What Happened On
Jesse Owens
August 3, 1936
The black American track star Jesse Owens upsets Adolf Hitler's theory of Aryan superiority by winning a gold medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics held in NAZI Germany and known as "Hitler's Games". He won in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.3 seconds and went on to win a total of four gold medals.
Shortly before the Olympics, the founder of what would become the Adidas shoe company persuaded Owens to wear a pair of his company's shoes. This was the first sponsorship for a male African American athlete.
Macready (right) and Dormoy (left) in front of the 1st crop duster airplane and aerial view of the crop dusting
Macready (right) and Dormoy (left) in front of the 1st crop duster airplane and aerial view of the crop dusting
First Crop Dusting by Airplane
August 3, 1921
First crops dusted by an airplane. The plane flown by Lt. John Macready at the Army Signal Corps' experimental test field in Dayton, Ohio. The pesticide hopper was designed and operated by Etienne Dormoy.
First Arrest of a U.S. Vice-President
August 3, 1807
Former Vice-President Aaron Burr goes on trial for treason against the United States. President. Thomas Jefferson had arrested him 5½ months earlier. Burr had served as vice president under Jefferson. Burr was accused of trying to create an independent country in the center of North America including the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico. Burr claims he was just trying to farm 40,000 acres (160 km2) in the Texas Territory that had been leased to him by the Spanish Crown. He had organized an armed militia of about 60 men. Historians still debate Burr's true intentions. He was eventually acquitted.
During his vice-presidency in 1804, Burr killed former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
Columbus Sets Sail for the Indies
August 3, 1492
Christopher Columbus sets sail for the Indies. He reached the New World of the Americas instead, landing in the Bahamas in October.
Reagan warning strikers they will be terminated
Reagan warning strikers they will be terminated
Federal Air Traffic Controller Strike
August 3, 1981
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) goes on strike. The strike violated federal law which prohibited strikes by federal employees. U.S. President Ronald Reagan declared the PATCO strike a "peril to national safety" and declared all strikers would be fired. On August 5, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order and banned them from federal service for life (the ban was lifted by Bill Clinton in 1993). Two months later, PATCO was decertified.
On Ronald Reagan's 87th birthday in 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed legislation changing "Washington National Airport" to "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport".
The Spy Who Loved Me
August 3, 1977
The Spy Who Loved Me premieres in the U.S., 10th in the James Bond series, it was the third to star Roger Moore as 007.
The plot is about a reclusive megalomaniac who plans to destroy the world and create an undersea civilization.
Superdome in 2006 after repairs of Hurricane Katrina damage
Superdome in 2006 after repairs of Hurricane Katrina damage
Superdome
August 3, 1975
The $163 million Superdome arena opens in New Orleans. It was built to house the New Orleans Saints NFL football team. Tulane Stadium, where the Saints played while waiting for the completion of the Superdome, was officially condemned on this day.
Famous UFO Sighting
August 3, 1965
Highway inspector Rex Heflin takes four Polaroid's of a flying object measuring 30 feet (9.14 meters) in diameter near Santa Anna, California. According to Heflin, the photos were taken from him by two men identifying themselves as from the North American Air Defense.
First Ship to Transit the Panama Canal
August 3, 1914
The SS Cristobal. It was a cargo and passenger ship built by Maryland Steel. The Panama Canal would officially open 12 days later.
Source of the Nile
August 3, 1858
The source of the Nile river is found, by English explorer John Hanning Speke.
Birthdays
Jay North
Born August 3, 1951
American actor. TV: Dennis the Menace (1959-63, title role) and Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971, voice of Bamm-Bamm). Film: Zebra in the Kitchen (1965).
Photo Credit: Life
Photo Credit: Life
Glenn McDuffie
Born August 3, 1927 d. 2014
American sailor. He claims to be the sailor kissing the nurse in Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous Times Square photo on V-J Day. It is believed that Edith Shain was the nurse in the photo.
Bennett c1950 (left) and in 2011
Bennett c1950 (left) and in 2011
Tony Bennett (Anthony Dominick Benedetto)
Born August 3, 1926 d. 2023
American singer. Music: Because of You (1951, #1), Cold, Cold Heart (1951, #1), and I Left My Heart in San Francisco (1962).
Photo Credit: N/A (Jewish Women's Library)
Photo Credit: N/A (Jewish Women's Library)
First Ordained Female Rabbi
Regina Jonas
Born August 3, 1902 d. 1944
Berlin-born Rabbi. She was the first woman ordained as a rabbi (1935). She died in the Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII.
After being arrested by the Nazis in 1942 and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, she continued her rabbinic work and provided counseling to new arrivals until she and her mother were sent to Auschwitz where they were killed.
She was almost forgotten to history. After the war, she and her work were ignored by her male colleagues, even by those who worked with her in Theresienstadt. However, in 1991 a researcher discovered her ordination papers, seminary dissertation, and other personal documents.
