On this day in History - May 1

• 0305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.
• 0408 - Arcadius dies. Roman emperor
• 1045 - Gregory VI appointed Pope.
• 1118 - Edith of Scotland dies (b.c. 1080). First wife of Henry I of England.
• 1218 - John I, Count of Hainaut was born (d. 1257)
• 1218 - Rudolph I of Germany was born (d. 1291). Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
• 1285 - Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel was born (d. 1326). English politician.
• 1308 - Albert I of Habsburg dies murdered (b. 1255)
• 1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – England recognises Scotland as an independent nation.
• 1500 - Pedro Álvares Cabral toma posse da "Ilha de Vera Cruz" (hoje: Brasil) em nome do rei de Portugal
• 1555 - Pope Marcellus II dies (b. 1501).
• 1572 - Pope Pius V dies (b. 1504)
• 1576 - Stefan Batory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they become the co-rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• 1582 - Marco da Gagliano was born (d. 1643). Italian composer.
• 1594 - John Hayne0 was born. Massachusetts colonial magistrate
• 1672 - Joseph Addison was born (d. 1719). English politician and writer.
• 1707 - The Act of Union joins England, and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• 1731 - Johann Ludwig Bach dies (b. 1677). German composer.
• 1738 - Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle dies. English statesman.
• 1751 - The first cricket match is played in America.
• 1753 - Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
• 1769 - Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington was born in Dublin. He defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), conquering the world's conqueror.
• 1772 - Gottfried Achenwall dies (b. 1719). German statistician.
• 1778 - American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
• 1786 - Opening night of the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna.
• 1790 - The United States completes its first census.
• 1804 - Aleksey Khomyakov was born (d. 1860). Russian poet.
• 1813 - Jean-Baptiste Bessières dies killed in combat (b. 1768). French marshal.
• 1827 - Francisco Antonio Pinto asume la presidencia de Chile tras la renuncia de Ramón Freire.
• 1829 - José Martiniano de Alencar was born. Brazilian politician and writer.
• 1830 - Mother Jones was born (d. 1930). American labor activist.
• 1831 - Emily Stowe was born (d. 1903). Canadian physician and suffragist.
• 1831 - Arthur William Patrick Albert was born in Buckingham Palace (d. 16 Jan 1942). Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (1850-1942), explorer, the third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Consort Albert; he serves as Governor General of Canada.
• 1834 - The British colonies abolish slavery.
• 1851 - The Great Exhibition is opened in the Crystal Palace (London) which was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton.
• 1851 - João Carlos de Saldanha de Oliveira e Daun substitui António Severim de Noronha como primeiro-ministro de Portugal
• 1852 - Calamity Jane was born (d. 1903). American Wild West performer.
• 1852 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born (d. 1934). Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 1860 - Joaquim António de Aguiar substitui António Severim de Noronha como primeiro-ministro de Portugal
• 1861 - José María Acha is elected President of Bolivia.
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.
• 1865 - In Lisbon, Portugal, the railway station Sta. Apolonia is inaugurated
• 1869 - The Folies Bergères open in Paris.
• 1872 - Sidónio Pais was born (d. 1918). Portuguese military and politician who was President of Portugal (1918).
• 1873 - David Livingstone dies (b. 1813). Scottish missionary.
• 1881 - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born (d. 1995). French palaeontologist and philosopher.
• 1884 - Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States
• 1886 - The start of the general strike which eventually wins the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labor Day in most industrialized countries.
• 1887 - Alan Gordon Cunningham was born (d. 1983). British army officer.
• 1889 - May Day—traditionally a celebration of the return of spring, marked by dancing around a Maypole—was first observed as a labour holiday, designated as such by the International Socialist Congress.
• 1890 - Mário Beirão was born in Beja (d. 19 Fev 1965 in Lisbon). Portuguese poet.
• 1893 - The World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington D.C..
• 1896 - Mark Wayne Clark was born (d. 1984). American general.
• 1898 - Spanish-American War: The Battle of Manila Bay - The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the war.
• 1899 - Ludwig Büchner dies (b. 1824). German philosopher and physician.
