Three Wise Men

Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchior, the three Wise Men or Magi, visited the Christ child in Bethlehem bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  The three gifts had a spiritual meaning: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense as a symbol of priestship, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death.  Sometimes this is described more generally as gold symbolizing virtue, frankincense symbolizing prayer, and myrrh symbolizing suffering.  All three are ordinary offerings given to a king.  It has been suggested also by scholars that the "gifts" were medicinal rather than precious material for tribute.  The three wise men were probably priests from Persia who traveled a long distance, perhaps 1,000 miles, on their pilgrimage to Bethlehem.      

 

from Threes, Chapter 4, “Threes in Religion and Mythology”

The Big Three in World War II

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin—the leaders of the three major Allied powers—were known during World War II as The Big Three. The Big Three and their military advisors planned and executed the strategy that defeated the Axis. 

The Axis powers included Germany, Italy and Japan. World War II began on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France were drawn into the war quickly as Nazi Germany moved its mighty army west through Europe. The United States entered the war two years later after Japan bombed naval forces at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Churchill and Roosevelt conferred frequently on overall strategy.  Stalin directed the Soviet war effort against the Germans who pushed east, but he rarely consulted his allies.  

Nazism was the German political movement initiated in 1920 that culminated in the establishment of the Third Reich and the totalitarian German state led by the dictator Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945. Probably no regime in the 20th century or any other has been so closely identified with institutionalized terror and evil as that of the Third Reich under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Its rise and fall had worldwide consequences, and its legacy continued to shape the identity of Germans long afterward. Hitler believed he was creating a third German empire, a successor to the Holy Roman Empire and the German empire formed by Chancellor Bismarck in the nineteenth century.  

The main disagreement among The Big Three concerned an Allied invasion of western Europe. Churchill argued for the immediate invasion of Italy. Roosevelt and Churchill discussed plans for a joint British and American invasion of France in the spring of 1944, but they needed time to prepare. President Roosevelt relied heavily on his military advisors, principally Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, whose strategy for prosecuting the war ultimately prevailed and led to the Allied victory.

From Threes, Chapter 7, “Threes in Government and Politics”