Back in Time – This Day in History – May 3

1966: Twister

By Mick Ferris, Press Association, AP, UPI, calendar.songfacts.com, classicbands.com and thisdayinmusic.com

1469: Political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy.

1621: Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon is accused of bribery.

1758: Death of Pope Benedict XIV aged 83.

1802: Washington D.C. is incorporated as a city.

1851: A major fire in San Francisco destroys 1500-2000 buildings.

1863: The Second Battle of Fredericksburg occurs in Virginia during the American Civil War.

1903: Born on this day: American singer and actor Bing Crosby who recorded an estimated 2,600 songs in his lifetime including ‘White Christmas’, which was written by Irving Berlin. Crosby had 317 other hits in the USA. He became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. He died of a heart attack on a golf course in Madrid, Spain, on October 14, 1977.

1913: Clorox had its beginnings as five entrepreneurs agreed to set up a liquid bleach factory in Oakland, California.

1915: John McCrae writes the poem “In Flanders Fields”.

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.

1919: Afghanistan Emir Amanoellah declares war against Britain.

1919: Born on this day: American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger. He had a string of hit records during the early Fifties as a member of the Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Belly's 'Goodnight, Irene', which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture and environmental causes. He died on 27 January 2014 at the age of 94.

1926: The Trade Union Congress calls for Britain’s first ever general strike.

1933: Born on this day: James Brown 'Soul Brother No.1', (1966 US No.8 and UK No.13 single 'It's A Man's World', 1986 UK No.5 single 'Living In America', 1963 album 'Live At The Apollo'). Brown demanded extreme discipline from his musicians and dancers, and had the practice of assessing fines on members of his band who broke his rules, such as wearing un-shined shoes, dancing out of sync or showing up late on stage. Brown died on 25th Dec 2006 at the age of 73.

1934: Happy Birthday!!!: Frankie Valli, singer, from American rock and pop band The Four Seasons who had the 1960s hits 'Sherry', 'Big Girls Don't Cry', 'Walk Like a Man', and the 1976 UK & US No.1 single 'December 1963, (Oh What A Night'). They are one of the best-selling musical groups of all time, having sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide. Valli had the 1978 solo US No.1 & UK No.3 single 'Grease'.

1937: Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer Prize for “Gone With the Wind”.

1942: The Luftwaffe bombs Exeter, destroying the town centre.

1947: Japan’s post-war constitution goes into effect, granting universal suffrage, stripping Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power and outlawing Japan’s right to make war.

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

1948: The CBS Evening News premiered, with Douglas Edwards as anchor.

1951: The Festival of Britain begins and the Royal Festival Hall opens in London.

1952: A ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lt. Col. Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lt. Col. William P. Benedict of California became the first aircraft to land at the North Pole.

1952: The Kentucky Derby was televised nationally for the first time on CBS; the winner was Hill Gail, ridden by Eddie Arcaro.

1952: Kitty Wells record It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels. Wells was considering retirement, but agreed to the session at Owen Bradley’s studio because of the $125 union scale recording payment. It became the first No.1 Billboard country hit for a solo female artist.

1958: Alan Freed has trouble on his hands when a brawl breaks out following a Big Beat Show at the Boston Arena. Several of the estimated 5,000 teens in attendance are injured and Freed will later be charged with incitement of a riot and destruction of property. After Freed sued the Boston Police for brutality and libelous reporting of violence, the charges against him were dropped, but his career was severely damaged.

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

1963: Members of the Birmingham, Alabama, police and fire departments released fire hoses and dogs against a group of African Americans marching for freedom.

1964: Gerry And The Pacemakers make their US television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show a full month before their first appearance on the Billboard chart with "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying".

1964: UK TOP 20: Album chart:

1. The Rolling Stones - Rolling Stones

2. The Beatles - With The Beatles

3. Original Soundtrack - West Side Story

4. The Dave Clark Five - A Session With The Dave Clark Five

5. The Beatles - Please Please Me

6. The Hollies - Stay With The Hollies

7. Gene Pitney - Blue Gene

8. Dusty Springfield - A Girl Called Dusty

9. Original Soundtrack - South Pacific

10. The Searchers - Meet The Searchers

11. Elvis Presley - Elvis' Golden Records Volume 3

12. Roy Orbison - In Dreams

13. Peter, Paul And Mary - In The Wind

14. The Shadows - Dance With The Shadows

15. Frank Ifield - Blue Skies

16. Original London Cast - At The Drop Of Another Hat

17. Swingle Singers - Jazz Sebastian Bach

18. The Shadows - Greatest Hits: Shadows

19. Jim Reeves - Gentleman Jim

20. Elvis Presley - Elvis' Golden Records

***

1965: Cambodia drops diplomatic relations with the US.

1965: The Beatles spent the day filming for their forthcoming film Help!, on Salisbury Plain, England, with the British Army's Third Tank Division.

1966: The game Twister become a success when Eva Gabor played it with Johnny Carson on TV's  Tonight Show. (From ME Music@espofootball).

1968: The United States and North Vietnam agreed to hold peace talks in Paris. After multiple delays, the two sides signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, for which national security adviser Harry Kissinger and North Vietnamese diplomat Le Duc Tho won the Nobel Peace Prize. Tho did not accept the award and the Vietnam War would not end until 1975.

1968: The first heart transplant in Britain is carried out at the National Heart Hospital in Marylebone, London. 

1968: The theme song to TV's to Hawaii 5-0 were recorded at Western Recorders in Hollywood. The song was written by Morton Stevens, arranged by George Tipton, and produced by Dave Pell. Although it was credited to The Ventures, who eventually did record it, this version was recorded by session musicians Ray Pohlman - bass, John Guerin - drums, Jim Horn - woodwinds, Tom Scott - sax, Pete Condoli - trumpet, Gene Estes - percussion, Tommy Tedesco - lead guitar, and Milt Holland - percussion.

