Nemi Chand Jain, faith healer and psychic admired by
Elizabeth Taylor, was held by police in New Delhi on charges of
swindling $100,000 from a London businessman.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 3, A
preliminary UN report says that Israel fired knowingly on a southern
Lebanon UN compound on April 18 after pro-Iranian guerrillas sought
refuge in the area.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 3, In
Burundi a handwritten account reached the capital that described the
massacre of 375 people at the Kivyuka village market by government
soldiers angry over recent rebel attacks on local power line towers. An
army spokesman denied the charges.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 3, A
6.4 earthquake struck Inner Mongolia in northern China. At least 14
people were killed and 266 injured.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 3, A Sudanese airliner on
a domestic flight crashed in bad weather and killed all 50 [53]
onboard. It was an Antonov 24 airplane and had tried to land outside of
Khartoum in an area cleared for a new airport because sand covered the
runways at Khartoum.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-14)
1997 May 3, World chess champion
Garry Kasparov won the first game of his rematch with IBM's Deep Blue
computer. However, he lost the six-game match.
(AP, 5/3/98)
1997 May 3, Silver Charm won the
123rd Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/3/98)
1997 May 3, A group of Texas
separatists ended a weeklong standoff with authorities; however, two
armed followers fled into the woods. One was killed, the other
eventually captured.
(AP, 5/3/98)
1998 May 3, It was reported that
the drugs angiostatin and endostatin eradicated cancer in mice and that
human trials could begin within a year. The drugs were discovered by
Harvard scientist Judah Folkman. Their operation was explained in 1999
by researchers at Duke.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.3A)(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.B1,6)
1998 May 3, The Columbia Space
Shuttle landed at Cape Canaveral after a 16-day mission. The mission
studied the effects of space travel on neurological development in
nearly 2000 animals.
(USAT, 5/4/98, p.3A)(AP, 5/3/99)
1998 May 3, "The Sevres Road," by
landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, was stolen from the
Louvre.
(AP, 5/3/99)
1998 May 3, European leaders
meeting in Brussels, Belgium, agreed on Wim Duisenberg of the
Netherlands as the chief of the new European Central Bank (ECB), but
with the proviso that he step down in 2002 to make way for Frenchman
Jean-Claude Trichet.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.21A)(AP, 5/3/99)
1998 May 3, In Serbia fighting
began in the Kosovo village of Ponosevac and 10 ethnic Albanians were
reported killed by Serbian police.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)
1999 May 3, In Baltimore the Cuban
baseball team beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-6. 7 members missed the
departure the next day and one coach, Rigoberto Betancourt Herrera, was
reported to have defected, as the others over slept. The 6 stragglers
departed May 5.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A1,6)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A7)
1999 May 3, It was reported that
Take Control, a new butter-margarine substitute from Lipton, was deemed
safe by the FDA. The produce was made to help promote healthy
cholesterol levels.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A6)
1999 May 3, Bill Gates pledged $25
million over 5 years to help develop a vaccine against AIDS.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A3)
1999 May 3, Pres. Clinton said
that he would support a bombing pause if he was convinced that the
Yugoslav crackdown on Kosovo guerrillas and civilians was ending and
that Serbian forces were being withdrawn.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 3, Japanese Prime
Minister Keizo Obuchi met with President Clinton at the White House
during the first official U.S. visit by a Japanese premier in 12 years.
(AP, 5/3/00)
1999 May 3, Howard Simpson, US
author and career foreign service officer, died. He served in Vietnam
and his books included the novel "Someone Else's War." He also wrote a
series of detective stories based on the character Inspector Bastide:
"The Jumpmaster," and "Junior Year Abroad."
(SFC, 5/24/99, p.C4)
1999 May 3, US jets attacked Iraqi
air defense sites. Iraqi news reported 2 civilians killed and 12
injured north of Mosul.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A14)
1999 May 3, The Justice and
Treasury departments agreed to unfreeze the assets of Saleh Idris, the
owner of the Sudanese factory that was bombed by US cruise missiles
Aug. 20, 1998.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A14)
1999 May 3, A jury in Orange
County declared that Charles Ng should die by lethal injection for the
murder of 6 men, 3 women, and 2 baby boys during the 1980s.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 3, The Dow Jones
industrial average closed above 11,000, just 24 trading days after
passing 10,000.