• 1900 - The Scofield mine disaster kills 200 in Scofield, Utah in the now fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.
• 1901 - The Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York.
• 1901 - Heinz Eric Roemheld was born (d. 1985). American film composer.
• 1901 - Antal Szerb was born (d. 1945). Hungarian author, literature historian.
• 1904 - Antonín Dvořák dies (b. 1841). Czech composer.
• 1905 - Henry Koster was born (d. 1988). German film director.
• 1905 - Paul Desruisseaux was born (d. 1982). French Canadian lawyer, businessman and politician.
• 1907 - Oliver Hill was born. Civil rights attorney
• 1907 - Kate Smith was born (d. 17 Jun 1986). American singer: God Bless America, When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain; performer: The Kate Smith Show.
• 1908 - Giovanni Guareschi was born (d. 1968). Italian journalist.
• 1909 - Yiannis Ritsos was born (d. 1990). Greek poet, winner of the Lenin Peace Prize, 9 times candidate for the Nobel Prize.
• 1913 - Louis Nye was born (d. 2005). American comedian and actor.
• 1913 - Walter Susskind was born (d. 1980). Czech conductor.
• 1915 - RMS Lusitania departs New York City on her two hundred and second and final crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later the ship was torpedoed off the Irish coast with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.
• 1915 - Archie Williams was born (d. 1993). American athlete.
• 1916 - Glenn Ford was born. Canadian actor
• 1917 - John Beradino was born (d. 1968). American actor and baseball player.
• 1917 - Danielle Darrieux was born. French singer and actress
• 1918 - Jack Paar was born (d. 2004). American television host.
• 1918 - Gersh Budker was (d. 1977). Russian physicist.
• 1919 - Dan O'Herlihy was born (d. 2005). Irish film actor.
• 1923 - Joseph Heller was born (d. 1999). American novelist.
• 1924 - Art Fleming was born (d. 1995). American game show host.
• 1924 - Karel Kachyňa was born (d. 2004). Czech film director.
• 1924 - Terry Southern was born (d. 1995). American screenwriter.
• 1925 - The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.
• 1925 - Chuck Bednarik was born. American football player.
• 1925 - Scott Carpenter was born. American astronaut.
• 1927 - The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris.
• 1927 - The Union Labor Life Insurance Company is founded by the American Federation of Labor.
• 1928 - Desmond Titterington was born (d. 2002). Northern Irish racecar driver.
• 1929 - Ralf Dahrendorf was born. German-born sociologist and politician
• 1929 - Sonny James was born. American country music singer and songwriter
• 1930 - The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
• 1930 - Richard Riordan was born. Former mayor of Los Angeles
• 1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
• 1931 - Singer Kate Smith began her long and illustrious radio career with CBS on this, her birthday
• 1934 - Joan Hackett was born (d. 1983). American actress.
• 1934 - Shirley Horn was born (d. 2005). American jazz singer and pianist.
• 1935 - Ann Robinson was born. American actress.
• 1935 - Henri Pélissier dies (b. 1889). French cyclist.
• 1937 - Una Stubbs was born. English actress.
• 1937 - Snitz Edwards dies (b. 1868). American actor.
• 1939 - Judy Collins was born. American folk singer (Both Sides Now, Amazing Grace, Send In the Clowns)
• 1939 - Max Robinson was born (d. 1988). American broadcast journalist.
• 1939 - Carlos Lyra was born. Brazilian musician and composer.
• 1940 - Elsa Peretti was born. Italian jewelry designer.
• 1940 - The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.
• 1941 - Orson Welles's Citizen Kane premieres in New York City
• 1941 - World War II: German forces launch Operation Mercury the largest airborne invasion to date in their bid to capture Crete.
• 1941 - World War II: German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.
• 1941 - Eric Burdon was born. British singer (The Animals)
• 1942 - Stephen Macht was born. Actor.
• 1943 - Johan Oscar Smith dies (b. 1871). Norweigian Christian leader and founder of Smith's Friends.
