Today in History: August 3, deadly Walmart shooting in El Paso

Today is Monday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2026. There are 150 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On August 3, 2019, a gunman opened fire at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, resulting in the deaths of 23 people; after surrendering, the gunman told detectives he targeted “Mexicans” and had outlined the plot in a screed published online shortly before the attack.

Also on this date:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on his first voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.

In 1852, in America’s first intercollegiate sporting event, Harvard rowed past Yale to win the first Harvard-Yale Regatta.

In 1916, Irish-born British diplomat Roger Casement, a strong advocate of independence for Ireland, was hanged for treason.

In 1936, Jesse Owens of the United States won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100-meter sprint.

In 1972, the U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union.

In 1977, the Tandy Corporation introduced the TRS-80, one of the first widely-available home computers.

In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, seeking pay and workplace improvements (two days later, President Ronald Reagan fired the 11,345 striking union members and barred them from federal employment).

In 2004, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty opened to visitors for the first time since the 9/11 attacks.

In 2018, Las Vegas police said they were closing their investigation into the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting that left 58 people dead at a country music festival without a definitive answer for why Stephen Paddock unleashed gunfire from a hotel suite onto the concert crowd.

In 2021, New York’s state attorney general said an investigation found Gov. Andrew Cuomo had sexually harassed multiple current and former state government employees; the report stepped up pressure from fellow Democrats for Cuomo to resign, and he did so a week later.

In 2022, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan, becoming the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island claimed by China, which quickly announced it would conducted military maneuvers in retaliation for her trip.

Today’s Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy is 101. Actor Martin Sheen is 86. Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart is 85. Film director John Landis is 76. Actor JoMarie Payton (TV: “Family Matters”) is 76. Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne is 75. Actor John C. McGinley is 67. Rock singer/guitarist James Hetfield (Metallica) is 63. Actor Lisa Ann Walter (TV: “Abbott Elementary”) is 63. Rock musician Stephen Carpenter (Deftones) is 56. Former NFL quarterback Tom Brady is 49. Actor Evangeline Lilly is 47. Olympic swimming gold medalist Ryan Lochte is 42. Model Karlie Kloss is 32. Actor Chandler Kinney is 26.