(AP, 5/3/00)
1999 May 3, Some 76 tornadoes hit
Oklahoma and Kansas and at least 40 people were killed. As many as
1,500 homes were destroyed. 38 people were killed in Oklahoma and 5 in
Kansas. Damages in Oklahoma were later estimated at over $225 million.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/6/99,
p.A1)(MC, 5/3/02)
1999 May 3, British PM Tony Blair
visited the Stankovec I refugee camp in Macedonia and pledged to double
Britain's aid from $32 million to $64 million.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.D1)
1999 May 3, EU scientists said
that the hormone, 17 beta-oestradiol, used by American cattle farmers
is carcinogenic. The EU 10 year ban on the use of hormones in beef
would likely be maintained.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A14)
1999 May 3, In Indonesia the
cabinet approved an autonomy package for East Timor to be voted on in
August.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 3, In Indonesia soldiers
opened fire on villagers in Pulo Rungkom, Sumatra, and killed at least
19 people. They were there to obtain the release of a soldier abducted
over the weekend. Over 30 people were killed and thousands fled the
town following the massacre.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 5/6/99, p.A1)
1999 May 3, NATO jets hit a bus in
Kosovo and killed about 20 people.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 3, In Nepal elections for
the parliament began.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 3, In Turkey Pres.
Demirel appointed Bulent Ecevit as prime minister and asked him to form
a new government. At the same time legislator Merve Kavakci incited a
turmoil by wearing a forbidden scarf.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A14)
2000 May 3, Gen. Wesley Clark left
his post as NATO’s supreme allied commander. He was replaced by Gen.
Joseph Ralston.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A11)
2000 May 3, The US FDA approved
the first device to aid women with sexual dysfunction.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A3)
2000 May 3, Cardinal John O’Connor
(80), the archbishop of New York, died.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A3)(AP, 5/3/01)
2000 May 3, The Euro fell below 90
cents to the dollar for the first time.
(WSJ, 5/4/00, p.A18)
2000 May 3, In Chechnya Russian
troops ambushed a rebel band and killed at least 18 men.
(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 3, In Iran 2 more Iranian
Jews admitted, while on trial, that they had spied for Israel.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)
2000 May 3, In Japan a teenager
(17) hijacked a bus and killed a woman before being overcome after a
15-hour, 190-mile chase on Sanyo Expressway.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A17)
2000 May 3, In Mexico police
arrested Ismael Higuera Guerrero, a senior member of the Arellano Felix
drug gang, along with his son (15) and 8 others near Ensenada.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A15)
2000 May 3, The trial of two
alleged Libyan intelligence agents accused of blowing Pan Am Flight 103
out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 opened in the
Netherlands. In January 2001, one of the defendants, Abdel Basset Ali
al-Megrahi, was convicted of murder; the other defendant, Lamen Khalifa
Fhimah, was acquitted.
(AP, 5/3/01)
2000 May 3, In the southern
Philippines 2 hostages died as the military clashed with rebels under
Commander Robot (Ghalib Andang) at Talipao. On Basilan Island 15
hostages, 9 children and 6 teachers, were rescued and 4 were killed
when government troops engaged the rebels. At Zamboanga, Mindanao, the
MILF took some 100 hostages and at least 4 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)(SFC,
5/5/00, p.A14)
2000 May 3, Rebels of the
Revolutionary United Front killed 7 UN Kenyan peacekeepers. The number
was later reduced to 4 presumed dead.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2001 May 3, An estimated 36.4
million people tuned in to watch Tennessee nurse Tina Wesson win as the
winner of “Survivor 2,” following a 42 day stint in the "Survivor: The
Australian Outback" on CBS.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.C1)(AP, 5/3/02)
2001 May 3, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Fox of Mexico and discussed temporary visas for Mexican workers
and plans for long-range energy development.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)
2001 May 3, US federal agents
broke up a smuggling ring that brought hundreds of Ukrainians into the
US through Mexico.
