April 3

Historic Events

2018

YouTube headquarters shooting: A 38-year-old gunwoman opens fire at YouTube Headquarters in San Bruno, California, injuring three people before committing suicide. ›

2017

A bomb explodes in the St Petersburg metro system, killing 14 and injuring several more people. ›

2016

The Panama Papers, a leak of legal documents, reveals information on 214,488 offshore companies. ›

2013

More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina. ›

2010

Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer. ›

2009

Jiverly Antares Wong opens fire at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, killing thirteen and wounding four before committing suicide. ›

2008

ATA Airlines, once one of the ten largest U.S. passenger airlines and largest charter airline, files for bankruptcy for the second time in five years and ceases all operations. ›

2008

Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS's YFZ Ranch. Eventually 533 women and children will be taken into state custody. ›

2007

Conventional-Train World Speed Record: A French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line sets an official new world speed record of 574.8 km/h (159.6 m/s, 357.2 mph). ›

2004

Islamic terrorists involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves. ›

2000

United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors. ›

1997

The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas. ›

1996

Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States. ›

1996

A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. ›

1993

The outcome of the Grand National horse race is declared void for the first (and only) time. ›

1989

The US Supreme Court upholds the jurisdictional rights of tribal courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Mississippi Choctaw Band v. Holyfield. ›

1981

The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. ›

1980

US Congress restores a federal trust relationship with the 501 members of the Shivwits, Kanosh, Koosharem, and the Indian Peaks and Cedar City bands of the Paiute people of Utah. ›

1975

Vietnam War: Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children in the closing stages of the war begins. ›

1975

Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default. ›

1974

The 1974 Super Outbreak occurs, the second largest tornado outbreak in recorded history (after the 2011 Super Outbreak). The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured. ›

1973

Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. ›

1969

Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort. ›

1968

Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech; he was assassinated the next day. ›

1961

LAN-Chile Flight 621 crashes in the Andes mountains, killing 21 people, including Argentinian football player Eliseo Mouriño. ›

1956

Hudsonville–Standale tornado: The western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado. ›

1955

The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges. ›

1948

Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries. ›

1948

In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju uprising begins. ›

1946

Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March. ›

1942

World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. ›

1936

Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh. ›

1933

First flight over Mount Everest, the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston. ›

1922

Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ›

1920

Attempts are made to carry out the failed assassination attempt on General Mannerheim, led by Aleksander Weckman by order of Eino Rahja, during the White Guard parade in Tampere, Finland. ›

1905

Association football club Boca Juniors is founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina ›

1895

The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality. ›

1888

Jack the Ripper: The first of 11 unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs. ›

1885

Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for a light, high-speed, four-stroke engine, which he uses seven months later to create the world's first motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen. ›

1882

American Old West: Robert Ford kills Jesse James. ›

1865

American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America. ›

1860

The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins. ›

1851

Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand after the death of his half-brother, Rama III. ›

1721

Robert Walpole becomes, in effect, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, though he himself denied that title. ›

1589

The janissaries revolt in response to the debasement of coins. ›

1559

The second of two treaties making up the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis is signed, ending the Italian Wars. ›

1077

The Patriarchate of Friûl, the first Friulian state, is created. ›

1043

Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England. ›

956

Polyeuctus of Constantinople is elected as patriarch of Constantinople. ›

686

Maya king Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' assumes the crown of Calakmul. ›