Reuters historical calendar - May 3

London, May 2 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 3 in history: 1939 - Maxim Litvinov was removed as Soviet foreign minister and replaced by Vyacheslav Molotov.

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

1965 - Cambodia broke off diplomatic relations with the United States after a weekly magazine carried an article felt to be derogatory to the royal family.

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.

1996 - Liu Gang, one of the most prominent pro-democracy leaders to flee China, was granted permission to stay in the United States.

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.

1999 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 11,000 points for the first time.

2001 - A Yugoslav court delivered the UN tribunal's indictment for war crimes to Slobodan Milosevic, held in custody in Belgrade, but he refused to accept the document. Yugoslavia later extradited him to stand trial in The Hague.

2002 - Foreign ministers and representatives of 36 of the Council of Europe's 44 member states signed a document pledging the total abolition of the death penalty, even in times of war.

2002 - At least 450 people drowned when the MV.

Salahuddin-2 ferry with about 500 on board sank in the Meghna river 170km (105.6 miles) south of Dhaka.

2003 - The US Congress overwhelmingly voted to approve nearly billion to finance the war in Iraq, reward key allies, bolster anti-terrorism efforts and help struggling airlines.

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.

2004 - Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, an accused former top aide to Osama bin Laden, was sentenced to 32 years in prison for stabbing a guard while awaiting trial for conspiring to kill Americans.

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.

**2006 - Pramod Mahajan, a top leader of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) died, 11 days after his younger brother allegedly shot him over personal disputes. He was 56.

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