(WSJ, 5/4/01, p.A1)
2001 May 3, The United States lost
its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since
the commission was formed in 1947.
(AP, 5/3/02)
2001 May 3, In Algiers thousands
of protesters demonstrated against what they called a government
crackdown on ethnic Berbers.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.A14)
2001 May 3, In Macedonia troops
backed by helicopter gunships began a fresh offensive against ethnic
Albanian rebels after 2 soldiers were killed and one kidnapped in an
ambush.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.A13)
2001 May 3, In Serbia Slobodan
Milosevic was issued an arrest warrant from the UN war crimes tribunal
in his jail cell.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)
2001 May 3, It was reported that
20 people in Turkey had starved themselves to death in the past 5 weeks
in protest of the prison system. Some 200-400 inmates still engaged in
the “death fast.”
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B2)
2002 May 3, The US Labor Dept.
reported the April jobless rate at 6%, up .3%.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A1)
2002 May 3, The Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Boston backed out of a settlement agreement with 86
people who had accused defrocked priest John Geoghan of child
molestation, saying the deal was becoming too expensive. The
archdiocese later agreed to a $10 settlement.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2002 May 3, In rural Iowa and
Illinois and 6 people were injured when 6 of 8 pipe bombs were
detonated in what was called a case of domestic terrorism. Suspect Luke
Helder was later found incompetent to stand trial.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A3)(AP, 5/3/03)
2002 May 3, In Bakersville, North
Carolina, 8 inmates died inside the Mitchell County jail after a fire
broke out.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A8)(AP, 5/3/03)
2002 May 3, Flash flooding in
Appalachia killed 4 people. Virginia, W. Va. and Kentucky were hit at
their intersection.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A3)
2002 May 3, In Bangladesh a ferry
on the Meghna River capsized with some 400 passengers traveling from
Dhaka to southern Patuakhali. Early reports had only 100 survivors. The
ferry was raised and the death toll increased to 370.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A9)(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A10)(SSFC,
5/19/02, p.C15)
2002 May 3, In Colombia 2 days of
fighting left as many as 60 people dead in the region around Bojaya
after FARC fired mortars into a Bojaya church. The death toll was soon
raised to 119 including 40 children.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A11)(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A11)(SFC,
5/8/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A6)
2002 May 3, In India an air force
jet crashed into an office building in the Adda neighborhood of
Jullundur in Punjab state. At least 8 people were killed. 2 pilots
escaped from the MiG-21.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A10)
2002 May 3, In western Nepal
security forces killed at least 90 Maoist guerrillas.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A9)
2002 May 3, In Somalia Pres.
Mohammed Ibrahim Egal (73) died. VP Dahir Riyale Kahin became acting
president.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)
2003 May 3, In the Kentucky Derby
Jose Santos rode Funny Cide to victory.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.A1)
2003 May 3, President Bush told a
news conference in Crawford, Texas, it was a matter of when — not if —
weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2003 May 3, The New Hampshire
granite symbol called the "Old Man of the Mountain," 1,200 feet above
I-93 (65 miles north of Concord), collapsed overnight into rubble.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A4)
2003 May 3, Suzy Parker (69),
model and actress, died in Montecito, Calif.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2003 May 3, The US picked a new
head of Iraq's Health Ministry on Saturday, a Baath Party member, whose
appointment was so critical that US officials designated the
announcement "Public Notice No. 1."
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 3, In Baghdad, Iraq,
schools re-opened for the 1st time since the start of war.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A11)
2003 May 3, In Cotonou, Benin, 16
people died in a late night concert stampede at the gates of the
nation's Friendship Stadium.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 3, It was reported that
British researchers had shown that fish feel pain.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 3, An apartment building
collapsed in Cairo, killing 7 people with at least 5 more reported
missing in the rubble.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 3, The Ethiopian drought
was reported to be the worst in 2 decades with millions of people
forced to stand in line each day for food.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 3, It was reported that
half of Germany's bee colonies failed to survive the winter due to a
mite that began spreading from Southeast Asia about 90 years ago.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 3, In far eastern Russia
a transport helicopter crashed as it returned from dropping water on a
forest fire, killing all 12 people on board.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2003 May 3, Pope John Paul II
began a whirlwind visit to Madrid, Spain. He urged hundreds of
thousands of young people outside Madrid to be "artisans of peace."
