Major Events
- 1367 An alliance of King Peter of Castile, Edward the Black Prince and John of Gaunt of England, Aquitaine, Majorca and Navarra defeats Count Henry of Castile in the Battle of Navarrete, fought near Nájera in La Rioja, Castile
- 1645 English Long Parliament passes the Self-Denying Ordinance, limiting regional armies, significant step toward New Model Army
- 1860 Start of the Pony Express, delivers mail by horse and rider relay teams between St Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California
- 1922 Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party by an ailing Vladimir Lenin
- 1948 US President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan to rebuild war-torn Western Europe after World War II, granting an initial $5 billion in aid to 16 European countries
- 1973 1st mobile phone call is made in downtown Manhattan, NYC by Motorola employee Martin Cooper to the Bell Labs headquarters in New Jersey
- 2016 Panama Papers published - 11.5 million confidential documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca expose widespread illegal activities including fraud, kleptocracy, tax evasion and the violation of international sanctions by the world's elite in the world's largest ever data leak
- More April 3 Events
Apr 3 in Film & TV
- 1953 American magazine "TV Guide" publishes 1st issue; cover features photo of Lucille Ball's new born baby boy, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV (later professionally known as Desi Arnaz, Jr.)
Apr 3 in Music
- 1960 Elvis Presley records ‘It's Now Or Never’, ‘Fever’ and ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’ at RCA studios in Nashville, Tennessee
Apr 3 in Sport
- 1975 Bobby Fischer stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend it, title awarded to Russian Anatoly Karpov
Did You Know?
American outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back of the head and killed by fellow gang member Robert Ford at home in St. Joseph, Missouri
Washington Irving
Charles Wilkes
Boss Tweed
Doris Day
Marlon Brando
Eddie Murphy
Famous Weddings
- 1920 Novelist and short story writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (23) weds novelist Zelda Sayre (19) at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York
- 1951 Actress and singer Doris Day (29) marries producer Martin Melcher (35) in Burbank, California
- 1995 Canadian actress Neve Campbell (21) weds Canadian bartender and actor Jeff Colt; divorce in 1998
More April 3 Weddings
Jesse James
Johannes Brahms
Graham GreeneArticles, Photos and Quiz
Battle of Navarrete
John of Gaunt, the Black Prince, and Peter the Cruel allied (on the left) against Henry II of Castile and the French
April 3, 1367
TV Guide's First Issue
TV Guide's first edition with Desi Arnaz Jr. on the cover
April 3, 1953
The Computer That Came By Truck
It didn't have the sleek lines that Steve Jobs would admire and it needed to be carried on a truck, but the computer age had finally arrived in rural England.
April 3, 1957
