Today in History: Margaret Thatcher elected prime minister of Britain

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 3:

1951 – In Britain, the king and queen inaugurated the Festival of Britain on London’s South Bank and opened the Festival Hall.

1968 – In Paris, students and police clashed violently at the start of a month of disturbances and strikes.

1971 – Walter Ulbricht retired as First Secretary of the East German communist party and was succeeded by Erich Honecker.

1979 - Margaret Thatcher of the Conservative Party was elected British prime minister, becoming the first woman in Europe to hold the post

1998 – A body unearthed on a Berlin building site over 20 years earlier was finally confirmed by DNA tests as belonging to Martin Bormann, Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man.

2002 – At least 450 people drowned when the M.V. Salahuddin-2 ferry with about 500 on board sank in the Meghna river 170km (105.6 miles) south of Dhaka.

2004 – Former investment banker Frank Quattrone, famous for taking hot technology companies public, was found guilty of obstructing investigations into popular stock offerings of the 1990s.

2005 – Beijing lifted a ban on visits to Taiwan by Chinese tourists.

2006 – Earl Woods, who started his son Tiger on the path to golfing pre-eminence at a tender age and mentored him through his early career, died aged 74.

2007 – Three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears from beach resort in Portugal.

2015 – U.S. Distance Medley Relay team set new world record at the IAAF World Relays Championships.

2016 – Wildfires erupt in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.

(Reuters)