(AP, 5/3/04)
2004 May 3, The US military said
it had reprimanded seven officers in the abuse of inmates at Baghdad's
notorious Abu Ghraib prison, the first known punishments in the case;
two of the officers were relieved of their duties.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2004 May 3, Marvin Runyon (79),
former postmaster general, died in Nashville, Tenn.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2004 May 3, A NYC court found
financier Frank Quattrone (48) guilty on 3 counts of obstruction of
justice and witness tampering. On Aug 22, 2006, a NY judge approved a
settlement that would allow him to avoid another trial and return to
the securities industry.
(SFC, 5/4/04, p.A1)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.56)
2004 May 3, The fast-spreading
"Sasser" computer worm has infected hundreds of thousands of PCs
globally and the number could soon rise sharply. When a machine is
infected, error messages may appear and the computer may reboot
repeatedly.
(Reuters, 5/3/04)
2004 May 3, A group of British
scientists announced early work on a new procedure that makes teeth
grow from stem cells implanted in the gum.
(AFP, 5/3/04)
2004 May 3, In Bangladesh at least
5 women were crushed to death and dozens were injured when a false fire
alarm caused about 4,000 workers to rush for the exits of a garment
factory.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2004 May 3, Bulgaria sent 24 of
its soldiers home after they complained about being unprepared for duty
in Iraq.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2004 May 3, Militiamen pounded a
U.S. base in the most intense attacks yet on U.S. troops in the Shiite
city of Najaf. US troops killed 20 Shiite militiamen in Najaf.
Insurgents opened fire in the Baghdad, killing one American soldier and
wounding two others.
(AP, 5/3/04)(WSJ, 5/4/04, p.A1)
2004 May 3, California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger paid a hastily arranged visit to King Abdullah II of
Jordan following criticism from Arab-Americans that his Mideast trip
excluded a meeting with Arabs.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2004 May 3, A car packed with
explosives went off as a bus carried Chinese engineers to a port
project in remote southwestern Pakistan, killing 3 of them and injuring
11 other people.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2005 May 3, The US Federal Reserve
hiked the fed funds target rate by a quarter-point to an even 3%,
marking a cumulative increase of two full percentage points in the past
10 months. That increase was matched by a quarter-point increase in
commercial banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark rate for millions
of consumer and business loans, which moved up to 6 percent, the
highest that rate has been since the fall of 2001.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 3-2005 May 4, American
troops and Afghan police killed 64 rebels and captured six during a
battle in the mountains of southern Afghanistan. 9 Afghan troops and
one policeman were also killed in the clashes in the southern provinces
of Zabul and Kandahar.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 3, The WHO said Indonesia
has detected its first case of polio in a decade, prompting the
government to launch a massive vaccination campaign that is expected to
inoculate more than 5 million children.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, Iran told a United
Nations nonproliferation conference it would press on with its
uranium-enrichment technology.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2005 May 3, Shiite Arab leader
Ibrahim al-Jaafari was sworn in as prime minister as Iraq's first
democratically elected government took office.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, Two American soldiers
died in roadside bomb attacks by insurgents in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 3, Insurgents attacked
coalition forces in Ramadi, setting off a battle that killed 12
militants, an Iraqi soldier and two Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, Israeli officials said
Hamas must disarm before participating in Palestinian parliament
elections this summer, in a new twist to their standoff with
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas over his refusal to use force against
militants.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, In Indian-controlled
Kashmir suspected rebels killed six people in attacks, while at least
six militants died in an overnight gunbattle with soldiers.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, Kuwait’s Parliament
created a constitutional roadblock that effectively kept women out of
this year’s race for municipal council seats.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.A3)
2005 May 3, ChevronTexaco's
Nigerian subsidiary said it would overhaul its aid projects in the
country's oil-rich south after finding much of the tens of millions of
dollars spent yearly was fueling violence and wasted by corruption.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 3, In Pakistan a
parliamentary committee issued 32 recommendations on how the government
should address grievances in Baluchistan.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.37)
2005 May 3, On World Press Freedom
Day Pakistan police beat journalists with sticks and detained at least
30 of them for staging a rally in the capital, Islamabad.
