August 3 is the 215th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (216th in leap years), with 150 days remaining. It is also Jessie’s birthday and in honor of this auspicious occasion, I have compiled a number of stats about today:

Notable Events:
1492 – The Jews of Spain are expelled by the Catholic Monarchs.
1492 – Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain (with a few Jews on board no less – in fact, a little known fact is that Luis de Torres, one of the five Jews onboard, was the first man ashore)
1946 – National Basketball Association was founded in the US.
1983 – New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield accidentally killed a seagull during a baseball game and was charged by police for his “act of cruelty to animals”. His manager Billy Martin quipped, “It’s the first time he’s hit the cutoff man.”

Notable Birthdays:
1811 – Elisha Graves Otis, elevator inventor
1924 – Leon Uris, American novelist (he wrote Exodus among others)
1926 – Tony Bennett, singer
1941 – Martha Stewart, home economist

Stats courtesy of Wikipedia