Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 3

This is a list of selected May 3 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.

Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.

To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.

← May 2	May 4 →

Staging area

Images

Use only ONE image at a time

• 
  The original of the Constitution of the State of Japan
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  Suomenlinna in 2005
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  Subhas Chandra Bose
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  Battle of Tolentino
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  Frederick Bianchi, Duke of Casalanza
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  Aerial view of RAF Northolt
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  João I of Kongo
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  Erich Honecker
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  Cap Arcona shortly after being attacked
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  Scene from Raja Harishchandra

Ineligible

Blurb	Reason
Mother's Day in Hungary, Lithuania, Mozambique, Portugal, Romania and Spain (2015)	refimprove section
1808 – Finnish War: Sweden lost the fortress of Suomenlinna to Russia.	needs more footnotes
1815 – Austrian troops led by Frederick Bianchi, Duke of Casalanza defeated the forces under King Joachim Murat of Naples at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive battle of the Neapolitan War.	no footnotes
1837 – The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the oldest university in Southeast Europe, was founded.	refimprove section
1951 – The Royal Festival Hall, the first post-war building to become listed Grade I, opened as the venue for the Festival of Britain.	refimprove section
2000 – The sport of geocaching was born when the coordinates of a cache outside Portland, Oregon, US, were posted to a Usenet group.	globalize
2007 – Three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday with her family in Portugal, sparking "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".	too detailed
Élisabeth of France |b|1764	missing page numbers
* 1915 – Canadian physician and lieutenant colonel John McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields", considered one of the most notable poems written during the First World War.	Article states 2 May and several alternatives
* 2021 – Being appointed by the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw as the Union Minister of Human Rights for the National Unity Government of Myanmar, Aung Myo Min became the country's first openly LGBT minister.	Half of career section uncited

Eligible

• 1491 – Nkuwu Nzinga, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, was baptised as João I by Portuguese missionaries.
• 1616 – The Treaty of Loudun was signed, ending a war that originally began as a power struggle for the French throne.
• 1791 – The Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ratified the first codified national constitution in Europe.
• 1845 – A long-running feud between two towns in Wisconsin came to a head when a schooner crashed into a bridge; they later merged to form the city of Milwaukee.
• 1855 – A group of American mercenaries led by William Walker set sail from San Francisco to conquer Nicaragua.
• 1913 – Raja Harishchandra, the first Indian feature-length film, was released.
• 1915 – The oldest Royal Air Force station in continuous operation, RAF Northolt, opened as home to No. 4 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron.
• 1920 – Russian Civil War: Relying on Red Army troops in neighboring Azerbaijan, the Bolsheviks attempted to stage a coup d'etat in Georgia.
• 1921 – Under the British Government of Ireland Act, Ireland was partitioned into two self-governing territories, Northern and Southern Ireland.
• 1942 – Second World War: Japanese forces began an invasion of Tulagi and nearby islands in the British Solomon Islands, enabling them to threaten and intercept supply and communication routes between the United States and Australasia.
• 1945 – Second World War: The German ocean liner Cap Arcona, afloat in the Bay of Lübeck with thousands of concentration camp survivors on board, was attacked and sunk by the Royal Air Force.
• 1947 – A new Constitution of Japan went into effect, providing for a parliamentary system of government, guaranteeing certain fundamental rights, and relegating the Japanese monarchy to a purely ceremonial role.
• 1960 – The Off-Broadway show The Fantasticks premiered, eventually becoming the world's longest-running musical, with 17,162 performances across 42 years.
• 1963 – Police in Birmingham, Alabama, used high-pressure water hoses and dogs against civil-rights protesters, bringing scrutiny on racial segregation in the southern United States.
• 1971 – Erich Honecker became First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the governing party of East Germany.
• 2007 – Three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal; she has never been found.
• 2021 – Twenty-six people are killed and ninety-eight are injured after an elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapses.
• Born/died: | Béla IV of Hungary |d|1270| Alexios II of Trebizond |d|1330| Henry Garnet |d|1606| William Shakespeare |d|1616| Catherine of St. Augustine |b|1632| Richard D'Oyly Carte |b|1844| Eppa Rixey |b|1891| Red Ruffing |b|1905| Sugar Ray Robinson |b|1921| Len Shackleton |b|1922| Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil |d|1971|John O'Connor |d|2000

Notes

• 1979 United Kingdom general election is saved for May 4, the date of Margaret Thatcher officially becoming Prime Minister

May 3: World Press Freedom Day; Constitution Memorial Day in Japan (1947); Constitution Day in Poland (1791)

Benty Grange helmet

• 1481 – The largest of a series of earthquakes struck the island of Rhodes, causing an estimated 30,000 casualties.
• 1848 – The Benty Grange helmet (pictured), a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet similar to those mentioned in the contemporary epic poem Beowulf, was discovered in Derbyshire, England.
• 1939 – Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Bloc, a faction within the Indian National Congress, in opposition to Gandhi's tactics of nonviolence.
• 1999 – A Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on Earth, at 135 m/s (302 mph; 486 km/h), in a tornado near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma.

• Elizabeth Bacon (d. 1621)
• Jacob Riis (b. 1849)
• Bob McCallister (b. 1934)
• Ron Hextall (b. 1964)

More anniversaries:

• May 2
• May 3
• May 4