May 1 Events In History

Observed as May Day, a holiday and spring festival since ancient times, also observed in socialist countries as a workers’ holiday or Labor Day.

EVENTS

• 1707 – Great Britain was formed from a union between England and Scotland. The union included Wales which had already been part of England since the 1500’s. The United Kingdom today consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• 1840 – The world’s first adhesive postage stamp is issued in the United Kingdom. The Penny Black shows a portrait of Queen Victoria. Despite its historical significance, the stamp can be bought for around £25 as over 68 million copied were distributed.

  

• 1883 – Buffalo Bill Cody put on his first Wild West Show.
• 1925 – The world’s largest trade union is founded. The All-China Federation of Trade Unions has a total of 134 million members.
• 1930 – The planet Pluto is officially named.
• 1931 – The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
• 1941 – Cheerios is first introduced.
• 1945 – Adolf Hitler’s death is announced on German radio. As the Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, the German people are informed that “our leader, Adolf Hitler, has fallen for Germany, fighting to his last breath against Bolshevism.”
• 1960 – An American U-2 spy plane flying at 60,000 feet was shot down over Sverdlovsk in central Russia on the eve of a summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Russia’s Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The sensational incident caused a cancellation of the meeting and heightened existing Cold War tensions. The pilot, CIA agent Francis Gary Powers, survived the crash, and was tried, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Russian court. Two years later he was released to America in exchange for an imprisoned Soviet spy. On his return to America, Powers encountered a hostile public which apparently believed he should not have allowed himself to be captured alive. He died in a helicopter crash in 1977.
• 1961 – Fidel Castro declares Cuba a socialist nation and bans elections. A month after Cuban troops had fought off a U.S. backed military invasion at the Bay of Pigs, Castro announces that “The revolution has no time for elections.”
• 1978 – Naomi Uemura becomes of the first person to reach the North Pole alone. The Japanese adventurer is also credited with the first solo ascent of Mount McKinley and the first solo rafting of the Amazon river. He disappeared in 1984 during a winter ascent of Mount McKinley.
• 2004 – Eight former Communist nations and two Mediterranean countries joined the European Union (EU) marking its largest-ever expansion. The new members included Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, along with the island of Malta and the Greek portion of the island of Cyprus. They joined 15 countries already in the EU, representing in all 450 million persons.

BIRTHDAYS

• 1738 – King Kamehameha (King of Hawaii)
• 1769 – Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (Irish/English field marshal, politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1830 – Irish-born American labor leader Mary ‘Mother’ Jones (1830-1930) was born in County Cork, Ireland
• 1852 – Calamity Jane (Wild west frontierswoman)

  

• 1896 – World War II General Mark Clark (1896-1984) was born in Madison Barracks, New York
• 1915 – African American Olympic athlete Archie Williams (1915-1993) was born in Oakland, California
• 1918 – Jack Parr (TV Show Host)
• 1923 – Joseph Heller (American author, playwright)
• 1924 – Terry Southern (American author, screenwriter)
• 1939 – Judy Collins (Singer)
• 1945 – Rita Coolidge (Singer)
• 1967 – Tim McGraw (Singer)
• 1981 – Wes Welker (NFL football player)
• 1987 – Shahar Pe’er (Israeli tennis player)

DEATHS

• 1873 – David Livingstone (Scottish missionary, explorer)
• 1904 – Antonín Dvořák (Czech composer)
• 1960 – Charles Holden (English architect, designed the Bristol Central Library)
• 1990 – Sergio Franchi (Italian/American singer, actor)
• 1994 – Ayrton Senna (Brazilian race car driver)