April 3 Events

33 - Crucifixion of Jesus (traditional date).
1077 - Creation of the first Parliament of Friuli.
1559 - The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty is signed, ending the Italian Wars.
1860 - The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins, and is completed on April 13.
1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1882 - American Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed in Saint Joseph, Missouri by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.
1885 - Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
1895 - The libel trial instigated by Oscar Wilde against the Marquess of Queensbury begins, eventually resulting in Wilde's arrest, trial and imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
1896 - The first publication of La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper in Italy.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin arrives at Finland Railway Station in Russia from exile, marking the beginning of Bolshevik leadership in the Russian Revolution.
1922 - Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1936 - Richard Bruno Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, the baby son of Anne and world-famous pilot Charles Lindbergh.
1941 - Hungarian and German troops march into Yugoslavia.
1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan falls on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
1948 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1948 - In Jeju, South Korea, locals simultaneously raid the island's police stations, marking the start of a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju massacre.
1953 - TV Guide debuts.
1955 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
1956 - Elvis Presley sings "Heartbreak Hotel" on the Milton Berle Show, with an estimated 25% of the United States population viewing.
1956 - The western part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado (known as the Standale Tornado).
1968 - Simon and Garfunkel release the critically acclaimed album Bookends.
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "mountaintop" speech.
1969 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
1971 - In Dublin, Ireland, Séverine wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Monaco singing "Un banc, un arbre, une rue" (A bench, a tree, a street).
1973 - The first portable cell phone call is placed in New York City.
1974 - The Super Outbreak occurs, with 148 tornadoes affecting 13 states and 1 Canadian province in 18 hours, the biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history. The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.
1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
1976 - In The Hague, Netherlands, Brotherhood of Man wins the twenty-first Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Save Your Kisses For Me".
1986 - IBM unveils the PC Convertible, their first laptop computer.
1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
1996 - An Air Force 737 carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on-board, including Brown.
1997 - Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
2000 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves with explosives.
2005 - Wrestlemania 21, John Cena wins the WWE championship and Batista wins the World Heavyweight championship.

April 3 Births

1151 - Igor Svyatoslavich, Russian prince (d. 1202)
1245 - King Philip III of France (d. 1285)
1367 - King Henry IV of England (d. 1413)
1529 - Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1581)
1593 - George Herbert, English poet and orator (d. 1633)
1643 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, general of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1690)
1683 - Mark Catesby, English naturalist (d. 1749)
1693 - George Edwards, English naturalist (d. 1773)
1715 - John Hanson, American delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1783)
1715 - William Watson, English physician and scientist (d. 1787)
1764 - John Abernathy, English surgeon (d. 1831)
1769 - Christian Gunther von Bernstorff, Danish and Prussian statesman and diplomat (d. 1835)
1783 - Washington Irving, American author (d. 1859)
1814 - Lorenzo Snow, 5th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1901)
1822 - Edward Everett Hale, American writer (d. 1909)
1823 - William Marcy Tweed, American political boss (d. 1878)
1880 - Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher (d. 1903)
1881 - Alcide De Gasperi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1954)
1885 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born American film director (d. 1981)
1889 - Grigoras¸ Dinicu, Romanian composer and violinist (d. 1949)
1893 - Leslie Howard, English actor (d. 1943)
1895 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)
1898 - George Jessel, American comedian (d. 1981)
1898 - Henry Luce, American publisher (d. 1967)
1904 - Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (d. 1999)
1913 - Per Borten, Premier of Norway (d. 2005)
1916 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (d. 1997)
1921 - Jan Sterling, American actress (d. 2004)
1924 - Marlon Brando, American actor (d. 2004)
1924 - Doris Day, American actress
1925 - Tony Benn, British politician
1926 - Gus Grissom, astronaut (d. 1967)
1928 - Don Gibson, American country musician (d. 2003)
1928 - Kevin Hagen, American actor (d. 2005)
1929 - Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese actress
1930 - Lawton Chiles, U.S. Senator from Florida and Governor of Florida (d. 1998)
1930 - Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany
1934 - Jane Goodall, English zoologist
1936 - Scott LaFaro, American musician (d. 1961)
1938 - Jeff Barry, American songwriter and record producer
1941 - Eric Braeden, German-born actor
1941 - Philippe Wynne, American musician (d. 1984)
1941 - Jan Berry, American musician (Jan and Dean) (d. 2004)
1942 - Marek Perepeczko, Polish actor (d. 2005)
1942 - Marsha Mason, American actress
1942 - Wayne Newton, American singer
1942 - Billy Joe Royal, American singer
1943 - Jonathan Lynn, British actor and comedy writer
1943 - Richard Manuel, Canadian musician and songwriter (d. 1986)
1944 - Tony Orlando, American musician
1948 - Carlos Salinas, President of Mexico
1949 - Richard Thompson, British musician and songwriter
1949 - Lyle Alzado, American football player
1954 - Elisabetta Brusa, Italian composer
1956 - Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (d. 1996)
1958 - Alec Baldwin, American actor
1959 - David Hyde Pierce, American actor
1961 - Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
1962 - Mike Ness, American musician (Social Distortion)
1964 - Bjarne Riis, Danish cyclist
1968 - Sebastian Bach, Canadian musician (Skid Row)
1968 - Charlotte Coleman, British television actress (d. 2001)
1968 - Jamie Hewlett, British illustrator (Tank Girl and Gorillaz)
1970 - "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown American Football player, and Professional wrestler
1972 - Jennie Garth, American actress
1973 - Matthew Ferguson, Canadian actor
1975 - Michael Olowokandi, Nigerian basketball player
1976 - Drew Shirley, American musician (Switchfoot)
1976 - Will Mellor, British actor
1978 - G. M. Palmer, American poet and editor
1979 - Daniel Lane, British music journalist
1982 - Fler, German rapper
1986 - Amanda Bynes, American actress and show host

