✦ DateLore

On This Day · The 215th day of the year

August 3

A look at August 3 through the almanac — historic events, famous birthdays including Konstantin Melnikov and Frederick William III, and the day's notable deaths and observances.

♌ZodiacLeo ◈BirthstonePeridot ❀Birth flowerGladiolus
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Events

10 notable moments
  1. 1981

    Senegal

    Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front – Suxxali Reew Mi.

    Country in West Africa
  2. 1977

    Tandy Corporation

    Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world's first mass-produced personal computers.

    Retail company based in
  3. 1975

    Boeing 707

    A privately chartered Boeing 707 strikes a mountain peak and crashes near Agadir, Morocco, killing 188.

    Four-engined single-aisle airliner family
  4. 1960

    Niger

    Niger gains independence from France.

    Landlocked country in West
  5. 1940

    World War II

    World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.

    1939–1945 global conflict
  6. 1914

    World War I

    World War I: Germany declares war against France, while Romania declares its neutrality.

    1914–1918 global conflict
  7. 1903

    Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization

    Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaim the Kruševo Republic, which exists for only ten days before Ottoman Turks lay waste to the town.

    Secret revolutionary society (1893–1934)
  8. 1778

    La Scala

    The theatre La Scala in Milan is inaugurated with the première of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.

    Opera house in Milan,
  9. 1645

    Thirty Years' War

    Thirty Years' War: The Second Battle of Nördlingen sees French forces defeating those of the Holy Roman Empire.

    Major war in Central
  10. 1057

    Pope Stephen IX

    Frederick of Lorraine elected as Pope Stephen IX.

    Head of the Catholic
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Famous birthday twins

Born on August 3

Konstantin Melnikov

b. 1890

Russian architect, designed the Rusakov Workers' Club

Frederick William III

b. 1770

of Prussia

Ernie Pyle

b. 1900

American soldier and journalist

Isaiah Washington

b. 1963

American actor and producer

John Landis

b. 1950

American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Sven Ulreich

b. 1988

German footballer

Jean-Pierre Raffarin

b. 1948

French lawyer and politician, 166th Prime Minister of France

Regina Jonas

b. 1902

German rabbi

Deaths

  • 2008Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist, dramatist and historian, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 2006Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-English soprano and actress
  • 1968Konstantin Rokossovsky, Marshal of the Soviet Union during World War II
  • 1917Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician and academic
  • 1867August Böckh, German historian and scholar
  • 979Thietmar, Margrave of Meissen

Holidays & observances

  • —Anniversary of the Killing of Pidjiguiti (Guinea-Bissau)
  • —Armed Forces Day (Equatorial Guinea)
  • —Christian feast day: George Freeman Bragg, W. E. B. Du Bois (Episcopal Church)
  • —Christian feast day: Lydia of Thyatira
  • —Christian feast day: Myrrhbearers (Lutheran Church)
  • —Christian feast day: Nicodemus
  • —Christian feast day: Olaf II of Norway (Translation of the relic)
  • —Christian feast day: Stephen (Discovery of the relic)

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