DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Tuesday, May 3, the 123rd day of 2022. There are 242 days left in the year. On this date in:
1802: Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city.
1937: Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, “Gone with the Wind.”
1947: Japan’s postwar constitution took effect.
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.
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 Labour government in parliamentary elections.
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.)
2006: A federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, rejected the death penalty for al-qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, deciding he should spend life in prison for his role in 9/11; as he was led from the courtroom, Moussaoui taunted, “America, you lost.”
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.
2011: Chicago’s Derrick Rose became at age 22 the NBA’S youngest MVP.
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.
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.
2018: A federal grand jury in Detroit indicted former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn on charges stemming from the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. (Under Germany’s constitution, he could not be extradited to the U.S. to face charges.)
Singer Frankie Valli is 88. Sports announcer Greg Gumbel is 76. Singer Mary Hopkin is 72. Singer Christopher Cross is 71. Drummer Cactus Moser
(Highway 101) is 65. Keyboardist David Ball of Soft Cell is 63. Country singer Shane Minor is 54. Actor Amy Ryan (“Bridge of Spies,” “The Office”) is 54. Actor
Bobby Cannavale
(“Boardwalk Empire,” “Nurse Jackie”) is 52. Music producer-actor Damon Dash is 51. Bassist John Driskell Hopkins of Zac Brown Band is 51. Actor Marsha Stephanie Blake (“When They See Us”) is 47. TV personality Willie Geist (“Today”) is 47. Actor Christina Hendricks (“Mad Men”) is 47. Actor
Dulé Hill (“Psych,” “The West Wing”) is 47. Country singer Eric Church is 45.