Today in History May 3

1715 – A total solar eclipse was visible across northern Europe, and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within 4 minutes accuracy.

1791 – The Constitution of May 3, the first modern constitution in Europe, is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.

1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.

1937 – Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedictof the United States land a plane at the North Pole.

1957 – Walter O’Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, to Los Angeles.

1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building.

1978 – 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.

2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

612 – Constantine III, Byzantine emperor (d. 641)

1632 – Catherine of St. Augustine, French-Canadian nurse and saint, founded the Hфtel-Dieu de Quйbec (d. 1668)

1849 – Jacob Riis, Danish-American journalist and photographer (d. 1914)

1912 – Virgil Fox, American organist and composer (d. 1980)

1919 – Pete Seeger,  singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (The Weavers and Almanac Singers) (d. 2014)

1940 – David Koch, American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist

1989 – Christine Jorgensen, American trans woman (b. 1926)

1991 – Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1933)

2006 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet (b. 1921)

2007 – Wally Schirra, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1923)

2010 – Roy Carrier,  born 1947 Joseph Roy Carrier, was an American Zydeco musician. Father of Chubby and Dikki Du Carrier, who followed their father into Zydeco music. Click here to listen.