TODAY IN 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

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

1791 — The Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania adopted a constitution.

1802 — Washington, D.C. was incorporated as a city.

1863 — Union Col. Abel D. Streight, sent to raid Rome, surrendered to Nathan Bedford Forrest, who defeated Streight’s troops. The city of Rome gave Forrest a hero’s welcome.

1879 — Rome City Council passed the Hog Ordinance, stating that no hog or hogs would be allowed to be kept within the corporate limits of the city of Rome from April 1 until Nov. 1 each year. Violators would be fined between $5 and $50 for each offense.

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.

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

1945 — During World War II, Allied forces recaptured Rangoon from the Japanese.

1947 — Japan’s postwar constitution took effect.

1960 — The Harvey Schmidt-Tom Jones musical “The Fantasticks” began a nearly 42-year run at New York’s Sullivan Street Playhouse.

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.

1981 — Studies indicated that not only were PCBs still present in the Coosa River five years after the Department of Natural Resources banned commercial fishing along the Coosa River in Rome, but also that there had been little change in the past five years in the levels of PCBs in fish caught in the river in the state. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are probable human carcinogens.

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.

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.)

1999 — Some 70 tornadoes roared across Oklahoma and Kansas, killing 46 people and injuring hundreds.