495        May 3, Pope Gelasius asserted that his authority was superior to Emperor Anastasius.

1662        May 3, John Winthrop the Younger, the son of the first governor of Massachusetts was honored by being made a fellow of the Royal Society, England’s new scientific society. Winthrop gained a new charter from the king, uniting the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven.

1715        May 3, Edmund Halley observed a total eclipse phenomenon: “Baily’s Beads.” 

1855        May 3, Macon B. Allen became the first African American to be admitted to the Bar in Massachusetts. 

1865         May 3,    President Lincoln’s funeral train arrived in Springfield, Illinois.

1936        May 3, Joe DiMaggio (21) of San Francisco made his major-league debut as NY Yankee and got 3 hits.

 

1942        May 3, Executive Order 9066, signed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, was issued by Lt. Gen’l. John DeWitt from his headquarters in the SF Presidio. It called for the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from Los Angeles effective May 9. Some 110,000-112,000 Japanese-Americans were settled in 10 relocation camps, the first of which was in Manzanar in Owens Valley, Ca. In the Bay Area most Japanese-Americans were sent to the Tanforan racetrack where they were put up in stables and later relocated to Topaz, Utah. Soon after, the War Relocation Authority hired Dorothea Lange, a photographer already well-known for her striking Depression-era photos of migrant workers, to document the internment process. Lange’s poignant photos reflected her disagreement with government policy and brought her into conflict with her employers

1962        May 3, William A, Eddy (b.1896), former US minister to Saudi Arabia (1944-1946), died. In 2008 Thomas W. Lippman authored “Arabian Knight: Colonel Bill Eddy, USMC, and the Rise of American Power in the Middle East.” 1962        May 3, William A, Eddy (b.1896), former US minister to Saudi Arabia (1944-1946), died. In 2008 Thomas W. Lippman authored “Arabian Knight: Colonel Bill Eddy, USMC, and the Rise of American Power in the Middle East.”

1971         May 3, James Earl Ray (1928-1998), Martin Luther King’s assassin (1968), was caught in a jail break attempt in Tennessee.

1975        May 3,    Gov. Jerry Brown of California began a round of private meetings to resolve the issues between the UFW, agribusiness, and the Teamsters Union.

1988        May 3, Milton A. Caniff (b.1907), US cartoonist (Terry & the Pirates), died

1992        May 3, Yugoslav Army seized Bosnian Pres. Alija Izetbegovic on his return from peace talks in Lisbon. He was released the next day.

1993        May 3, American sailor Terry M. Helvey confessed to stomping to death Allen Schindler, a homosexual shipmate, but told his court-martial in Japan that he was drunk and did not plan the killing. Helvey was later sentenced to life in prison.

1996        May 3,    Chandraswami, aka Nemi Chand Jain, faith healer and psychic admired by Elizabeth Taylor, was held by police in New Delhi on charges of swindling $100,000 from a London businessman.

1999        May 3, Pres. Clinton said that he would support a bombing pause if he was convinced that the Yugoslav crackdown on Kosovo guerrillas and civilians was ending and that Serbian forces were being withdrawn.

1999        May 3, Howard Simpson, US author and career foreign service officer, died. He served in Vietnam and his books included the novel “Someone Else’s War.” He also wrote a series of detective stories based on the character Inspector Bastide: “The Jumpmaster,” and “Junior Year Abroad.”

2001        May 3, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Fox of Mexico and discussed temporary visas for Mexican workers and plans for long-range energy development.

2002        May 3, In Somalia Pres. Mohammed Ibrahim Egal (73) died. VP Dahir Riyale Kahin became acting president.

2006        May 3, Vernon Jackson (53), owner of iGate, pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Virginia, to bribing Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., with more than $400,000 to promote the Kentucky’s firm’s high tech business in Africa between 2001 and 2005.

2007        May 3, Ignacio De La Fuente Jr. (32), the son of Oakland, Ca., City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, pleaded guilty to 5 felony sex charges committed between 2003 and 2005. Three of his 4 victims were prostitutes.

2009        May 3, In Mexico at least four gunmen confronted journalist Carlos Ortega (52) when he got out of his car in front of his home in the small town of Santa Maria del Oro. Ortega was shot in the head after struggling with the attackers. Ortega recently argued with the town’s mayor, Martin Silvestre Herrera, over an article on sanitation at a local slaughterhouse, and then wrote a column saying he would hold the mayor responsible if anything happened to him.

2009        May 3, Panama held elections. Ricardo Martinelli (57), a conservative supermarket magnate, was favored to win the presidential elections. Martinelli won the election in a landslide, promising to guide the country through the world economic crisis and an ambitious expansion of the Panama Canal. A leaked cable from the US embassy later revealed that Martinelli requested help in the wiretapping of his political opponents.

2010        May 3, George Huguely (22), a men’s lacrosse player at the University of Virginia, was arrested hours after the body of Yeardley Love (22), a female lacrosse player, was found in her apartment. He has been charged with murder.

2010        May 3, Paraguay’s Pres. Fernando Lugo and Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva met under a heavy police presence in a rough outpost called Pedro Juan Caballero on the Paraguayan side and Ponta Pora in Brazil in a joint effort to fight to drug-trafficking. Lugo’s ministers were frustrated by the Paraguayan Senate’s vote last week to delay until 2013 a personal income tax that would generate nearly $37 million a year that Lugo desperately needs to fund troops and provisions of martial law he has declared across five states in pursuit of the guerrillas.

 

2011        May 3, Jackie Cooper (b.1922), child actor turned director, died in Santa Monica, Ca. He had signed onto the “Our Gang” film series in 1929. His other films included “Skippy”

2013        May 3, President Barack Obama in Mexico City said he wants to set aside old stereotypes that have created misunderstanding between Mexico and the United States.