1. Rhode Island became the 13th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on November 3, 1787. The state's ratification was crucial to the Constitution's adoption, as it marked the ninth state to do so, thus meeting the requirement for three-fourths of the states to approve.

2. On November 3, 1843, Bishop Thomas Grace of the Diocese of Saint Francis Xavier in Newport, Rhode Island was consecrated as the first Catholic Bishop in the United States. Bishop Grace had been appointed by Pope Gregory XVI earlier that year.

3. The first ever "lighthouse tender," a ship that serviced and maintained lighthouses, was commissioned by the U.S. government on November 3, 1862. The ship, named the Dahlia, was built in Rhode Island.

4. Rhode Island's first public park, Roger Williams Park, opened on November 3, 1871. The park, which spans over 400 acres, was named after the founder of the state, Roger Williams, and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect behind New York City's Central Park.

5. On November 3, 1977, two British scientists, Andrew Huxley and John Eccles, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on nerve impulses. Huxley was born in London but spent his later years living and teaching at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.