Summary of the Day ✨ 3 May (03/05)
On this day, Serbia experienced its first school shooting as nine students and a security guard were killed, while ethnic violence erupted between the Meitei and Kuki Zo people in Manipur. Elsewhere, a deadly Mexico City Metro collapse claimed 26 lives, Fort McMurray, Canada faced devastating wildfires that forced 88,000 evacuations, and two gunmen attempted an attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas.
Historical Events 📜
- 2023: Nine students and a security guard are killed in the Belgrade school shooting, the first attack of its kind in Serbia.
- 2023: Ethnic violence breaks out between the Meitei and the Kuki Zo people in the state of Manipur.
- 2021: Twenty-six people are killed and ninety-eight are injured after an elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapses.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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”.
- 2006: Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea near Sochi International Airport in Sochi, Russia, killing 113 people.
- 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.
- 2000: The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
- 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.
- 1999: Infiltration of Pakistani soldiers on Indian side results in the Kargil War.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1979: Margaret Thatcher wins the United Kingdom general election. The following day, she becomes the first female British Prime Minister.
- 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.
Famous Births 👶
- 2003: Florian Wirtz, German footballer
- 2001: Rachel Zegler, American actress and singer
- 1999: Tom Hartley, English cricketer
- 1999: Ella Langley, American singer-songwriter
- 1997: Desiigner, American rapper
- 1997: Dwayne Haskins, American football player (died 2022)
- 1996: Mary Cain, American runner
- 1996: Alex Iwobi, Nigerian footballer
- 1996: Domantas Sabonis, Lithuanian-American basketball player
- 1996: Noah Munck, American actor
- 1995: Ivan Bukavshin, Russian chess player (died 2016)
- 1995: Anwar El Ghazi, Dutch footballer
- 1995: Austin Meadows, American baseball player
- 1991: Samuel Seo, South Korean musician
- 1990: Harvey Guillén, American actor
Notable Deaths 🕊️
- 2024: Dick Rutan, American military aviator and officer (born 1938)
- 2021: Lloyd Price, American R&B vocalist (born 1933)
- 2020: Victoria Barbă, Moldovan animated film director (born 1926)
- 2020: Dave Greenfield, English rock keyboardist (born 1949)
- 2017: Daliah Lavi, Israeli actress, singer and model (born 1942)
- 2016: Ian Deans, Canadian politician (born 1937)
- 2016: Jadranka Stojaković, Yugoslav singer-songwriter (born 1950)
- 2015: Revaz Chkheidze, Georgian director and screenwriter (born 1926)
- 2015: Danny Jones, Welsh rugby player (born 1986)
- 2015: Warren Smith, American golfer and coach (born 1915)
- 2014: Gary Becker, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1930)
- 2014: Francisco Icaza, Mexican painter (born 1930)
- 2014: Jim Oberstar, American educator and politician (born 1934)
- 2013: Joe Astroth, American baseball player (born 1922)
- 2013: Herbert Blau, American engineer and academic (born 1926)
Holidays & Observances 🎉
- Christian feast day:
Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church) - Christian feast day:
Antonia and Alexander - Christian feast day:
Juvenal of Narni - Christian feast day:
Moura (Coptic Church) - Christian feast day:
Philip and James the Lesser - Christian feast day:
Pope Alexander I - Christian feast day:
Sarah the Martyr (Coptic Church) - Christian feast day:
The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland - Christian feast day:
Theodosius of Kiev (Eastern Orthodox Church) - Christian feast day:
May 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) - Constitution Memorial Day (Japan)
- Constitution Day (Poland)
- Finding of the Holy Cross-related observances:
Fiesta de las Cruces (Spain and Hispanic America) - International Sun Day
- World Press Freedom Day