(Reuters, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, In Lahore, Pakistan,
gas cylinders exploded in the basement of an apartment building as
residents slept, causing the three-story structure to collapse. At
least 25 people were killed and 20 injured.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 3, An explosion erupted
as Somalia's provisional prime minister was starting a speech, killing
at least seven people and causing an undetermined number of injuries at
a government rally in Mogadishu's soccer stadium.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2006 May 3 In their second meeting
at the White House, President Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel
vowed to keep pressing Iran on its nuclear program as other allies took
the issue to the United Nations.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 3, The Bush
administration released a 234-page report on avian flu saying a global
bird flu epidemic could disable the US economy. It called for
stockpiling antiviral medication and new vaccine development.
(SFC, 5/4/06, p.A11)
2006 May 3, A federal jury in
Alexandria, Va., rejected the death penalty for al-Qaida conspirator
Zacarias Moussaoui, deciding he should spend life in prison for his
role in 9/11; as he was led from the courtroom, Moussaoui taunted,
"America, you lost. ... I won."
(AP, 5/3/07)
2006 May 3, Vernon Jackson (53),
owner of iGate, pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Virginia, to bribing Rep.
William Jefferson, D-La., with more than $400,000 to promote the
Kentucky’s firm’s high tech business in Africa between 2001 and 2005.
(SFC, 5/4/06, p.A3)
2006 May 3, The US Postal Service
said it wants to raise the price of a first-class stamp by 3 cents to
42 cents, and proposed a "forever" stamp that people could use as hedge
against future rate increases.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, US federal agents
conducted raids in California targeting a SF-based cocaine and
methamphetamine trafficking operation. 19 indictments were unsealed.
(SFC, 5/4/06, p.B2)
2006 May 3, Sotheby’s auction
house sold “Dora Maar au Chat,” a painting by Pablo Picasso, for a
$95.2 million, the 2nd highest amount for a painting at auction.
(SFC, 5/5/06, p.A7)
2006 May 3, A burglary at a VA
data analyst's home in Aspen Hill, Md., included loss of a laptop with
personal data for 26.5 million veterans and military personnel. The
burglary was disclosed May 22 and the VA first said the data was for
50,000 veterans and military personnel. On June 29 federal officials
reported that the laptop was recovered.
(AP, 6/9/06)(SFC, 6/30/06, p.A1)
2006 May 3, In western Afghanistan
suspected Taliban gunmen killed a judge.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, An Armenian Airbus
A-320 crashed in stormy weather off Russia's Black Sea coast while
readying to land at the Sochi resort, killing all 113 people on board,
most of them Armenians.
(AP, 5/3/06)(WSJ, 5/3/06, p.A1)
2006 May 3, Australia raised its
benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 5.75%. This sent its
currency to a seven-month peak against the US dollar.
(www.indiainfoline.com/news/news.asp?dat=77648)
2006 May 3, Bolivia's decision to
nationalize its natural gas industry drew challenges from Brazil as top
officials pledged to defend current gas contracts and suspend
investment in the Bolivian industry.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, A decade-old ban on
British beef, triggered by the mad cow crisis in the mid-1990s, was
officially lifted, allowing cattle farmers to resume exports.
(AFP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Britain and France
introduced a UN Security Council resolution demanding that Iran abandon
its uranium enrichment program, possibly setting the stage for
sanctions if Tehran does not comply.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Chadians voted for
president despite no real alternatives to incumbent Idriss Deby, who
rebuffed calls to delay the election in this emerging African oil
exporter in favor of peace talks with rebels.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, China's state-approved
Catholic church installed a bishop without Vatican approval, the second
this week.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Owners of a coal mine
in China's central Henan province falsely claimed that five workers
were killed and seven injured in a blast, when 66 miners were
underground. An investigation by the county government later revealed
that 10 workers were killed and 18 were injured in the accident which
occurred in Yegou village.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 3, The European
Commission fined 7 companies a total of $489.8 (388.1 euros) for
running a cartel in bleaching chemicals.
