Today in History, 5/3

1802: Washington, DC is incorporated as a city.
1844: Richard D'Oyly Carte is born. He was the theatrical producer who did most of Gilbert & Sullivans operas.

1889: Beulah Bondi is born. She played Ma Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.
1898: Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel is born.1903: Bing Crosby is born.

1906: Mary Astor is born. She played the duplicitous Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon. This clip gives away the ending, so if you haven't seen it and don't want the ending spoiled, don't click play.

1919: Folk singer Pete Seeger is born. He famously called FDR a war-monger during the time of the Russo-German Non Aggression Pact and then wished he could trade his guitar in for a machine gun once that pact fell apart.1932: Robert Osbourne is born. He's that avuncular guy on Turner Classic Movies.1933: James Brown, the hardest working man in show business, is born.

1933: Alex Cord is born. He played the one-eyed Archangel on the classic 80's show Airwolf.

1934: Frankie Valli is born.

1935: Television pitchman Ron Popeil is born. Hey good lookin' we'll be back to pick you up later!

1937: Gone With the Wind wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
1947: The post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
1948: The Supreme Court rules that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.
1952: Lt. Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the North Pole.
1957: Walter O'Malley agrees to move the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles.1960: The Fantasticks opens off-Broadway, eventually becoming the longest running musical ever.
1963: The police in Birmingham, AL switch to violent force to stop civil rights protesters. the images are transmitted world wide on television and shine a stark light on Southern culture of racism.1973: The Sears Tower in Chicago becomes the world's tallest building.1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes the United Kingdom's first female Prime Minister.2003: New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountains collapses.Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.