April 3 in history — What Happened Today in History

Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States.

A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.

The outcome of the Grand National horse race is declared void for the first (and only) time.

The US Supreme Court upholds the jurisdictional rights of tribal courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Mississippi Choctaw Band v. Holyfield.

The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.

US Congress restores a federal trust relationship with the 501 members of the Shivwits, Kanosh, Koosharem, and the Indian Peaks and Cedar City bands of the Paiute people of Utah.

Vietnam War: Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children in the closing stages of the war begins.

Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.

The 1974 Super Outbreak occurs, the second largest tornado outbreak in recorded history (after the 2011 Super Outbreak). The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.

Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.

Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.

Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech; he was assassinated the next day.

LAN-Chile Flight 621 crashes in the Andes mountains, killing 21 people, including Argentinian football player Eliseo Mouriño.

Hudsonville–Standale tornado: The western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado.

The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.

Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.

In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju uprising begins.

Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.

World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.

Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.

First flight over Mount Everest, the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston.

Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Attempts are made to carry out the failed assassination attempt on General Mannerheim, led by Aleksander Weckman by order of Eino Rahja, during the White Guard parade in Tampere, Finland.

Association football club Boca Juniors is founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina

The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.

Jack the Ripper: The first of 11 unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.

Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for a light, high-speed, four-stroke engine, which he uses seven months later to create the world's first motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen.

American Old West: Robert Ford kills Jesse James.

Madison Brengle, American tennis player

Sotiris Ninis, Greek footballer

Natasha Negovanlis, Canadian actress and singer

Romain Alessandrini, French footballer

Israel Folau, Australian rugby player and footballer

Joel Romelo, Australian rugby league player

Thisara Perera, Sri Lankan cricketer

Kam Chancellor, American football player

Brandon Graham, American football player

Peter Hartley, English footballer

Tim Krul, Dutch footballer

Rachel Bloom, American actress, writer, and producer

Jay Bruce, American baseball player

Bob Burns, American drummer and songwriter (born 1950)

Shmuel Wosner, Austrian-Israeli rabbi and author (born 1913)

Régine Deforges, French author, playwright, and director (born 1935)

Fred Kida, American illustrator (born 1920)

Prince Michael of Prussia (born 1940)

Jovan Pavlović, Serbian metropolitan (born 1936)

Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, American guitarist, fiddler, and composer (born 1921)

Mariví Bilbao, Spanish actress (born 1930)

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German-American author and screenwriter (born 1927)

Mingote, Spanish cartoonist and journalist (born 1919)

Richard Descoings, French civil servant (born 1958)

Govind Narain, Indian politician, 8th Governor of Karnataka (born 1917)

Chief Jay Strongbow, American wrestler (born 1928)