• 1944 - Suresh Kalmadi was born. Indian politician
• 1945 - a day after Adolf Hitler committed suicide, it was announced that Admiral Karl Doenitz had succeeded Hitler as leader of the Third Reich.
• 1945 - Soviet troops raise the Soviet Flag over the Reichstag, in Berlin
• 1945 - Rita Coolidge was born. American singer (Higher and Higher, We’re All Alone, You, All Time High)
• 1945 - Joseph Goebbels dies (suicide) (b. 1897). Nazi Minister of Propaganda.
• 1946 - Start of 3 year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
• 1946 - The Paris Peace Conference desides that the islands of the Dodecanese are returned to Greece by the Italians.
• 1946 - Joanna Lumley was born. British actress
• 1946 - John Woo was born. Hong Kong director, producer, writer, and actor.
• 1947 - Toma posesión de su cargo el presidente de Nicaragua, Leonardo Argüello, quien 26 días más tarde sería derrocado por el general Anastasio Somoza.
• 1948 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il Sung as president.
• 1949 - Douglas Barr was born. Actor and director.
• 1950 - Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth.
• 1950 - Dann Florek was born. American actor.
• 1950 - Danny McGrain was born. Scottish footballer.
• 1952 - William Fox was born. American film producer.
• 1954 - Ray Parker Jr. was born. American singer and songwriter.
• 1954 - Joel Rosenberg was borm. Science fiction author
• 1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
• 1956 - A doctor in Japan reports an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata disease
• 1957 - Catherine Frot was born. French actress
• 1958 - Arturo Frondizi toma posesión de la presidencia de la República Argentina.
• 1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis – Francis Gary Powers, in a U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking off a diplomatic crisis.
• 1960 - Steve Cauthen was born. American jockey.
• 1961 - The first major airplane hijacking within the United States occurred when a man forced a commercial airliner en route from Miami to Key West, Florida, to detour to Cuba.
• 1961 - Marilyn Milian was born. Current judge on The People's Court
• 1962 - Fidel Castro proclama que Cuba es oficialmente una República Democrática y Socialista.
• 1962 - Maia Morgenstern was born. Romanian actress ("The Passion of the Christ").
• 1962 - Ted Sundquist was born. General Manager of the Denver Broncos
• 1964 - Yvonne van Gennip was born. Dutch speed skater
• 1965 - Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC.
• 1965 - Spike Jones dies (b. 1911). American band leader, musician, and comedian.
• 1965 - Wayne Hancock was born. Country singer.
• 1966 - Lleras Restrepo, del partido Liberal, elegido presidente de Colombia.
• 1966 - Johnny Colt was born. Rock musician.
• 1966 - Charlie Schlatter was born. Actor.
• 1967 - Anastasio Somoza (hijo) toma posesión de la presidencia de la República de Nicaragua.
• 1967 - Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas. (They divorced in 1973).
• 1967 - Tim McGraw was born. American musician
• 1968 - Oliver Bierhoff was born. German footballer
• 1968 - D'arcy Wretzky was born. American musician (Smashing Pumpkins)
• 1968 - Sol Kyung-gu was born. South Korean actor.
• 1968 - Harold Nicolson dies (b. 1886). British diplomat, author and politician.
• 1968 - Jack Adams dies (b. 1895). Canadian ice hockey player, coach and general manager.
• 1969 - Wes Anderson was born. American director, writer and producer.
• 1970 - Protests erupt in Seattle, Washington, United States following the announcement of President Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) that U.S. Forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country.
• 1970 - Yi, Eun dies (b. 1897). Crown Prince Korea.
• 1971 - Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) is formed to take over U.S. passenger rail service.
• 1971 - Ajith Kumar was born. Indian film actor.
• 1972 - Cory Morrow was born. Country singer.
• 1973 - Curtis Martin was born. American football player.
• 1973 - Oliver Neuville was born. German footballer.
• 1974 - Portugal: Mário Soares returns from exile in France.
• 1975 - Alexei Smertin was born. Russian footballer.
• 1975 - Jodhi May was born. British actress.
