1. On April 3, 1865, Union troops under General George Stoneman clashed with Confederate forces under General John Vaughn at the Battle of Saltville in Virginia. The Union soldiers destroyed the town's saltworks, seriously damaging the Confederacy's ability to produce salt, a critical resource for preserving food and curing hides.

2. In 1936, Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park was formally dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The park covers over 500,000 acres and is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including black bears, elk, and rare salamanders.

3. On April 3, 1956, Elvis Presley made his first appearance on "The Milton Berle Show," performing his songs "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Blue Suede Shoes." The performance helped catapult Presley to national fame and cemented his status as a cultural icon of the 1950s.

4. In 1986, the Tennessee General Assembly designated the state's official rock as the limestone known as Tennessee marble. The marble, which has been quarried in East Tennessee since the late 1800s, was used to construct notable buildings such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

5. The Nashville Predators, Tennessee's only professional ice hockey team, played their inaugural game on April 3, 1998. The team has become a beloved fixture in Nashville's sports landscape and reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2017, ultimately falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins.