Belgrade school shooting
Nine students and a security guard are killed in the Belgrade school shooting, the first attack of its kind in Serbia.
What happened on May 3
35 events · 20 births · 20 deaths · 8 observances. From 1791 to 2024.
Standout on May 3
2015
2015 Curtis Culwell Center attack
Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
About May 3
May 3 is the 123rd day of the year. These facts are computed from the calendar, not copied from anywhere.
- Day of the year
- Day 123 of 365 (124 in leap years)242 days left in the year (242 in leap years)
- Falls on
- Sunday in 2026, Monday in 2027, Wednesday in 2028, Thursday in 2029, Friday in 2030
- Week
- ISO week 18 of 2026 · Q2
- Zodiac sign
- ♉ Taurus (April 20 – May 20)
- Season
- Spring in the north · Autumn in the south
- May birthstone
- Emeraldrebirth, love and wisdom
- May birth flower
- Lily of the valley / Hawthornsweetness, humility and hope
- Next occurrence
- In 188 days
- Roman numerals
- III.Vday.month — see the Roman numeral date tool
Anniversaries in 2026
- 40thAir Lanka Flight 5121986
- 30thAlex Iwobi1996
- 30thDomantas Sabonis1996
- 30thMary Cain (athlete)1996
- 30thNoah Munck1996
- 25thRachel Zegler2001
- 25thUnited Nations Commission on Human Rights2001
- 20thArmavia Flight 9672006
May 3 through the years
- 10 years ago2016
- Fort McMurray · Jadranka Stojaković · Ian Deans
- 25 years ago2001
- United Nations Commission on Human Rights · Rachel Zegler
- 50 years ago1976
- Nothing recorded
- 100 years ago1926
- Nothing recorded
- 200 years ago1826
- Nothing recorded
Born on May 3 — ages this year
- 2003Florian Wirtzturns 23
- 2001Rachel Zeglerturns 25
- 1999Tom Hartley (cricketer)turns 27
- 1999Ella Langleyturns 27
- 1997Dwayne Haskinsturns 29
- 1997Desiignerturns 29
Historical events 35
A dated happening — a battle, treaty, launch, discovery, disaster or decision — recorded on this calendar day.
Manipur conflict (2023–present)
Ethnic violence breaks out between the Meitei and the Kuki Zo people in the state of Manipur.
Mexico City Metro
An elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapsed, killing 26 people and injuring 98 others.
Fort McMurray
Eighty-eight thousand people are evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a wildfire rips through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings.
2015 Curtis Culwell Center attack
Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal; she has never been found.
Armavia Flight 967
Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea near Sochi International Airport in Sochi, Russia, killing 113 people.
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
Geocaching
The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
Oklahoma City
The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 484 ± 32 kilometres per hour (301 ± 20 mph). In meteorology, the term "May 3" is synonymous with the F5 tornado.
Kargil War
The Kargil War initiates when Indian forces detected the infiltration of Pakistani forces in Indian-administered Kargil, a city in Jammu and Kashmir.
Doppler on Wheels
A Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on Earth, at 143.6 m/s (321 mph; 517 km/h), in a tornado near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma.
Bobby Allison
A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.
Air Lanka Flight 512
Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party wins the United Kingdom general election. The following day, Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female British Prime Minister.
The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker became First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the governing party of East Germany.
Braniff International Airways Flight 352
Eighty-five people are killed when Braniff International Airways Flight 352 crashes near Dawson, Texas.
Birmingham, Alabama
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.
Off-Broadway
The Off-Broadway show The Fantasticks premiered, eventually becoming the world's longest-running musical, with 17,162 performances across 42 years.
Walter O'Malley
Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
Semi-trailer
Two men are rescued from a semitrailer that crashed over the side of the Pit River Bridge before it fell into the Sacramento River. Amateur photographer Virginia Schau photographs "Rescue on Pit River Bridge", the first and only winning submission for the Pulitzer Prize for Photography to have been taken by a woman.
