On this day: May 3

Events on May 3

• 996 German king Otto III chooses his cousin Bruno of Carinthia as pope following the death of Pope John XV. Bruno becomes pope under the name Gregory V. Wikipedia
• 1481 The largest of a series of earthquakes struck the island of Rhodes, causing an estimated 30,000 casualties. Wikipedia
• 1491 Nkuwu Nzinga, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, was baptised as João I by Portuguese missionaries. Wikipedia
• 1616 The Treaty of Loudun was signed, ending a war that originally began as a power struggle for the French throne. Wikipedia
• 1791 The Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ratified the first codified national constitution in Europe. Wikipedia
• 1845 A long-running feud between two towns in Wisconsin came to a head when a schooner crashed into a bridge; they later merged to form the city of Milwaukee. Wikipedia
• 1848 Thomas Bateman excavated a high-status barrow, discovering objects including the boar-crested Benty Grange helmet, and the Benty Grange hanging bowl Wikipedia
• 1855 A group of American mercenaries led by William Walker set sail from San Francisco to conquer Nicaragua. Wikipedia
• 1911 Edith Maryon's statuette The Dance of Anitra, one of the few of her works known to survive in private hands, was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts. Wikipedia
• 1913 Raja Harishchandra, the first Indian feature-length film, was released. Wikipedia
• 1915 The oldest Royal Air Force station in continuous operation, RAF Northolt, opened as home to No. 4 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron. Wikipedia
• 1920 Russian Civil War: Relying on Red Army troops in neighboring Azerbaijan, the Bolsheviks attempted to stage a coup d'etat in Georgia. Wikipedia
• 1921 Under the British Government of Ireland Act, Ireland was partitioned into two self-governing territories, Northern and Southern Ireland. Wikipedia
• 1939 Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Bloc, a faction within the Indian National Congress, in opposition to Gandhi's tactics of nonviolence. Wikipedia
• 1942 Second World War: Japanese forces began an invasion of Tulagi and nearby islands in the British Solomon Islands, enabling them to threaten and intercept supply and communication routes between the United States and Australasia. Wikipedia
• 1945 Second World War: The German ocean liner Cap Arcona, afloat in the Bay of Lübeck with thousands of concentration camp survivors on board, was attacked and sunk by the Royal Air Force. Wikipedia
• 1947 A new Constitution of Japan went into effect, providing for a parliamentary system of government, guaranteeing certain fundamental rights, and relegating the Japanese monarchy to a purely ceremonial role. Wikipedia
• 1960 The Off-Broadway show The Fantasticks premiered, eventually becoming the world's longest-running musical, with 17,162 performances across 42 years. Wikipedia
• 1963 Police in Birmingham, Alabama, used high-pressure water hoses and dogs against civil-rights protesters, bringing scrutiny on racial segregation in the southern United States. Wikipedia
• 1971 Erich Honecker became First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the governing party of East Germany. Wikipedia
• 1999 The Kargil War initiates when Indian forces detected the infiltration of Pakistani forces in Indian-administered Kargil, a city in Jammu and Kashmir. Wikipedia
• 1999 A Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on Earth, at 143.6 m/s (321 mph; 517 km/h), in a tornado near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma. Wikipedia
• 2007 Three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal; she has never been found. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 2021 An elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapsed, killing 26 people and injuring 98 others. Wikipedia
• 2023 Nine students and a security guard are killed in the Belgrade school shooting, the first attack of its kind in Serbia. Wikipedia

Born on May 3

• 612 Constantine III, Byzantine emperor (died 641) Wikipedia
• 1469 Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and philosopher (died 1527) Wikipedia
• 1826 Charles XV of Sweden (died 1872) Wikipedia
• 1849 Bernhard von Bülow, German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (died 1929) Wikipedia
• 1873 Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1892 George Paget Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1898 Golda Meir, Ukrainian-Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1902 Alfred Kastler, German-French physicist and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1984) Wikipedia
• 1903 Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (died 1977) Wikipedia
• 1906 Mary Astor, American actress (died 1987) Wikipedia
• 1917 Kiro Gligorov, Macedonian politician and first president of the Republic of Macedonia (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1919 Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1921 Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1933 James Brown, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1933 Steven Weinberg, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1941 Nona Gaprindashvili, Georgian chess player, Women's World Champion, 1962-1978 Wikipedia
• 1942 Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast and coach (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1975 Christina Hendricks, American actress and model Wikipedia
• 1985 Ezequiel Lavezzi, Argentinian footballer Wikipedia
• 1996 Alex Iwobi, Nigerian footballer Wikipedia
• 2001 Rachel Zegler, American actress and singer Wikipedia
• 2003 Florian Wirtz, German footballer Wikipedia

Died on May 3

• 1270 Béla IV of Hungary (born 1206) Wikipedia
• 1410 Antipope Alexander V Wikipedia
• 1481 Mehmed the Conqueror, Ottoman sultan (born 1432) Wikipedia
• 1758 Pope Benedict XIV (born 1675) Wikipedia
• 1856 Adolphe Adam, French composer and critic (born 1803) Wikipedia
• 1916 Patrick Pearse, executed Irish teacher and rebel leader (born 1879) Wikipedia
• 1969 Zakir Husain, Indian academic and politician, 3rd President of India (born 1897) Wikipedia
• 1981 Nargis, Indian actress (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 1987 Dalida, Italian singer, actress, dancer, and model (born 1933) Wikipedia
• 1991 Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist and screenwriter (born 1933) Wikipedia
• 2006 Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2007 Wally Schirra, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (born 1923) Wikipedia
• 2008 Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish engineer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 2014 Gary Becker, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1930) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Emilia Bicchieri Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Juvenal of Narni Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Marie-Léonie Paradis Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Moura and Timothy (Catholic and Coptic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Philip and James the Lesser Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Alexander I Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Sarah the Martyr (Coptic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theodosius of Kiev (Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Memorial Day (Japan) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Poland) Wikipedia
• Finding of the Holy Cross-related observances: Fiesta de las Cruces (Spain and Hispanic America) Wikipedia
• International Sun Day Wikipedia
• World Press Freedom Day Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “May 3” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/May 3” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 3” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for May 3 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.