Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on March 3rd?

Battle of Poitiers: Frankish leader Charles Martel defeats the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate, halting the Muslim advance into Western Europe.

Hulagu Khan's Mongol army defeats the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine, marking the first Mongol defeat.

Treaty of Delft is signed, formalizing an alliance between the Holy Roman Empire and England against France.

Pope Paul III opens the first session of the Council of Trent.

Florida is admitted into the United States Union as the 27th State.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia grants civil liberties and forms a legislative assembly called the Duma in response to the Russian Revolution of 1905.

President Herbert Hoover signed a Public Law that made the "Star-Spangled Banner” the official U.S. national anthem of the United states. The words are from a poem written by Francis Scott Key in 1814. During the War of 1812, on September 13, 1814, Key watched a night-time battle between Great Britain and America that took place in Baltimore, Maryland at Fort McHenry. When he saw the American flag still flying in the morning, he wrote a poem that tells the story of his experience. More

All 346 occupants of a Turkish Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC 10 were killed after the plane suffered an explosive decompression when an improperly secured hold door detached passing 12000ft in the climb shortly after departing Paris Orly airport. A similar DC10 explosive decompression in Canada two years earlier, had identified an identical fault in the door closure mechanism which had allowed it to indicate and appear secured. Non-mandated corrective actions promulgated after that investigation had not been completed on the aircraft at the time of the accident. More