(WSJ, 5/4/06, p.A2)
2006 May 3, In New Delhi Muslim
separatists met India's prime minister for fresh peace talks on the
future of Kashmir. Hours before the talks were due to begin, four
rebels and three security men died in gunbattles in Kashmir.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, India and Pakistan
agreed to launch a truck service and a second passenger bus route this
summer linking the parts of Kashmir held by each country.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, The guardian of Budhia
Singh, a five-year-old Indian boy who runs 50 kilometers (31 miles) a
day, denied media accusations he was flogging him for personal gain.
When Budhia’s father died two years ago, his mother, a dish washer in
Bhubaneswar, was unable to provide for her four children and sold
Budhia to a man for 800 rupees (20 dollars).
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In northern India, a
driver apparently lost control of his speeding bus, veering off a
bridge into a dry river bed near Rampur, a town in Uttar Pradesh state.
21 people were killed and 26 were injured.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Indonesian police
detained the heads of the state electricity company Perusahaan Listrik
Negara (PLN) and a state fertilizer firm as suspects in corruption
cases.
(AFP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 3, Sunni insurgents
boldly attacked fellow Sunni Arabs, the latest in a growing campaign
against those who cooperate with the US-backed Iraqi government. A
suicide bomber cloaked in explosives killed two policemen and 13 police
recruits gathered in Fallujah. Three more of the new Iraqi soldiers
were found dead in Khaldiyah. The bodies of 20 Iraqi men were found in
several areas of the capital, apparent victims of death squads that
kidnap civilians of rival Muslim sects, torture them, and dump their
bodies. In Wasit province southeast of Baghdad, masked gunmen broke
into the home of a Shiite family, killing the husband, two of his sons
and his sister.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, Mexican President
Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill, hours after
US officials warned the plan could encourage "drug tourism."
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In Mexico one person
was killed as machete-wielding protesters near Mexico City clashed with
police, blocking highways, throwing molotov cocktails and briefly
seizing six officers. The residents attacked police after several of
their companions were arrested in the nearby town of Texcoco.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 3, Nepal's Cabinet
declared a cease-fire with communist rebels and will no longer
designate them as a terrorist group. Nepal's rebel chief ruled out
disarming his forces and launched a scathing attack on the nation's new
political leadership, according to the Maoists' website.
(AP, 5/3/06)(AFP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In Pakistan gunmen
attacked a police post in a remote northwestern tribal region near the
Afghan border, killing three policemen.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 3, Peru confirmed that
ex-President Garcia placed 2nd in the April 9 voting and will face
nationalist Ollanta Humala in a June 4 runoff.
(WSJ, 5/4/06, p.A1)
2006 May 3, The European Union
suspended aid and trade talks with Serbia after Belgrade failed to
deliver fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, The Alexandros T, a
bulk carrier, sank off the South African coast with 33 crewmen. The sip
sank in heavy seas on its way from Brazil to China. Five managed to
reach life rafts in time and one was rescued with a life vest.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2007 May 3, A US House panel
called on the VA chief to explain why top officials got hefty bonuses
even as veteran’s care deteriorated.
(WSJ, 5/4/07, p.A1)
2007 May 3, A US federal judge
barred planting of alfalfa engineered by Monsanto to resist Roundup, a
popular weed killer made by Monsanto, pending further study.
(WSJ, 5/4/07, p.A1)
2007 May 3, The Florida
Legislature gave its final approval to moving the state's 2008 primary
from early March to Jan. 29.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2007 May 3, Ignacio De La Fuente
Jr. (32), the son of Oakland, Ca., City Council President Ignacio De La
Fuente, pleaded guilty to 5 felony sex charges committed between 2003
and 2005. Three of his 4 victims were prostitutes.
