May 3

Birthdays:

1975~ Christina Hendricks (née Christina Rene Hendricks), American actress best known for her role as Joan on MadMen.  She is married to actor Geoffrey Arend.

1969~ Amy Ryan (née Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski), American actress.  She is best known for her role as Holly on The Office.

1961~ David Vitter (né David Bruce Vitter), United States Senator from Louisiana, who caught frequenting a prostitution service in Washington, D.C., but was still reelected to serve the State of Louisiana in Congress.  He served in the Senate from January 2005 until January 2017.

1948~ Chris Mulkey, American actor.

1947~ Doug Henning (néDouglas James Henning, d. Feb. 7, 2000), Canadian magician.  He died of liver cancer at age 52.

1933~ James Brown (né James Joseph Brown; d. Dec. 25, 2006), American singer-songwriter.  He was known as the Godfather of Soul.  He died of congestive heart failure at age 73.

1933~ Steven Weinberg, American physicist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1928~ Jacques-Louis Lions (d. May 17, 2001), French mathematician.  He died 2 weeks after his 73^rdbirthday.

1928~ Edwin P. Wilson (né Edwin Paul Wilson, d. Sept. 10, 2012), American CIA agent who was convicted in 1983 for selling arms to Libya.  It was later discovered that the Department of Justice had covered up evidence, and his conviction was overturned.  He was freed in 2004.  He died at age 84.

1924~ Yehuda Amichai (d. Sept. 22, 2000), German-born Israeli poet.  He died at age 76.

1923~ Clara Luper (née Clara Mae Shepard; d. June 8, 2011), African-American schoolteacher who pioneered the sit-in.  She was active in civil rights.  She died a month after her 88^thbirthday.

1921~ Sugar Ray Robinson (né Walker Smith, Jr.; d. Apr. 12; 1989), African-American boxer.  He died less than a month before his 68^thbirthday.

1919~ Pete Seeger (né Peter Seeger; d. Jan. 27, 1914), American folk singer, musician and composer who championed social change.  He died at age 94.

1913~ William Inge (né William Motter Inge; d. June 10, 1973), American playwright.  He died by suicide using carbon monoxide at age 60.

1912~ May Sarton (née Eleanore Marie Sarton; d. July 16, 1995), Belgian-born author and poet.  She died in of breast cancer in York, Maine at age 83.

1905~ Werner Fenchel (né Moritz Werner Fenchel; d. Jan. 24, 1988), German-born Dutch mathematician.  He left Germany to escape the Nazi suppression of intellectuals. He died at age 82.

1903~ Bing Crosby (né Harry Lillis Crosby, Jr.; d. Oct. 14, 1977), American singer and actor.  He died at age 74 of a heart attack.

1902~ Alfred Kastler (d. Jan. 7, 1984), French physicist and recipient of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 81.

1898~ Golda Meir (née Golda Mabovitz, aka Golda Meyerson; d. Dec. 8, 1978), 4^thPrime Minister of Israel and first woman to hold that position.  She was born in Kiev, Russian Empire.  As a young child, her family left Russia to avoid the pogroms and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  In the 1920s she moved to what is now Israel. In March 1969 she became the 4^thPrime Minister of Israel.  She resigned following the Yom Kippur War in 1973.  She died of lymphoma at age 80.

1892~ Sir George Paget Thomson (d. Sept. 10, 1975), English physicist and recipient of the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 83.

1886~ Marcel Dupré (d. May 30, 1971), French organist and composer.  He died 27 days after his 85^thbirthday.

1874~ François Coty (né Joseph Marie François Spoturno; d. July 25, 1934), French businessman, perfumer and founder of Coty, Inc.  He died at age 60 of pneumonia.

1860~ Vito Volterra (d. Oct. 11, 1940), Italian mathematician.  He is best known for his contributions to mathematical biology.  He died at age 80.

1853~ E. W. Howe (né Edgar Watson Howe; d. Oct. 3, 1937), American novelist and magazine editor.  He died at age 84.

1849~ Jacob Riis (né Jacob August Riis; d. May 26, 1914), Dutch-born American journalist and photographer.  He devoted his career to social reformer.  He died 3 weeks after his 65^thbirthday.

1849~ Bertha Benz (née Bertha Ringer; d. May 5, 1944), German automotive pioneer.  She was married to Karl Benz (1844 ~ 1929), and together they formed the Benz automotive manufacturing company.  She is also known for being the first person to take a long distance road trip when she took her two sons from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany.  She died two days after her 95^thbirthday.

1826~ Charles XV of Sweden (d. Sept. 18, 1872).  He reigned as king from July 1859 until his death 13 years later.  His coronation, however, was in 1860 on his 34^thbirthday.  He died at age 46.

1469~ Niccolò Machiavelli (d. June 21, 1527), Italian statesman and political author best known for his book The Prince.  He is sometimes considered the father of modern political science.  He died at age 58.

