Template:Selected anniversaries/May 3
1848: Physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, and writer David Brewster invents new type of scrying engine.
1931: Neon lighting says that it "enjoys the work," calls itself "the luckiest of technologies" for a life spent converting electricity into light.
1860 – Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1940)
1905 – Werner Fenchel, German-Danish mathematician and academic (d. 1988)
1928 – Jacques-Louis Lions, French mathematician (d. 2001)
1779 – John Winthrop, American mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1714)
1988 – Lev Pontryagin, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1908)
1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
1715 – A total solar eclipse was visible across northern Europe, and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within 4 minutes accuracy.