(SFC, 5/4/07, p.B5)
2007 May 3, James H. Simons,
mathematician and philanthropist, announced a $10 million donation to
Berkeley’s Mathematical Sciences Research Institute from the Simons
Foundation. Simons is president of Renaissance Technologies Corp., a
private investment firm dedicated to the use of mathematical methods.
(SSFC, 5/6/07, p.B7)
2007 May 3, In Alabama Jamison
Stone (11) killed a wild pig weighing 1,051 pounds with a .50 caliber
revolver. The pig measured 9 feet, 4 inches from snout to tail. The
animal's former owner later said the not-so-wild pig, named Fred, had
been raised on an Alabama farm and was sold to the Lost Creek
Plantation just four days before it was shot there in a 150-acre fenced
area.
(SFC, 5/25/07, p.A3)(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 May 3, Dr. Leonard D. Eron
(87), psychologist, died in Illinois. His research led him to warn
society that children who watch violent TV shows tend to show
aggressive and destructive behavior later in life. He determined that
aggression is learned behavior.
(SFC, 5/21/07, p.B4)
2007 May 3, Wally Schirra, one of
the original Mercury Seven astronauts, died in La Jolla, Ca. From 1962
to 1968 he logged over 295 hours in space .
(SFC, 5/4/07, p.B9)
2007 May 3, A remote-control bomb
hit an Afghan army bus in Kabul, killing the driver and wounding 29
people, including 22 soldiers.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, African neighbors
Sudan and Chad signed a Saudi-brokered reconciliation deal in Saudi
Arabia, requiring both sides to cooperate with the United Nations to
stabilize Darfur and the adjacent region in Chad.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, Australia signed the
first in a series of contracts that will see its air force buy 24
Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter-bombers from the US Navy.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, Voters handed PM Tony
Blair's Labour Party a string of embarrassing defeats in local
elections.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 3, Madeleine McCann (3),
a British girl, was kidnapped from her bed in a Portuguese beach resort
while her parents dined nearby.
(Reuters, 5/5/07)
2007 May 3, Seven of Canada's
biggest investment dealers said they plan to launch a new Alternative
Trading System in 2008 to boost the efficiency of equity trading and
make Canada more globally competitive. The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled
a monster gold coin with a face value of C$1 million (455,000 pounds)
that it says is the world's biggest, purest and highest denomination
coin.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, Forces loyal to the
outgoing president of the Comoros island of Anjouan took control of a
building housing federal offices in what one African Union official
called a coup.
(AFP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 3, A pair of heavily
armed Cuban soldiers seized a city bus, killed an army officer and
triggered a gun battle in a foiled bid to hijack a charter flight bound
for the United States.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 3, Ecuador's new leftist
government set up a truth commission to investigate alleged human
rights abuses committed over the last 27 years, particularly during the
right-wing administration of former President Leon Febres Cordero.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 3, In Egypt a conference
of nearly 50 nations opened at Sharm el-Sheik to rally international
support, particularly from Arab nations, for an ambitious plan to
stabilize Iraq. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Syria's
foreign minister in the first high-level talks between the two
countries in years. Hours after the chief military spokesman in Iraq
said Syria had moved to reduce "the flow of foreign fighters" across
its border.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, In France Claude
Mandil, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told a news
conference that there is no reason why Iran should not have nuclear
energy.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, US-led forces
conducting a crackdown on al-Qaida in Iraq killed Muharib Abdul-Latif
al-Jubouri, described as al-Qaida's information minister. He was
responsible for the high-profile kidnappings of several Westerners.
Gunmen stormed the offices of an independent radio station in a
predominantly Sunni area of Baghdad, killing two employees and wounding
five before bombing the building and knocking the station off the air.
Police in Fallujah found nine bullet-riddled bodies, four members of a
Sunni tribe that recently joined an alliance against al-Qaida in Iraq
and five found near the tax office. Gunmen stormed a market in Baqouba
killing a plainclothes policeman after a militant read a death sentence
issued by al-Qaida and two Shiite men. They then killed a policeman
after he arrived at the scene to investigate.