April 3 Deaths

33 - Jesus Christ, founder of Christianity (b. 8-2 BC [disputed])
963 - William III, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 915)
1287 - Pope Honorius IV
1350 - Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1295)
1606 - Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devon, English politician (b. 1563)
1680 - Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (b. 1630)
1682 - Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, Spanish painter (b. 1618)
1691 - Jean Petitot, Swiss enamel painter (b. 1608)
1695 - Melchior d'Hondecoeter, Dutch painter
1717 - Jacques Ozanam, French mathematician (b. 1640)
1728 - James Anderson, Scottish lawyer (b. 1662)
1792 - George Pocock, British admiral (b. 1706)
1792 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman (b. 1718)
1827 - Ernst Chladni, German physicist (b. 1856)
1849 - Juliusz S?owacki, Polish poet (b. 1809)
1868 - Franz Berwald, Swedish composer and inventor (b. 1796)
1882 - Jesse James, American outlaw (b. 1847)
1897 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (b. 1833)
1901 - Richard D'Oyly Carte, British impresario (b. 1844)
1931 - Andre Michelin, French tire manufacturer (b. 1853)
1932 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
1936 - Bruno Hauptmann, German killer of Charles Lindbergh III (b. 1899)
1950 - Kurt Weill, German composer (b. 1900)
1965 - Ernst Kirchweger, Austrian communist and resistance fighter
1971 - Joseph Valachi, American gangster (b. 1904)
1972 - Ferde Grofé, American composer (b. 1882)
1982 - Warren Oates, American character actor (b. 1928)
1986 - Peter Pears, English tenor (b. 1910)
1987 - Tom Sestak, American football player (b. 1936)
1990 - Sarah Vaughan, American singer (b. 1924)
1991 - Graham Greene, English writer (b. 1904)
1991 - Charles Goren, American bridge player, writer, and columnist (b. 1901)
1993 - Pinky Lee, American children's television host (b. 1907)
1996 - Ron Brown, U.S. Secretary of Commerce (b. 1941)
1996 - Carl Stokes, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (b. 1927)
1998 - Rob Pilatus, American entertainer and criminal (Milli Vanilli) (b. 1965)
2000 - Terence McKenna, American writer and philosopher (b. 1946)
2002 - Frank Tovey (aka Fad Gadget), British singer and musician (b. 1956)
2005 - Tony Croatto, Italian-born singer (b. 1940)

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