TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, May 3, the 123rd day of 2022. There are 242 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight
On May 3, 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.
On this date
In 1802, Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city.
In 1937, Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, “Gone with the Wind.”
In 1948, the Supreme Court, in Shelley v. Kraemer, ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to Black people or members of other racial groups were legally unenforceable.
In 1960, the Harvey SchmidtTom Jones musical “The Fantasticks” began a nearly 42-year run at New York’s Sullivan Street Playhouse.
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 2009, Mexican President Felipe Calderon told state television that a nationwide shutdown and an aggressive informational campaign appeared to have helped curtail an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico.
In 2015, two gunmen were shot and killed by a police officer in Garland, Texas, after they opened fire outside a purposely provocative contest for cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
In 2016, in a stunning triumph for a political outsider, Donald Trump all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination with a resounding victory in Indiana that knocked rival Ted Cruz out of the race.
Ten years ago: U.S. officials published online a selection of letters from Osama bin Laden’s last hideaway; the documents portrayed a network that was weak, inept and under siege — and its leader seemingly near wit’s end about the passing of his global jihad’s supposed glory days.
Today’s birthdays
Singer Frankie Valli is 88. Sports announcer Greg Gumbel is 76. Singer Christopher Cross is 71. Musician David Ball (Soft Cell) is 63. Actor Amy Ryan is 54. Actor Bobby Cannavale is 52. Actor Marsha Stephanie-Blake is 47. TV personality Willie Geist (“Today”) is 47. Actor Christina Hendricks is 47. Dancer Cheryl Burke is 38.