Note:
Pyle (center left) sharing a cigarette with a soldier on Okinawa shortly before his death
Pyle (center left) sharing a cigarette with a soldier on Okinawa shortly before his death
Ernie Pyle (Ernest Taylor Pyle)
Born August 3, 1900 d. 1945
American Pulitzer-winning journalist, war correspondent. His column was published in nearly 200 newspapers. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his World War II coverage. Pyle was killed by enemy fire during the World War II Battle of Okinawa.
Otis demonstrating his elevator
Otis demonstrating his elevator
Elisha Graves Otis
Born August 3, 1811 d. 1861
American inventor. He invented the modern safety elevator (1852), with a device to protect passengers in case the cable broke. He also patented a steam driven elevator (1860).
Tom Brady (Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.)
Born August 3, 1977
American football quarterback for the New England Patriots. He is one of only two players to win five Super Bowls (the other being defensive player Charles Haley), the only player to win them all playing for one team, and is the only player to win four Super Bowl MVP awards. Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2016 NFL season for his alleged involvement in the Deflategate football tampering scandal.
Johnny Graham
Born August 3, 1951
American guitarist, with Earth, Wind & Fire. Music: Shining Star (1975, #1, Grammy), Best of My Love (1977, #1), and After the Love has Gone (1979, #2, Grammy).
John Landis
Born August 3, 1950
American director. During the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), a helicopter crash killed actor Vic Morrow and two illegally employed children. Film: The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), An American Werewolf in London (1981), and Trading Places (1983).
Martin Sheen (Ramon Estevez)
Born August 3, 1940
American actor. Sheen adopted his stage name, Martin Sheen, from a combination of the CBS casting director, Robert Dale Martin, who gave him his first big break, and the televangelist archbishop, Fulton J. Sheen.
Film: Apocalypse Now (1979) and Wall Street (1987). TV: The Execution of Private Slovik (1974, title role).
Maggie Kuhn
Born August 3, 1905 d. 1995
American executive, founder of the Gray Panthers (1970).
Dolores del Río
Born August 3, 1904 d. 1983
Mexican actress. She was the first major female Latin cross-over star in Hollywood. Film: Maria Candelaria (1943) and The Fugitive (1947).
John Thomas Scopes
Born August 3, 1900 d. 1970
American educator. His arrest for teaching evolution in Tennessee led to the Scopes Monkey Trial (1925). He was convicted and fined $100, although it was overturned on a technicality.
Discovered Truth Serum
Robert Ernest House
Born August 3, 1875 d. 1930
American physician. He discovered that scopolamine hydrobromide could be used as a "truth serum." However, later research showed that its use was unreliable due to its hallucinogenic effects.
Deaths
Berliner with a model of his first phonograph
Berliner with a model of his first phonograph
Invented the Disc Record Player
Emile Berliner
Died August 3, 1929 b. 1851
German-born American inventor, patented the first flat disc record player (1887, gramophone). Earlier recording devices by Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell used cylinders that were difficult to mass produce. His device was known as a "gramophone."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Died August 3, 2008 b. 1918
Russian Nobel-winning novelist. Known for helping expose the Russian Gulag forced labor camp system. Writings: The Gulag Archipelago (1973).
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Died August 3, 2004 b. 1908
French photographer, father of modern photojournalism. He is considered one of the greatest photographers of all time.
First World Series Bases-loaded Grand Slam
Elmer John Smith
Died August 3, 1984 b. 1892
American baseball player. He hit the first World Series bases-loaded grand slam (1920), batting for Cleveland against Brooklyn in game 5 of the series.
Smith was an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians (1914-16, 1917 and 1919-21), Washington Senators (1916-17), Boston Red Sox (1922), New York Yankees (1922-23), and Cincinnati Reds (1925).
Lenny Bruce (Leonard A. Schneider)
Died August 3, 1966 b. 1925
American "blue" comedian, author of How to Talk Dirty and Influence People: An Autobiography (1965). He was deported from Britain in 1963, arrested for obscenity on several occasions, and banned from Australia after his first performance there.
His attempt to be discharged from World War II service by dressing in a WAVES uniform was the inspiration for Jamie Farr's character Max Klinger in the TV series M*A*S*H (1972).
Quote: "Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God."
Quote: "The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them."
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Died August 3, 1907 b. 1848
Irish-born sculptor, regarded as America's greatest sculptor.
Benjamin Franklin Goodrich
Died August 3, 1888 b. 1841
American physician, rubber manufacturer, founder of the B.F. Goodrich Co. (1880).
William George Fargo
Died August 3, 1881 b. 1818
American businessman, co-founder of American Express (1850), co-founder of Wells, Fargo and Co. (1852), mayor of Buffalo, N.Y. (1862-66), and for whom Fargo, North Dakota is named.