Today in History
- 1791 Constitution of May 3 is proclaimed by the Great Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the first modern constitution in Europe
- 1808 Day depicted by Spanish painter Francisco Goya in his "The Third of May," which he paints in 1814
- 1926 Britain's Trade Union Congress calls for the country's first-ever general strike, begins at 1 minute to midnight in support of striking coal miners and lasts 9 days
- 1937 Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer Prize for her novel "Gone with the Wind"
- 1945 German ocean liner SS Cap Arcona, laden with prisoners, is sunk by the Royal Air Force in the western Baltic Sea, killing 5,800 people in one of the largest maritime losses of life in World War II
- 1947 Japan's post-war constitution goes into effect, granting universal suffrage, stripping Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power and outlawing Japan's right to make war
Today in Film & TV
- 1944 "Going My Way," directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby, premieres in New York (Academy Award for Best Picture, 1945)
Today in Music
- 1960 Musical "The Fantasticks" by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones opens in Greenwich Village, NYC; becomes “the longest-running musical in the universe”
- 2025 Lady Gaga's free concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, draws crowd estimated at 2.5 million attendees, the largest concert in history for a female artist; police later reveal they thwarted a bombing attempt
Today in Sport
- 1999 World Snooker Championship, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield: Stephen Hendry of Scotland defeats Welshman Mark Williams 18-11 for a record seventh world crown
Did You Know?Famous Birthdays
Niccolò Machiavelli
1469 - 1527
Dodie Smith
1896 - 1990
Golda Meir
1898 - 1978
Bing Crosby
1903 - 1977
Betty Comden
1917 - 2006
Akio Toyoda
70th Birthday
Celebrity Birthdays
Sugar Ray Robinson
1921 - 1989
James Brown
1933 - 2006
Ron Hextall
62nd Birthday
Bobby Cannavale
56th Birthday
Brooks Koepka
36th Birthday
Fun Fact About Today
First unsolicited bulk commercial email ("spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the US West Coast
Famous Weddings
- 1884 American mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor (28) weds Louise M. Spooner in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1906 American-English businessman Waldorf Astor (26) weds fellow American-English socialite Nancy Langhorne Shaw (26) at All Souls Church in London, England, until his death in 1952
- 1986 American Mousketeer-actress-singer Annette Funicello (43) weds American harness racing horse breeder and trainer Glen Holt (55), until her death in 2013
Famous Divorces
- 2021 American Microsoft CEO Bill Gates (66) and his wife Melinda (French) Gates (57) announce their divorce via social media, after 27 years of marriage, finalized later on the summer
Year of the Snake
Year of the Horse
Year of the Goat/Sheep
Year of the Monkey
Year of the Rooster
Year of the Dog