Today in History, May 3rd

1494 - Christopher Columbus first sights land that will be called Jamaica.

1802 - Washington, DC is incorporated as a city.

1921 - West Virginia imposes the first state sales tax.

1937 - Gone With the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

1951 - The US Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by US President Harry S. Truman.

1956 - The judo World Championships are first held.

1973 - The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.

1979 - Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher becomes United Kingdom's first female Prime Minister as the Labour government is ousted in parliamentary elections. She was a great one and she is missed right now.

1987 - A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talledega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop restrictor plate racing the following season at Daytona International Speedway and Talledega.

1988 - The White House acknowledges that first lady Nancy Reagan has used astrological advice to schedule her husband's activities.

2001 - The US loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947. This isn't a bad thing, in case people were wondering.

2006 - Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea, killing 113 people on board, with no survivors.

2006 - Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia.