TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, May 3, the 123rd day of 2017. There are 242 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On May 3, 1952, the Kentucky Derby was televised nationally for the first time on CBS; the winner was Hill Gail, ridden by Eddie Arcaro.

On this date

• In 1515, Pope Leo X promulgated the bull “Inter sollicitudines” allowing the Catholic Church to review and censor books.

• In 1791, the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania adopted a constitution.

• In 1802, Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city.

• In 1916, Irish nationalists Padraic Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh were executed by a British firing squad; they were among 16 people put to death for their roles in the Easter Rising.

• In 1937, Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, “Gone with the Wind.”

• In 1945, during World War II, Allied forces recaptured Rangoon (Yangon) from the Japanese.

• In 1947, Japan’s postwar constitution took effect.

• In 1960, the Harvey SchmidtTom Jones musical “The Fantasticks” began a nearly 42year run at New York’s Sullivan Street Playhouse.

• In 1979, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher was chosen to become Britain’s first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary elections.

• In 1986, in NASA’s first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket lost power in its main engine shortly after liftoff, forcing safety officers to destroy it by remote control.

• In 1987, The Miami Herald said its reporters had observed a young woman spending “Friday night and most of Saturday” at a Washington townhouse belonging to Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart. (The woman was later identified as Donna Rice; the resulting controversy torpedoed Hart’s presidential bid.)

• In 1999, some 70 tornadoes roared across Oklahoma and Kansas, killing 46 people and injuring hundreds.

Ten years ago

British girl Madeleine McCann vanished during a family vacation in Portugal nine days before her fourth birthday; her disappearance remains unsolved. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Virginia for the commemoration of Jamestown’s 400th anniversary. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem (wah-LEED’ moh-AH’-lehm) of U.S. concerns about his country’s porous border with Iraq in the two nations’ first Cabinet-level talks in years. The Florida Legislature gave its final approval to moving the state’s 2008 primary from early March to Jan. 29. Ten Republican presidential candidates held their first debate of the 2008 race at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Astronaut Wally Schirra died in La Jolla, California, at age 84.