On this day, May 3

1828 The foundation stone was laid for the Washington Lock, the first of four, to connect the Pennsylvania Canal and the Monongahela River.

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.

1955 It was announced that construction on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s new passenger terminal, at the foot of Grant Street, would begin within the next month.

1978 Spam email was born as Gary Thuerk, a marketing executive for the Digital Equipment Corp., of Maynard, Mass., transmitted an unsolicited sales pitch for a new line of computers to 400 prospective customers on ARPANET, a precursor to the internet; the stunt generated some business, as well as complaints.

1998 Keith Brantly won the men’s division of the Pittsburgh Marathon and U.S. Men’s National Championship with a new American course record of 2:12:31.

2019 In their first known phone call since the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin discussed what Mr. Trump again dismissed as the “Russian hoax.”

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin

Today’s birthdays: Singer Frankie Valli, 86. Sports announcer Greg Gumbel, 74. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., 71. Pop singer Mary Hopkin, 70. Singer Christopher Cross, 69. Country musician Cactus Moser (Highway 101), 63. Actor Bobby Cannavale, 50. TV personality Willie Geist (“Today”), 45.

Thought for today: “Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.”