12 History Lessons + 4 Births & 5 Deaths for May 3, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1469 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian diplomat and author of The Prince, is born in Florence.
- 1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.
- 1915 – The poem In Flanders Fields is composed by Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae during WWI.
- 1937 – Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Gone with the Wind.
- 1942 – The Battle of the Coral Sea begins between Allied and Japanese naval forces during WWII.
- 1947 – Japan’s postwar constitution goes into effect, renouncing war and establishing democracy.
- 1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally in the U.S. for the first time.
- 1960 – The Anne Frank House opens as a museum in Amsterdam.
- 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 1999 – A tornado outbreak in Oklahoma produces the strongest winds ever recorded near the surface—over 300 mph.
- 2000 – The sport of geocaching begins as the first cache is placed and coordinates posted online.
- 2016 – Wildfires force the evacuation of over 80,000 people in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1950 – Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer known for Those Were the Days (75)
- 1958 – Ron Wyden, U.S. Senator from Oregon (67)
- 1979 – Dulé Hill, actor (The West Wing, Psych) (46)
- 1986 – Pom Klementieff, actress (Guardians of the Galaxy) (39)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1616 – William Camden, English historian and antiquarian (Britannia) (66)
- 1987 – Dalida, Egyptian-Italian-French singer and actress (54)
- 1991 – Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist (The Painted Bird) (57)
- 2006 – Earl Woods, father and mentor of golfer Tiger Woods (74)
- 2016 – Afeni Shakur, activist and mother of rapper Tupac Shakur (69)
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