1446~ Margaret of York (d. Nov. 23, 1503), third wife of Charles the Bold and daughter of Richard Plantagenet and Cecily Neville.  She was born on her mother’s 31^stbirthday.  Upon her marriage to Charles the Bold, she became the Duchess consort of Burgundy.  She died at age 57.

1415~ Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (d. May 31, 1495), wife of Richard Plantagenet, 3^rdDuke of York and mother of King Edward IV and King Richard III of England.  She was also the mother of Margaret of York who was born on her 31^stbirthday.  She died 28 days after her 80^thbirthday.

612~ Constantine III (d. 641), Byzantine emperor.  This is the traditional date of his birth; the exact day and year is unknown.  The exact date of his death is unknown.  He is believed to have been 28 or 29 when he died.

Events that Changed the World:

2007~ Days before her 4^thbirthday, Madeleine McCann (b. May 12, 2003), a young British toddler, disappeared in Portugal where her family was vacationing.  Her disappearance was widely reported around the world.  To date, she is still considered missing.

2003~ The famous Old Man of the Mountain, formed on the face of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, collapsed.

1973~ The 108-story Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower, in Chicago became the tallest building in the world at 1,451 feet.

1960~ The Anne Frank House opened as a museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

1952~ The Kentucky Derby was televised nationally for the first time.

1948~ The United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of Shelley v. Kraemer, that covenants prohibiting the sale of immovable property to blacks and other minorities were unenforceable.

1937~ Margaret Mitchell (1900 ~ 1948) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, Gone with the Wind.

1936~ Joe DiMaggio (1914 ~ 1999) played in his first major league baseball game when he started with the New York Yankees.

1921~ West Virginia became the first State in the Union to impose a state sales tax.

1916~ The leaders of the Easter Rising of Ireland were executed in Dublin.  The executions took place between May 3 and May 13, until all 14 leaders had been killed.

1913~ The Indian film industry began with the release of Raja Harishchandra, India’s first full-length film.

1901~ The Great Fire of 1901 destroyed much of the city of Jacksonville, Florida.  The fire burned 146 city blocks and left over 10,000 residents homeless.  To date, this is the third worst fire that occurred in the United States, behind the Great Chicago Fire and the 1906 San Francisco Fire.

1867~ The Hudson’s Bay Company gave up all claims to Vancouver Island.

1860~ On his 34^thbirthday Charles XV (1826 ~ 1972) was crowned king of Sweden.

1802~ Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city.

1481~ The largest of three earthquakes that occurred in 1481 hit the island of Rhodes.  An estimated 30,000 people were killed.

Good-Byes:

2014~ Gary Becker (né Gary Stanley Becker; b. Dec. 2, 1930), American economist and recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 83.

2009~ Robert B. Choate (né Robert Burnett Choate, Jr.; b. Nov. 6, 1924), American businessman and “citizen lobbyist” for consumer protection in the cereal industry.  He died at age 84.

2007~ Wally Schirra (né Walter Marty Schirra, Jr.; b. Mar. 12, 1923), American astronaut.  He was one of the original MercurySeven astronauts.  He died at age 84.

2003~ Suzy Parker (née Cecilia Ann Renee Parker; b. Oct. 28, 1932), American actress and model.  She died of kidney failure at age 70.

1991~ Jerzy Kosiński (né Józef Lewinkopf; b. June 14, 1933), Polish-born author.  He was a holocaust survivor.  He committed suicide at age 57.

1989~ Christine Jorgensen (né George William Jorgensen, Jr.; b. May 30, 1926), American transgender.  She was the first American to have sex reassignment surgery. She died of cancer 3 weeks before her 63^rdbirthday.

1988~ Lev Pontryagin (b. Sept. 3, 1908), Soviet mathematician.  He was legally blind.  He died at age 79.

1910~ Howard Taylor Ricketts (b. Feb. 9, 1871), American pathologist.  He is known for identifying the disease agent causing Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The pathogen, Rickettsia, was named after him.  He died at age 39 after contracting typhus.

1816~ James McHenry (b. Nov. 16, 1753), Irish-American military surgeon.  He served as the 3^rdUnited States Secretary of War.  He served under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.  He served as the Secretary of War from January 1796 through May 1800.  Ft. McHenry of Civil War fame was named in his honor.  He died at age 62.

1779~ John Winthrop (b. Dec. 19, 1714), American mathematician and astronomer.  He served as the acting President of Harvard College from 1769 until 1773.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 64.

1758~ Pope Benedict XIV (né Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini; b. Mar. 31, 1675). He was Pope from 1740 until his death on this date 18 years later.  He died at age 83.

1410~ Antipope Alexander V (né Peter of Candia, b. 1339), Antipope during the Western Schism.  He reigned from June 1409 until his death a year later.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

1270~ Béla IV of Hungary (b. 1206).  He ruled Hungary and Croatian from 1235 until his death 35 years later.  The actual date of his birth is unknown.

762~ Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (b. Sept. 8, 685), 7^thEmperor of the Tang dynasty.  He was emperor from September 713 until August 756.  He died at age 76.