On This Day, May 3: Tobey Maguire found his claim to fame while Paul McCartney brought venture number two to America

Shoutout to the state of Montana, shoutout to chocolate custard, shoutout to paranormal stuff in general, and shoutout to textiles of all shapes, forms, and fashions. Indeed, folks, we wish you all the greatest of May 3‘s this morning.

Just as well, because May 3 is no stranger to greatness in the pop culture game, with a number of curious events having occurred across the film, theatre, and music spheres on this fine day in the past; laid before you are three of the best.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man released to theaters

Comic book movies may be all the rage these days (take that statement as you will), but one of the genre’s finer heydays was in and around the early 90s and early 2000s, when audiences could roll up to the cinema to see the likes of Wesley Snipes’ Blade or Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker. It’s the latter of those icons we celebrate today, as Spider-Man first swung onto big screens in the United States on this day in 2002.

It probably wasn’t until Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark that a more inspired comic book movie casting ever existed, with Willem Dafoe’s delectable take on the Green Goblin (the subject of many meme templates and iconic monologues to this day) being the perfect foil to the cheeky-yet-devastated eyes of Maguire’s protagonist. Toss in a David Koepp script and the masterful directorial hand of Sam Raimi, and it’s no wonder that Spider-Man remains one of the most beloved live-action superhero movies to this day.

Wings began their one and only tour in the United States

Ten years after Paul McCartney performed in United States with The Beatles for the last time, the legendary artist returned—this time backed by his band Wings—to kick off the North American leg of the “Wings Over the World” tour in Fort Worth, Texas on this day in 1976.

Consisting of McCartney and his wife Linda, guitarists Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch, and drummer Joe English at the time, Wings’ North American tour was the one and only time the band toured in the United States prior to their dissolution in 1981. Wings proved to be something of a resurgence for McCarthy, who saw both critical and commercial success with the band.

The North American leg ended in Inglewood, California on June 23 of that same year. The full tour would finish in London, England on October 21, and prove to be the second-last tour Wings ever took, with 1979’s “Wings UK Tour 1979” being the final time the band went on the road.

Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s The Fantasticks premieres off-Broadway

Let’s face it: It’s always a pain when your parents try to play matchmaker, but no one in history has managed to make the ordeal as expensive and exhausting as Hucklebee and Bellomy. This first became apparent to the theatre community way back in 1960, when The Fantasticks first premiered at Greenwich Village on this very day.

For those of you not in the know, The Fantasticks follows the plight of Hucklebee (the father of a boy named Matt) and Bellomy (the father of a girl named Luisa), two neighbors who pretend to feud in order to trick their children into falling in love with each other. In truth, they’re actually good friends who find themselves in a bit of a pickle when their pretend hatred for each other drives a wedge between their children, who already like each other but avoid their feelings for fear of disapproval from their dads (go figure). The fathers’ solution? Hire a man to pretend to kidnap Luisa so that Matt can rescue her, and bridge the imaginary gap between the two families by way of Matt’s heroics.

Indeed, The Fantasticks is definitely of the musical genre.