1969: Jimi Hendrix was arrested on his way to Toronto for possession of hashish and heroin.

1972: Les Harvey, guitarist with Stone The Crows died after being electrocuted on stage during a gig at Swansea University.

1978: Spam email was born as Gary Thuerk, a marketing executive for the Digital Equipment Corp. of Maynard, Massachusetts, 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. “Sun Day” took place on a Wednesday as thousands of people extolling the virtues of solar energy held events across the country.

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.

1980: US TOP 20 : Singles chart:

1. Blondie - Call Me

2. Christopher Cross - Ride Like The Wind

3. Air Supply - Lost In Love

4. Billy Preston & Syreeta - With You I'm Born Again

5. Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)

6. Bob Seger - Fire Lake

7. Billy Joel - You May Be Right

8. Eagles - I Can't Tell You Why

9. Dr. Hook - Sexy Eyes

10. Jimmy Ruffin - Hold On To My Love

11. Kenny Rogers With Kim Carnes - Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer

12. Ray, Goodman & Brown - Special Lady

13. Charlie Dore - Pilot Of The Airwaves

14. Ambrosia - Biggest Part Of Me

15. Linda Ronstadt - Hurt So Bad

16. The Spinners - Working My Way Back To You/Forgive Me, Girl

17. Andy Gibb & Olivia Newton-John - I Can't Help It

18. Gary Numan - Cars

19. Boz Scaggs - Breakdown Dead Ahead

20. Fleetwood Mac - Think About Me

***

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.

1986: Robert Palmer went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Addicted To Love', it made No.5 in the UK. Palmer originally recorded the song as a duet with Chaka Khan but due to contractual problems her voice was removed.

1986: The Art Of Excellence by Tony Bennett became the first album in the US to be initially released on CD instead of the traditional vinyl format.

1986:  Bill "Willie" Shoemaker became the oldest jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, riding Ferdinand.

1987: Italian-French singer Dalida overdoses on barbiturates at age 54, leaving behind a note that reads "Life has become unbearable for me... Forgive me."

1992: Exxon International President Sidney Reso died four days after he was kidnapped. His was body was found more than a month later in a shallow grave in New Jersey after kidnappers sought a ransom for the executive.

1997: Katrina And The Waves won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with the song 'Love Shine A Light', making them the first UK winners since Bucks Fizz in 1981.

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

1999: Stephen Hendry defeats Mark Williams 18-11 to win the World Snooker Championship for a record seventh time.

2000: The London Stock Exchange and Germany’s Deutsche Boerse announce they are to merge, creating the world’s second largest stock market.

2001: The US loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

2002: Death of former Labour minister Baroness Castle of Blackburn aged 91.

2003: The noted New Hampshire landmark "Old Man of the Mountain" collapsed.

2004: The US Supreme Court rejects an appeal by bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake, formerly of Uriah Heep claiming they were entitled to money from the Ozzy Osbourne albums ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ and ‘Diary of a Madman.’ Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager, said that the pair had “harassed” her family and had had their contributions removed from the albums because of their “abusive and unjust behaviour”.

2006: An Armenian A-320 aircraft plunged into the Black Sea off Russia's southern coast, killing all 113 people aboard. Officials said bad weather was the probable cause.

2007: Queen Elizabeth II began her first visit to the United States in 16 years.

2007: Four year-old Madeleine McCann disappears from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

2008: Thanks to a Vegas-themed video featuring dice-shaped lollipops, Lil Wayne's single "Lollipop" hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stays for five consecutive weeks.

2012: Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shavell narrowly avoided a potential deadly helicopter crash when their pilot became disoriented during a flight in bad weather and missed some trees by just two feet. Flying home to their estate in East Sussex, England after a day in London, the McCartney's were not aware of how close they came to crashing at the time. The UK's Department of Transport launched an investigation into the incident the following November.

2013: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ordered border agents to verify the validity of visas for all foreign students entering the country.

2014:  Floyd Mayweather Jr. retained his welterweight title with a majority decision over Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas.

2014: Drummer Bobby Gregg, who played on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and Simon and Garfunkel's hit rock version of "The Sound of Silence," dies at age 78 from reasons unknown.

2015: Chelsea win the Premier League.

2018: Authorities in Hawaii ordered thousands of residents to evacuate after the Kilauea Volcano began erupting lava. The volcano emitted lava until early August 2018 at which point it had destroyed more than 700 structures on the Big Island.

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.)

2018: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences members vote to expel Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski. 

2019: Cyclone Fani made landfall in India and Bangladesh after 1.2 million people evacuated the region. It was one of the largest evacuations in world history.

2020: Several gunshots from North Korea hit a South Korean guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone, prompting the South to fire back. A South Korean official said the North's firings didn't appear to have been intentional.

2020: The Stranglers’ keyboards player Dave Greenfield dies aged 71 after contracting COVID-19.

BIRTHDAYS:

Jane Morgan (Florence Currier), singer, 97; 

Frankie Valli (Castelluccio), singer, 87; 

Mary Hopkin, singer, 71; 

Christopher Cross (Geppert), singer-songwriter, 70; 

Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster/comedian, 63; 

Ben Elton, writer/comedian, 62; 

David Ball, musician (Soft Cell) 62; 

Steve McClaren, football manager, 60; 

Ron Brydon (Jones), comedian/actor, 56; 

Bobby Cannavale, actor, 51; 

Christina Hendricks, actress, 46; 

Paul Banks, singer (Interpol), 43; 

Rebecca Hall, actress, 39; 

Poppy Delevingne, model/actress, 35; 

Michael Kiwanuka, singer/songwriter, 34; 

Alex Iwobi, footballer, 25.