On May 1st...

links will open in a new window

1328 The Kingdom of England recognized the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.

1544 Turkish troops occupied Hungary.

1572 Pope Pius V died.

1625 Prince Frederick Henry was appointed Viceroy of Holland.

1672 Essayist Joseph Addison was born.

1682 King Louis XIV of France inaugurated the Paris Observatory.

1704 The Boston Newsletter published the first newspaper advertisement.

1707 The Act of Union joined England and Wales with Scotland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

1715 Prussia declared war on Sweden.

1725 Spain and Austria signed a trade treaty.

1753 Species Plantarum, by Carolus Linnaeus, was published.

1757 Austria and France divided Prussia.

1759 A British fleet captured the West Indies island of Guadeloupe from France.

1764 Architect Benjamin Latrobe was born.

1776 Adam Weishaupt founded the Secret Society of the Illuminati.

1785 Kamehameha established the Kingdom of Hawai'i.

1786 Mozart's opera Marriage of Figaro premiered in Vienna, Austria.

1813 Robert Hancock Hunter, early Texas pioneer, was born.

1840 The world's first adhesive postage stamps were issued by the United Kingdom.

1841 The first emigrant wagon train left Independence, Missouri, for California.

1848 Phi Gamma Delta was founded, at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

1851 The Great Exhibition opened in the Crystal Palace, London, England.

1852 Frontierswoman Calamity Jane was born.

1862 Union troops led by Major General Benjamin Butler occupied New Orleans, Louisiana.

1863 The Battle of Chancellorsville (Virginia) began.

1866 The American Equal Rights Association was organized.

1867 Howard University was chartered.

1873 The first U. S. postal card was issued.
1873 Missionary-explorer David Livingstone died.

1883 The Amsterdam (Netherlands) World's Fair opened.

1889 Bayer introduced aspirin in powder form, in Germany.

1893 The World's Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago.

1898 Admiral George Dewey won the Battle of Manila Bay.

1900 A premature blast collapsed a mine tunnel at Scofield, Utah, and killed about 200 people.

1901 Herb McFarland hit the first American League grand slam.
1901 The Pan-American Exposition opened in Buffalo, New York.

1904 Composer Antonin Dvorák died.

1907 Singer Kate Smith was born.

1916 Actor Glenn Ford was born.

1918 Talk show host Jack Paar was born.

1919 Mount Kelud, in Indonesia, erupted, emptying a boiling crater lake onto 104 small villages and killing 5,000 people.

1920 The Belgium-Luxembourg Toll Tunnel opened.
1920 The longest Major League baseball game by innings was played; the Brooklyn Dodgers tied the Boston Braves, 1-1, in 26 innings.

1923 Author Joseph Heller was born.

1924 Game show host Art Fleming was born.

1925 Cyprus became a British Crown Colony.
1925 Astronaut Scott Carpenter was born.

1926 Satchel Paige made his pitching debut in the Negro Southern League.

1928 Six children were killed and ten injured by hailstones in Klausenburg, Romania.

1931 The Empire State Building opened.
1931 Norway claimed Peter I Island.

1936 FBI director J. Edgar Hoover arrested gangster Alvin Karpis.

1937 U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Neutrality Act.

1938 Reorganization created the Stearman Aircraft Division of Boeing Airplane Company.

1939 Singer Judy Collins was born.

1940 The 1940 Olympics were cancelled.

1941 U. S. Savings Bond went on sale to help finance the war effort.
1941 General Mills introduced Cheerios.
1941 The film Citizen Kane premiered at the Palace Theater in New York City, New York.

1943 Food rationing began in the United States.
1943 A German plane sank a boat loaded with Palestinian Jews bound for Malta.
1943 Johnny Longden rode Count Fleet to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1944 Singer Rita Coolidge was born.

1945 Nazi propoganda minister Joseph Goebbels committed suicide.
1945 The General Belgian Labor Union Party was formed.

1946 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was appointed British Supreme Commander.

1947 Radar for commercial andprivate planes was demonstrated.
1947 The Cleveland Indians abandoned League Park in favor of Municipal Stadium.

1948 North Korea proclaimed itself the People's Democratic Republic of Korea.
1948 Glen Taylor, U. S. Senator for Idaho, was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked "for Negroes."
1948 Eddie Arcaro rode Citation to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first black to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
1950 Actor Dann Florek was born.

1952 Hasbro introduced Mr. Potato Head.

1954 Raymond York rode Determine to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1959 Clare Boothe Luce resigned as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.
1959 An estimated 550,000 West Berliners turned out for a "Berlin will remain free" rally.
1959 The Malagasy Parliament elected Premier Philibert Tsiranana the first President of the new Malagasy Republic.

1960 A U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union.
1960 Jockey Steve Cauthen was born.

1961 The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, was opened as an international youth center.
1961 Fire destroyed a private club in Bolton, England, and killed 19 persons.

1963 Indonesia took control of Irian Jaya from the Netherlands.
1963 The government of Ceylon terminated the state of emergency that had been in effect since April 17, 1961.
1963 James Whittaker became the first American to conquer Mount Everest.

1964 The first BASIC program was run on a computer at Dartmouth.
1964 A daughter, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, was born to Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom and the Earl of Snowden.

1965 Bill Shoemaker rode Lucky Debonair to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
1965 The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Chicago Blackhawks for the Stanley Cup.
1965 Musician Spike Jones died.

1966 The Beatles played their last British concert at Empire Pool in Wembley.

1967 Gustavo Avila rode Canonero II to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
1967 Singer Tim McGraw was born.

1971 Amtrak Railroad began operation.

1976 Angel Cordero, Jr., rode Bold Forbes to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1977 Thirty-six persons were killed during Labour Day celebrations in Taksim Square, Istanbul, Turkey.

1978 Naomi Uemura became the first person ever to complete a solo trek to the North Pole.

1979 Home rule was granted to Kalaallit Nunaat, Greenland.
1979 The Marshall Islands became self-governing.

1982 The 1982 World's Fair opened in Knoxville, Tennessee.
1982 Ed Delahoussaye rode Gato Del Sol to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1986 A dogsled expedition led by Will Steger became the first to reach the North Pole without being resupplied during the trek.

1989 Disney's MGM Studio officially opened to te public.
1989 Jockey Chris Antley ended his record of 64 consecutive winning days.

1993 A bomb attack aimed at the President of Sri Lanka killed 26 persons.
1993 Jerry Bailey rode Sea Hero to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1998 Activist Eldridge Cleaver died.

1999 Chris Antley rode Charismatic to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
1999 "SpongeBob SquarePants" debuted on Nickelodeon.

2000 The film Gladiator premiered in Los Angeles, California.

2003 U. S. President George W. Bush publicly declared that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

2004 Stewart Elliott rode Smarty Jones to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

2009 Sweden legalized same-sex marriage.

2010 A car bomb failed to go off in Times Square, New York City, New York.
2010 Calvin Borel rode Super Saver to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

2011 Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALS.
2011 Pope John Paul II was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI.

2013 A flash flood killed 16 persons in Saudi Arabia.

2015 Expo 2015 opened in Milan, Italy.

Questions or comments about this page?

This page was last updated on June 02, 2018.