HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Wednesday, May 3, the 123rd day of 2017. There are 242 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1951 – The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by US President Harry Truman. 1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole. 1960 – The Anne Frank House museum opens in Amsterdam,
Netherlands. 1960 – The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is
established. 1963 – The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the “Birmingham campaign” protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the African-American Civil Rights Movement. 1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out
at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building. 1979 – After the general election, Margaret Thatcher forms her first government as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes in an airliner (Flight UL512) at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka. 1999 – 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 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h). 2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet. 2001 – The United States loses its seat on the UN Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947. 2002 – A military MiG-21 aircraft crashes into the Bank of
Rajasthan in India, killing eight. 2015 – Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an antiIslam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.