A closer look at key historic events that took place on May 3:

In 1999, a tornado produces the highest wind speeds ever recorded 

The F5 tornado hit parts of Oklahoma City and amassed a wind speed of about 484 km/h. 45 people were killed and another 665 injured.

Following a tornado, three-year-old Adam Fields is left wondering why his plastic slide is in the pile of rubble that used to be his house. Said to be Oklahoma’s worst tornado in 17 years, it was categorized by meteorologists as F-5 using the Fujita-Pearson scale and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes and damaged 7,000 others. This photograph was used in the article “Real-life Twister,” from the September 1999 Airman Magazine. Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files

In 1996, the first formal review of the 1980 Geneva Convention on Inhumane Weapons takes place
As a result of the review, the signatories agreed to restrict the use of land mines over the next decade.

Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, Group of Governmental Experts of the High Contracting Parties to the CCW on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 2nd session, Geneva. 27 August 2018. Photo by Violaine Martin

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher is elected prime minister of Britain
Margaret Thatcher was the first woman in Europe to hold the position of Prime Minister and later became the longest continuously serving PM of the UK  since 1827.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Work provided by Chris Collins of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation

In 1978, the first spam e-mail is sent out
The email was sent out over ARPANET, a precursor to the modern internet. It promoted a new computer model to hundreds of users.

She received the award for Gone with the Wind, which was made into an Academy Award-winning movie two years later.

Margaret Mitchell. Flickr

In 1494 Christopher Columbus lands on Jamaica
Columbus encountered Jamaica during his second voyage to the Americas. He named the island Santiago.

Battle between Francisco Poras and Columbus on Jamaica illustration from Grand voyages (1596) by Theodor de Bry (1528-1598). rawpixel.com.

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