Constitution of Japan
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.
World War II
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.
World War II
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.
Subhas Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Bloc, a faction within the Indian National Congress, in opposition to Gandhi's tactics of nonviolence.
Government of Ireland Act 1920
Under the British Government of Ireland Act, Ireland was partitioned into two self-governing territories, Northern and Southern Ireland.
Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War: Relying on Red Army troops in neighboring Azerbaijan, the Bolsheviks attempted to stage a coup d'etat in Georgia.
Royal Air Force
The oldest Royal Air Force station in continuous operation, RAF Northolt, opened as home to No. 4 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron.
Raja Harishchandra
Raja Harishchandra, the first Indian feature-length film, was released.
Edith Maryon
Edith Maryon's statuette The Dance of Anitra (pictured), one of the few of her works known to survive in private hands, was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Mercenary
A group of American mercenaries led by William Walker set sail from San Francisco to conquer Nicaragua.
Thomas Bateman (antiquary)
Thomas Bateman excavated a high-status barrow, discovering objects including the boar-crested Benty Grange helmet, and the Benty Grange hanging bowl
Wisconsin
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.
Great Sejm
The Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ratified the first codified national constitution in Europe.
Births 20
A notable person born on this day. Each links to a person page with their dates and story.
Deaths 20
A notable person who died on this day.
Gary Becker
Gary Becker, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1930)
Cedric Brooks
Cedric Brooks, Jamaican-American saxophonist and flute player (born 1943)
David Morris Kern
David Morris Kern, American pharmacist, co-invented Orajel (born 1909)
Holidays & observances 8
A holiday, feast day, awareness day or national day observed every year on this date.
Martyrology of Rabban Sliba
Christian feast day: Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church)
Beatification
Christian feast day: Blessed Emilia Bicchieri
Pope Alexander I
Christian feast day: Pope Alexander I
Sarah the Martyr
Christian feast day: Sarah the Martyr (Coptic Church)
Juvenal of Narni
Christian feast day: Juvenal of Narni
Marie-Léonie Paradis
Christian feast day: Marie-Léonie Paradis
Philip the Apostle
Christian feast day: Philip and James the Lesser
Saint Moura
Christian feast day: Moura and Timothy (Catholic and Coptic Church)
Spread across the centuries
- 18th century1
- 19th century3
- 20th century41
- 21st century30
Earliest: Great Sejm (1791). Most recent: Dick Rutan (2024).
What the categories mean, and how the standout is chosen
- Historical events
- A dated happening — a battle, treaty, launch, discovery, disaster or decision — recorded on this calendar day.
- Births
- A notable person born on this day. Each links to a person page with their dates and story.
- Deaths
- A notable person who died on this day.
- Milestones
- A first, a founding or a turning point our editors flagged as a landmark moment.
- Holidays & observances
- A holiday, feast day, awareness day or national day observed every year on this date.
- Standout / notable
- Editor-written entries come first, then entries covered by the most Wikipedia language editions. For the standout tile we prefer an entry that has a picture.
Nearby and related
Questions about May 3
What day of the year is May 3?
May 3 is the 123rd day of the year, with 242 days left after it.
What star sign is May 3?
May 3 falls under Taurus (April 20 – May 20), a earth sign ruled by Venus. The birthstone for the month is Emerald.
How many things happened on May 3?
We record 83 entries for May 3: 35 events · 20 births · 20 deaths · 8 observances. From 1791 to 2024.
Who was born on May 3?
Florian Wirtz (2003) is among the notable births on May 3. The births section lists the rest.
How often is the May 3 page updated?
The day is filled the first time anyone opens it and then re-checked for new entries about every 90 days. Computed facts such as the weekday and the anniversaries update every year.
Get a daily entry like May 3
One short email a day from this calendar. Kept for this site only.
Text adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0 and from Wikidata (CC0). Images come from Wikimedia Commons; credit and licence are shown with each image. Editorial entries are © What's On This Date. Sources & licensing · How this site works.