• 1975 - Marc Vivien-Foé was born (d. 2003). Cameroonian footballer
• 1975 - Christian Manfredini was born. Ivory Coast-born Italian footballer.
• 1976 - Darius McCrary was born. Actor.
• 1976 - Alexandros Panagoulis dies (b. 1939). Greek poet who fought the military junta in Greece.
• 1976 - T.R.M. Howard dies (b. 1908). Civil rights leader, entrepreneur, surgeon.
• 1977 - Vera Lischka was born. Austrian swimmer
• 1978 - Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
• 1978 - The first e-mail spam was sent by a DEC marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
• 1978 - May Day Bank Holiday introduced across England.
• 1978 - Aram Khachaturian dies (b. 1903). Armenian composer.
• 1981 - Aleksander Hleb was born. Belarusian footballer
• 1982 - The 1982 World's Fair opens in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• 1982 - Tommy Robredo was born. Spanish tennis player
• 1982 - William Primrose dies (b. 1903). Scottish violinist.
• 1983 - Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis is awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.
• 1984 - Alexander Farnerud was born. Swedish footballer
• 1984 - Farah Fath was born. American actress
• 1985 - Drew Sidora was born. American actress
• 1986 - Cristian Benítez was born. Ecuadorian footballer
• 1986 - Adam Casey was born. Australian footballer.
• 1986 - Hugo Peretti dies (b. 1916). American songwriter and record producer.
• 1987 - London England - British Customs seizes Air Canada jet at Heathrow Airport after discovering a major hashish shipment from India; plane released after Air Canada pays substantial fine.
• 1987 - Shahar Pe'er was born. Israeli tennis player.
• 1989 - The coat of arms of Greenland is adopted.
• 1989 - Disney-MGM studios opens in Orlando, Florida.
• 1989 - Douglass Watson dies (b. 1921). American actor.
• 1989 - Sally Kirkland dies (b. 1912). Fashion editor at LIFE.
• 1990 - Caitlin Stasey was born. Australian actress.
• 1990 - Sergio Franchi dies (b. 1926). Italian tenor.
• 1991 - Rickey Henderson would steal his 939th base, making him the all-time leader in this category. However, his accomplishment would be overshadowed later that evening by Nolan Ryan, who would pitch his seventh career no-hitter (breaking his own record).
• 1992 - On the third day of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, African American criminal Rodney King appeared in public before television news cameras to appeal for calm and plead for peace, asking, "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?".
• 1993 - Pierre Bérégovoy dies (suicide) .French Prime Minister.
• 1993 - Ranasinghe Premadasa dies (b. 1924). Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
• 1994 - Last day of the standing Kop Grandstand for Liverpool F.C., perhaps the most famous stand in English Football.
• 1994 - Ayrton Senna dies (b. 1960). Brazilian race car driver.
• 1997 - Ariel Gade was born. American child actress
• 1998 - Eldridge Cleaver dies (b. 1935). American activist.
• 2000 - Steve Reeves dies (b. 1926). American actor.
• 2001 - Thomas Blanton Jr. became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that claimed the lives of four little girls.
• 2001 - Bolivia: Se crea el partido político Frente Nacionalista "Nueva Bolivia", liderizado por el empresario Nicolás Valdivia Almanza.
• 2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, President George W. Bush declares "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" on board USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.
• 2003 - Miss Elizabeth dies (b. 1960). American wrestler.
• 2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
• 2006 - The Puerto Rican government runs out of money, forcing the closure of schools and all other government agencies.
• 2006 - Big Hawk dies (b. 1969). American rapper.
• 2006 - Johnny Paris dies (b. 1940). American saxophonist (Johnny and the Hurricanes).
• Saint Joseph the Worker (also known as Saint Joseph's Day) / San José
• May Day, Labour Day, Workers' Day, Day of the International Solidarity of Workers
• Switzerland - official feast of Spring.
• Czech Republic - "National Love Day" – couples tend to flock to the memorial of of the poet Karel Hynek Mácha in Prague and kiss.
• United States - Law Day, U.S.A., Loyalty Day.