Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 3

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 * 1491 – Nkuwu Nzinga, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, was baptised as João I by Portuguese missionaries.
 * 1616 – The Treaty of Loudun was signed, ending a war that originally began as a power struggle for the French throne.
 * 1791 – The Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ratified the first codified national constitution in Europe.
 * 1845 – A long-running feud between two towns in Wisconsin came to a head when a schooner crashed into a bridge; they later merged to form the city of Milwaukee.
 * 1855 – A group of American mercenaries led by William Walker set sail from San Francisco to conquer Nicaragua.
 * 1913 – Raja Harishchandra, the first Indian feature-length film, was released.
 * 1915 – The oldest Royal Air Force station in continuous operation, RAF Northolt, opened as home to No. 4 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron.
 * 1920 – Russian Civil War: Relying on Red Army troops in neighboring Azerbaijan, the Bolsheviks attempted to stage a coup d'etat in Georgia.
 * 1921 – Under the British Government of Ireland Act, Ireland was partitioned into two self-governing territories, Northern and Southern Ireland.
 * 1942 – Second World War: Japanese forces began an invasion of Tulagi and nearby islands in the British Solomon Islands, enabling them to threaten and intercept supply and communication routes between the United States and Australasia.
 * 1945 – Second World War: The German ocean liner Cap Arcona, afloat in the Bay of Lübeck with thousands of concentration camp survivors on board, was attacked and sunk by the Royal Air Force.
 * 1947 – A new Constitution of Japan went into effect, providing for a parliamentary system of government, guaranteeing certain fundamental rights, and relegating the Japanese monarchy to a purely ceremonial role.
 * 1960 – The Off-Broadway show The Fantasticks premiered, eventually becoming the world's longest-running musical, with 17,162 performances across 42 years.
 * 1963 – Police in Birmingham, Alabama, used high-pressure water hoses and dogs against civil-rights protesters, bringing scrutiny on racial segregation in the southern United States.
 * 1971 – Erich Honecker became First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the governing party of East Germany.
 * 2007 – Three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal; she has never been found.
 * 2021 – Twenty-six people are killed and ninety-eight are injured after an elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapses.
 * Born/died: | Béla IV of Hungary |d|1270| Alexios II of Trebizond |d|1330| Henry Garnet |d|1606| William Shakespeare |d|1616| Catherine of St. Augustine |b|1632| Richard D'Oyly Carte |b|1844| Eppa Rixey |b|1891| Red Ruffing |b|1905| Sugar Ray Robinson |b|1921| Len Shackleton |b|1922| Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil |d|1971|John O'Connor |d|2000