TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT May 3, 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 400prospective customers on ARPANET, a precursor to the internet; the stunt generated some business, as well as complaints.

ALSO 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.

1810

English poet Lord Byron, inspired by the Greek myth of Hero and Leander, swam across the Hellespont, a strait in present-day Turkey.

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.

1948

TheSupremeCourt, in Shelley v. Kraemer, ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks or members of other racial groups were legally unenforceable.

1952

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

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.

2017

President Donald Trump met at the White House with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, promising “to do whatever is necessary” to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.