(AP, 5/3/07)(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 3, In Israel the campaign
to oust PM Ehud Olmert shifted to the streets, with a mass rally in Tel
Aviv expected to draw tens of thousands of people calling for the
embattled leader to step down.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, In Nigeria at least 21
workers, most of them foreigners, were kidnapped in separate attacks in
the oil-rice delta region. 8 foreigners and a Nigerian were later freed.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, The Ulster Volunteer
Force, an outlawed Northern Ireland group that for decades attacked the
province's Catholic minority, renounced violence and pledged to disarm.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, Philippine President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced that US-based Texas Instruments Inc.,
the world's biggest maker of mobile phone chips, will build a $1
billion plant in the Philippines, choosing the country over China
despite concerns about power costs.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, Russia lashed out at
the EU and NATO for supporting Estonia in its row with Moscow over the
relocation of a Soviet war monument.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, Scotland held
parliamentary elections. Labor was knocked out of the top spot for the
1st time in 50 years by the Scottish National Party. The SNP supported
a future referendum on independence.
(AFP, 5/3/07)(Econ, 5/12/07, p.61)
2007 May 3, Turkish lawmakers
moved up elections to July 22, after the Islamic-rooted ruling party
and its secular opposition agreed that an early ballot was the only way
out of their standoff over political Islam.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 3, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez warned he will nationalize the country's banks and largest
steel producer in an apparent bid to strong-arm the businesses to
contribute more to local industry.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2008 May 3, Big Brown pulled won
the Kentucky Derby 4 3/4 lengths ahead of the filly Eight Belles, who
was euthanized by injection on the track with 2 broken ankles.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 3, In Philadelphia police
officer Liczbinski was shot with an assault rifle after a robbery. One
suspect was fatally shot by police soon after, another was arrested the
next day and a third was captured May 7.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 3, The Asian Development
Bank, announced emergency funding to help poor countries struggling
with rice prices that have nearly tripled in four months. The
Manila-based organization made the announcement while meeting in Spain.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 3, An embassy
representative said 11 US diplomats have left Belarus after a row with
the tightly controlled former Soviet state over human rights and
sanctions.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, Early results showed
Boris Johnson defeating Ken Livingstone as mayor of London. Voters also
picked opposition candidates in more than 300 municipal council races,
prompting PM Brown to humbly pledge to heed the scathing verdict.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, Thousands of marijuana
enthusiasts marched in downtown Toronto, many openly smoking the drug
as part of a globally coordinated rally meant to celebrate cannabis
culture and push for the drug's legalization.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, In Guinea prison
authorities said more than 30 prisoners escaped from a jail by using
spoons to scoop a hole in the baked earth wall of their prison building
which had been softened by rain.
(Reuters, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, The US military fired
missiles at a target about 50 yards away from the general hospital in
Baghdad's Sadr City district, wounding more than 20 people and
destroying ambulances. US soldiers killed four militants elsewhere in
Baghdad. A US soldier died of wounds sustained in a roadside bomb that
struck the soldier's vehicle during a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad
a day earlier.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, Insurgents attacked an
army convoy in northern Mali, violating a cease-fire and sparking a
fire fight that left five people dead.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, A tropical cyclone
slammed into Myanmar's main city of Yangon, ripping off roofs, felling
trees and raising fears of major casualties. Within days the death toll
soared above 22,000 and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign
countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm
on record.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 3, Rebels in Nigeria's
oil-rich Niger Delta blew up three oil wells operated by Royal Dutch
Shell, their fifth attack in recent weeks against the petroleum
industry.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, In southern Pakistan
thousands of Islamists rallied to condemn an anti-Koran film by a Dutch
lawmaker and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers.
(AFP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, In Sri Lanka heavy
fighting between government troops and Tamil separatists left 35 rebels
and eight soldiers dead.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 3, In Yemen 3 soldiers
and four rebels died in the overnight skirmishes that took place in the
remote mountain province of Saada, near the Saudi Arabian border.
(AP, 5/3/08)
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