On this day: April 3

Events on April 3

• 1851 Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand after the death of his half-brother, Rama III. Wikipedia
• 1860 The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins. Wikipedia
• 1895 The libel trial instigated by Irish author Oscar Wilde began, eventually resulting in his arrest, trial and imprisonment on charges of gross indecency. Wikipedia
• 1895 The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality. Wikipedia
• 1905 Association football club Boca Juniors is founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina Wikipedia
• 1922 Joseph Stalin became the first general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 1922 Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 1933 First flight over Mount Everest, the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Wikipedia
• 1948 The Marshall Plan, an economic recovery program established by U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall to assist the post-World War II re-building of Europe, was signed into law. Wikipedia
• 1948 Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries. Wikipedia
• 1948 In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju uprising begins. Wikipedia
• 1961 LAN-Chile Flight 621 crashes in the Andes mountains, killing 21 people, including Argentinian football player Eliseo Mouriño. Wikipedia
• 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech; he was assassinated the next day. Wikipedia
• 1974 The Super Outbreak of 148 tornadoes began, killing at least 315 people and injuring 5,484 in 13 US states at the end of a very strong La Niña event. Wikipedia
• 1975 Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default. Wikipedia
• 1981 The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. Wikipedia
• 1996 A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. Wikipedia
• 1996 Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States. Wikipedia
• 1997 The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas. Wikipedia
• 2000 In United States v. Microsoft Corp., Microsoft was found to have violated antitrust law by bundling the web browser Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system. Wikipedia
• 2000 United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors. Wikipedia
• 2008 Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS's YFZ Ranch. Eventually 533 women and children will be taken into state custody. Wikipedia
• 2010 Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer. Wikipedia
• 2013 More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Wikipedia
• 2017 A bomb explodes in the St Petersburg metro system, killing 14 and injuring several more people. Wikipedia

Born on April 3

• 1593 George Herbert, English poet (died 1633) Wikipedia
• 1783 Washington Irving, American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian (died 1859) Wikipedia
• 1880 Otto Weininger, Jewish-Austrian philosopher and author (died 1903) Wikipedia
• 1881 Alcide De Gasperi, Italian journalist and politician, 30th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1954) Wikipedia
• 1898 Henry Luce, American publisher, co-founded Time magazine (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1922 Doris Day, American singer and actress (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1924 Marlon Brando, American actor and director (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1926 Gus Grissom, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1929 Fazlur Rahman Khan, Bangladeshi engineer and architect, co-designed the Willis Tower and John Hancock Center (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1930 Helmut Kohl, German politician, Chancellor of Germany (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1934 Jane Goodall, English primatologist and anthropologist (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1943 Hikaru Saeki, Japanese admiral, the first female star officer of the Japan Self-Defense Forces Wikipedia
• 1948 Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexican economist and politician, 53rd President of Mexico Wikipedia
• 1948 Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Dutch academic, politician, and diplomat, 11th Secretary General of NATO Wikipedia
• 1958 Alec Baldwin, American actor, comedian, producer and television host Wikipedia
• 1961 Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian Wikipedia
• 1964 Nigel Farage, English politician Wikipedia
• 1982 Cobie Smulders, Canadian actress Wikipedia
• 1983 Ben Foster, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1985 Leona Lewis, English singer-songwriter and producer Wikipedia
• 1986 Amanda Bynes, American actress Wikipedia
• 1997 Gabriel Jesus, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia

Died on April 3

• 33 Jesus of Nazareth , (Julian Calendar Date) Wikipedia
• 1287 Pope Honorius IV (born 1210) Wikipedia
• 1680 Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Indian emperor, founded the Maratha Empire (born 1630) Wikipedia
• 1682 Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish painter and educator (born 1618) Wikipedia
• 1827 Ernst Chladni, German physicist and academic (born 1756) Wikipedia
• 1849 Juliusz Słowacki, Polish-French poet and playwright (born 1809) Wikipedia
• 1882 Jesse James, American criminal and outlaw (born 1847) Wikipedia
• 1897 Johannes Brahms, German pianist and composer (born 1833) Wikipedia
• 1950 Kurt Weill, German-American composer and pianist (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1981 Juan Trippe, American businessman, founded Pan American World Airways (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1990 Sarah Vaughan, American singer (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 1991 Graham Greene, English novelist, playwright, and critic (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 2013 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German-American author and screenwriter (born 1927) Wikipedia
• 2016 Cesare Maldini, Italian footballer and manager (born 1932) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Agape, Chionia, and Irene Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Burgundofara Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Joseph the Hymnographer Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Luigi Scrosoppi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Piotr Edward Dankowski Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Richard of Chichester Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: April 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “April 3” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.