Here is what happened on this day in history.
- 3rd May 1913 – Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature-length film, is released, marking the commencement of the Indian film industry.
Raja Harishchandra is a 1913 Indian silent film directed and produced by Dadasaheb Phalke. It is often considered the first full-length Indian feature film. Raja Harishchandra features Dattatraya Damodar Dabke, Anna Salunke, Bhalchandra Phalke, and Gajanan Vasudev Sane and is based on the legend of Harishchandra, with Dabke portraying the title character. The film, being silent, had English, Marathi, and Hindi-language intertitles.
“Phalke decided to make a feature film after watching The Life of Christ (1906) at a theatre in Bombay in April 1911. In February 1912, he went to London for two weeks to learn filmmaking techniques and upon return founded Phalke Films Company. He imported the hardware required for filmmaking and exhibition from England, France, Germany, and the United States. Phalke shot a short film Ankurachi Wadh (Growth of a Pea Plant) to attract investors for his venture. He published advertisements in various newspapers calling for the cast and crew. As no women were available to play female roles, male actors performed the female roles. Phalke was in charge of scriptment, direction, production design, make-up, film editing, along with film processing. Trymbak B. Telang handled the camera. Phalke completed filming in six months and 27 days producing a film of 3,700 feet (1,100 m), about four reels.”
- 3rd May 1928 – The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of 12 Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese vengeance and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the ensuing days.
“The Jinan incident or 3 May Tragedy began as a 3 May 1928 dispute between Chiang Kai-shek’s National Revolutionary Army (NRA) and Japanese soldiers and civilians in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province in China, which then escalated into an armed conflict between the NRA and the Imperial Japanese Army. Japanese soldiers had been deployed to Shandong province to protect Japanese commercial interests in the province, which were threatened by the advance of Chiang’s Northern Expedition to reunite China under a Kuomintang government. When the NRA approached Jinan, the Beiyang government-aligned army of Sun Chuanfang withdrew from the area, allowing for the peaceful capture of the city by the NRA. NRA forces initially managed to coexist with Japanese troops stationed around the Japanese consulate and businesses, and Chiang Kai-shek arrived to negotiate their withdrawal on 2 May. This peace was broken the following morning, however, when a dispute between the Chinese and Japanese resulted in the deaths of 13–16 Japanese civilians. The resulting conflict resulted in thousands of casualties on the NRA side, which fled the area to continue northwards toward Beijing, and left the city under Japanese occupation until March 1929.”
- 3rd May 1939- The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
“The All India Forward Bloc (abbr. AIFB) is a left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established itself as an independent political party after the independence of India. It has its main stronghold in West Bengal. The party’s current Secretary-General is Debabrata Biswas. Veteran Indian politicians Sarat Chandra Bose (brother of Subhas Chandra Bose) and Chitta Basu had been the stalwarts of the party in independent India.
The formation of the Forward Bloc was announced to the public at a rally in Calcutta. Bose said that who all were joining, had to never turn their back to the British and must fill out the pledge form by cutting their finger and signing it with their blood. First of all, seventeen young girls came up and signed the pledge form. Initially, the aim of the Forward Bloc was to rally all the leftwing sections within the Congress and develop an alternative leadership inside the Congress. Bose became the president of the Forward Bloc and S.S. Kavishar its vice-president. A Forward Bloc Conference was held in Bombay at the end of June. At that conference, the constitution and programme of the Forward Bloc were approved.”
- 3rd May 1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Great Fire of 1901 was a fire that ensued in Jacksonville, Florida on Friday, May 3, 1901. It was one of the worst disasters in Florida history and the third-largest urban fire in the U.S., next to the Great Chicago Fire, and the 1906 San Francisco fire.
“In 1901, Jacksonville was a city which consisted mainly of wooden buildings with wood-shingled roofs. The city itself had been suffering under a prolonged drought, leaving the building exteriors across the city dry and fire-prone. At around noon on Friday, May 3, 1901, workers at the Cleaveland Fibre Factory, located on the corner of Beaver and Davis Streets, left for lunch. Several minutes later, sparks from the chimney of a nearby building started a fire in a pile of Spanish moss that had been laid out to dry. First, factory workers tried to put it out with a few buckets of water, as they had frequently done on similar occasions. However, the blaze was soon out of control due to the wind picking up out of the east. A brisk northwest wind fanned the flames, which “spread from house to house, seemingly with the rapidity that a man could walk”.
In eight hours, the fire burned 146 city blocks, destroyed more than 2,368 buildings, and left almost 10,000 residents homeless. It is said the glow from the flames could be seen in Savannah, Georgia, and the smoke plumes in Raleigh, North Carolina.”
Information source- wikipedia.com
