History of the Day for:
April 3
- 1776: George Washington received an honorary doctor of law degree from Harvard College.
- 1829: James Carrington patented the coffee mill.
- 1860: The Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.
- 1882: Notorious outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang.
- 1936: Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, N.J., for the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby.
- 1942: World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
- 1946: Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
- 1948: President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries.
- 1953: "TV Guide" was published for the first time.
- 1965: Bob Dylan appeared on the pop music charts for the first time when "Subterranean Homesick Blues" entered the Top 40 at No. 39.
- 1979: Jane M. Byrne became the first woman elected mayor of Chicago.
- 1982: John Chancellor stepped down as anchor of the "The NBC Nightly News."
- 1996: An Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and American business executives crashed in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard; Theodore Kaczynski was arrested and accused of being the Unabomber.
- 1996: Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his cabin in Montana, United States.
- 1996: A United States Air Force airplane carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on board.
- 1997: The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
- 2000: United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
- 2004: Islamic terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.
- 2007: Conventional-Train World Speed Record: a French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line sets an official new world speed record.
- 2008: ATA Airlines, once one of the 10 largest U.S. passenger airlines and largest charter airline, files for bankruptcy for the second time in 5 years and ceases all operations.
- 2009: Australia formally adopts the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.