THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, May 3, the 123rd day of 2018. There are 242 days left in the year.

IN THE NATION

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

1948: The Supreme Court, in Shelley vs. Kraemer, ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks or members of other racial groups were legally unenforceable. 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.

1999: About 70 tornadoes roared across Oklahoma and Kansas, killing 46 people and injuring hundreds.

IN THE WORLD

1979: Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher was chosen to become Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labour government in parliamentary elections.

2013: President Barack Obama cast Mexico as a nation ready to take “its rightful place in the world” and move past the drug battles and violence that had defined its relationship with the United States.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

Singer Frankie Valli is 84. Sports announcer Greg Gumbel is 72. Singer Christopher Cross is 67. Actor Bobby Cannavale is 48. Actress Christina Hendricks is 43.