Today in history—May 3
1160: Philosopher Peter Lombard, a significant influence on both Aquinas and Duns Scotus, dies at Paris.
1469: Political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli is born at Florence.
1791: Poland adopts the first written constitution in Europe. It lasts only a year before local opponents supported by Russian troops overthrow it.
1866: Emmett Dalton is born near Lawrence, Kansas. The only one of the eight members of the notorious Dalton Gang not to die a violent death, he’ll survive a gunfight in which he’s shot 23 times and a life sentence for train robbery, before ending his career as a real estate agent in Long Beach, California.
1867: The Hudson’s Bay Company, which had founded the first English settlement there in 1843, gives up its claims to the island of Vancouver.
1874: François Coty, the French parfumeur who will discover that the key to selling perfume is the bottle, not the scent, is born Joseph Marie François Spoturno at Ajaccio, Corsica.
1903: Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby is born at Tacoma, Washington, becoming (in Artie Shaw’s words) “the first hip white person born in the United States.” His “White Christmas” is the only single to reach Number One on the Billboard charts three times, in 1942, 1945, and 1947.
1957: Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley (Fordham Law 1930) agrees to the deal that will move the team to Los Angeles. O’Malley, a former collections attorney, started as a lawyer for the team and acquired control in 1950.
1960: The musical The Fantasticks begins its record run of 17,162 consecutive performances in New York.
1971: National Public Radio’s All Things Considered debuts with a story about Vietnam War protests in Washington, D.C. Today it’s heard on 560 stations and has nearly as many listeners as Rush Limbaugh.
1991: After 13 years, the last episode of Lorimar Productions’ prime time soap opera Dallas airs on CBS.
1999: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at a record 11,014.70.
2003: New Hampshire’s state symbol, the rock cliff formation known as the Old Man of the Mountain, collapses into a pile of rubble.