Things were not going too great on this day in 1494 for Christopher Columbus.  Back near North America for a second time, this time with a fleet of 17 ships and 1500 men supplied by Queen Isabella, today was the day he "discovered" Jamaica and realized the whole "gotta find a short-cut to China" thing probably wasn't going to work out as well as he hoped. 

Births and Deaths and Other Events

The godfather of oft-disparaged political thories, author of "The Prince", Niccolo Macchiavelli was born May 3, 1469.

Perpetual golf-on-TV voice and rather successful British golf Peter Oosterhuis was born May 3, 1948.

Owww, good God!  James Brown (singer, not the sports guy) was born this day in 1933.

The University of Virginia's most accomplished baseball player (at least until we get a good look at the completed career of Ryan Zimmerman) is Eppa Rixey.  Born May 3, 1891 in Culpeper, Virginia, Rixey won 266 games pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds.  He was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1963.

Joe DiMaggio played his first game for the New York Yankees on this day on May 3, 1936.  Things started out looking pretty bright - Joltin' Joe hit .323 with 29 homers in 138 games and the Yanks won the World Series.

Fans of "Mad Men" - and fans of extremely busty women - can help Christina Hendricks celebrate her birthday today (born 5/3/75).

We'll go out on a limb and guess that there's lots of dancing at any birthday celebration for Cheryl Burke of "Dancing With The Stars" fame.  Cheryl was born May 3, 1984.

Tags: Cheryl Burke, Christina Henricks, Christopher Columbus, James Brown, Joe DiMaggio, May 3rd, Niccolo Macchiavelli, Peter Oosterhuis