August 3


August 3 is the 215th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (216th in
leap years), with 150 days remaining.

Events

   * 1492 - Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain.
   * 1492 - The Jews were expelled from Spain
   * 1678 - Robert LaSalle builds 1st ship in America, Griffon.
   * 1860 - Second Maori War begins.
   * 1900 - Firestone Tire & Rubber Company founded.
   * 1914 - Germany declares war against France.
   * 1916 - Sir Roger Casement hanged for his part in the Easter Rising.
   * 1916 - Battle of Romani
   * 1923 - Calvin Coolidge is inaugurated as the 30th President of the
     United States.
   * 1940 - Italy invades British Somaliland.
   * 1946 - National Basketball Association founded.
   * 1948 - Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a
     spy for the Soviet Union.
   * 1949 - National Basketball Association formed.
   * 1958 - nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels beneath the Arctic ice
     cap.
   * 1960 - Niger gains independence from France.
   * 1972 - U.S. Senate ratifies Anti-ballistic missile treaty.
   * 1981 - Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization walks off the
     job. All 13,000 members will eventually be fired by President Ronald
     Reagan.
   * 2000 - George W. Bush accepted the Republican presidential nomination
     at the party's convention in Philadelphia.

Births

   * 1753 - Charles Stanhope, inventor of the calculator
   * 1770 - King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia (+ 1840)
   * 1803 - Joseph Paxton, landscape gardener
   * 1823 - Union General Thomas F. Meagher
   * 1833 - Auguste Schmidt, feminist and teacher (+ 1902)
   * 1867 - Stanley Baldwin, British Prime Minister (+ 1947)
   * 1872 - King Haakon VII of Norway (+ 1957)
   * 1887 - Rupert Brooke, poet
   * 1900 - Ernie Pyle, war correspondent (+ 1945)
   * 1900 - John Scopes, defendant in the Monkey Trial
   * 1901 - Stefan Wyszynski, primate of Poland (+ 1981)
   * 1904 - Clifford D. Simak, science fiction author, (+ 1988)
   * 1918 - Les Elgart, musician, bandleader
   * 1920 - P.D. James, novelist
   * 1924 - Leon Uris, novelist
   * 1926 - Tony Bennett, singer
   * 1935 - Georgi Shonin, cosmonaut
   * 1936 - Edward Petherbridge, actor
   * 1937 - Diane Wakoski, poet
   * 1938 - Terry Wogan, presenter
   * 1940 - Martin Sheen, actor
   * 1940 - Lance Alworth, professional football player
   * 1941 - Martha Stewart, home economist
   * 1946 - Jack Straw, British politician
   * 1950 - John Landis, film director
   * 1951 - Marcel Dionne, professional ice hockey player
   * 1952 - Osvaldo Ardiles, footballer
   * 1963 - James Hetfield, rock and roll musician, member of Metallica
   * 1986 - Prince Louis Xavier Marie Guillaume, Prince of Luxembourg and of
     Nassau.

Deaths

   * 1797 - Jeffrey Amherst, British military commander
   * 1879 - Joseph Severn, English painter
   * 1924 - Joseph Conrad, writer
   * 1929 - Emil Berliner, telephone and recording pioneer
   * 1954 - Colette, novelist, playwright
   * 1964 - Flannery O'Connor, novelist
   * 1966 - Lenny Bruce, comedian
   * 1977 - Alfred Lunt, actor
   * 1977 - Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus
   * 1983 - Carolyn Jones, actress
   * 1995 - Ida Lupino, actress, director

Holidays and observances

   * Equatorial Guinea - Armed Forces Day
   * Niger - Independence Day