This Day in History May 3 - Mesa Public Schools

This Day in History
       May 3

1469
Niccolò Machiavelli,
author of The Prince
and the father of
modern political
science, is born in
Florence, Italy

1775
As tensions rise
between Britain and the
American colonies, the
Earl of Dartmouth
instructs Josiah Martin
to organize a Loyalist
militia in North Carolina

1933
James Brown,
the “Godfather
of Soul,” is born
in Barnwell,
South Carolina

1942
The Battle of the
Coral Sea, a
major naval
battle between
U.S. and
Japanese forces,
begins

1946
Less than a year after
the end of World
War II, the Japanese
war crimes trials
begin

1951
Congress begins
hearings on
President Harry
Truman’s dismissal of
General MacArthur
during the Korean
War

1951
‘70s and ‘80s soft
rocker Christopher
Cross is born
Christopher Charles
Geppert in San
Antonio, Texas

1965
The 173rd Airborne
Brigade deploys to
South Vietnam—it is
the first U.S. Army
ground unit
committed to the
Vietnam War

1976
Former Beatle Paul
McCartney opens his
first tour with his band
Wings in Fort Worth,
Texas—it is called the
Wings Over America
tour and is massively
successful

1980
Californian Candy Lightner’s
13-year-old daughter Cari is
killed by a drunk driver,
prompting her to establish
Mothers Against Drunk
Driving (MADD)—the number
of automobile deaths caused
by drunk drivers today is half
what it was 40 years ago,
thanks in large part to MADD

1986
Propelled by a
memorable music
video where lookalike
models make up his
backup band, Robert
Palmer’s “Addicted to
Love” hits #1 on the
Hot 100

1986
The Silver Dollar City
Tennessee amusement
parks in Pigeon Forge,
Tennessee, reopens as
Dollywood after Dolly
Parton takes an ownership
stake—the park grows
considerably and becomes
very successful

1986
At age 54, Willie
Shoemaker becomes
the oldest jockey to
win the Kentucky
Derby, 31 years after
his first Kentucky
Derby win

1993
English new wave band
New Order releases its
sixth studio album,
Republic—it reaches #11 in
America, helped by the
successful single “Regret,”
which becomes the band’s
biggest hit in the U.S.,
reaching #28 on the Hot
100

2010
“I Gotta Feeling” by the
Black Eyed Peas reaches
5,561,000 downloads,
making it the best-
selling digital song of all
time—it eventually sells
over 8 million digital
copies and still holds the
record as streaming has
replaced downloads

2017
The first-ever “Hugs
from Holly Day” is
celebrated,
encouraging people
to perform simple
acts of kindness for
others

2018
Hawaii’s Kilauea
begins erupting,
causing massive
destruction from
lava flows over
the next four
months

2020
500 protestors gather
at the Arizona State
Capitol for a rally to
protest Governor
Ducey’s coronavirus
stay-at-home order,
which had just been
extended to May 15 a
few days earlier

2021
After Governor Ducey lifted
his public-school mask
mandate a few weeks ago,
phase 2 of Mesa Public
Schools’ new mask policy
goes into effect today—
mask-wearing in school and
district buildings is now
optional but strongly
recommended

2021
A treasure trove of Medieval
artifacts, stolen from Italy’s
Seminary of Monteriggiono in
1989, have been recovered by
policed—they were found inside
the home of an antiquities
collector near the port city of
Catania on the island of Sicily and
will now undergo a six-month
restoration at the Vatican
Museums

2021
Actress Olympia Dukakis,
who won an Oscar for the
1987 movie Moonstruck,
died in New York City
Saturday at age 89—she
was a first cousin of former
Massachusetts governor
and presidential candidate
Michael Dukakis

2021
Five people have been arrested
and charged in Los Angeles for
shooting Lady Gaga’s
dogwalker and stealing two of
her French bulldogs in
February—one of those
charged is the woman who
returned the dogs to police and
originally appeared to be
uninvolved in the crime

2021
India set another daily
global coronavirus case
record on Saturday,
with more than 400,000
new cases and 3,500
deaths—less than 2% of
the country is fully
vaccinated

2021
At least three people
were killed and 27
were hospitalized
when a boat
overturned yesterday
off the Sand Diego
coast during a
suspected human
smuggling operation

2021
Portugal’s Arouca
Bridge, the world’s
longest pedestrian
bridge, officially
opened yesterday—
it is 1,700 feet long
and spans a waterfall
on the Paiva River
575 feet below

2021
A legal showdown between
Apple and Fortnite publisher
Epic Games gets underway in
federal court today in
Oakland, California—the
lawsuit stems from Epic’s
move last August to allow
players of its mobile games
to directly pay for downloads
and bypass the Apple App
Store and Google Play Store

2021
About 80,000 New
York municipal
employees who
have been working
remotely during the
pandemic will return
to their offices
starting today