This Day in History for 1st May

305 - Emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Jovius of Rome resigns
305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.
1006 - Supernova observed by Chinese & Egyptians in constellation Lupus
1048 - Bishop Bernold flees St Pieterskerk for Utrecht Neth
1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton - the Kingdom of England recognises the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.
1394 - Ekiho, exorcised the Zen temple & it's surroundings from an old badger
1523 - Danish king Christian III arrives in Veere
1528 - Pánfilo the Narváez begins exploration to with 350 men to Florida
1544 - Turkish troops occupy Hungary
1551 - Council of Trente resumes
1576 - Stefan Batory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they become the co-rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1598 - Jacob van Necks merchant fleet departs for Java
1625 - Portuguese & Spanish expedition recaptures Salvador (Bahia)
1625 - Prince Frederik Henry appointed viceroy of Holland
1682 - Louis XIV & his court inaugurates Paris Observatory
1703 - Battle at Rultusk: Swedish army beats Russians
1704 - Boston Newsletter publishes 1st newspaper ad
1707 - England, Wales & Scotland form UK of Great Britain
1711 - Arch duke Karel of Austria/Hungarian rebellion sign Peace of Szatmar
1715 - Prussia declares war on Sweden
1725 - Spain & Austria sign trade treaty
1751 - 1st American cricket match is played
1753 - Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
1756 - France & Austria sign alliance
1757 - Austria & France divide Prussia
1759 - British fleet occupies Guadeloupe, West-Indies, on France
1776 - Adam Weishaupt founds secret society of Illuminati
1777 - RB Sheridans "School for Scandal," premieres in London
1778 - American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
1781 - Emperor Jozef II decrees protection of population
1785 - Kamehameha, the king of Hawaiʻi defeats Kalanikupule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
1786 - Mozart's opera "Marriage of Figaro" premieres in Wien (Vienna)
1822 - John Phillips becomes 1st mayor of Boston
1834 - Belgian parliament accept railway laws
1840 - 1st adhesive postage stamps ("Penny Blacks" from England) issued
1841 - 1st emigrant wagon train leaves Independence, Missouri for Calif
1844 - Whig convention nominates Henry Clay as presidential candidate
1846 - Ida Pfeiffer (48) begins trip around world
1848 - The Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
1850 - John Geary becomes 1st SF mayor
1851 - Great Exhibition opens in Chrystal Palace London
1852 - The Philippine peso is introduced into circulation.
1853 - Argentina adopts it's constitution
1854 - Amsterdam begins transferring drinking water out of the dunes
1857 - William Walker, conqueror of Nicaragua, surrenders to US Navy
1861 - Lee orders Confederate troops under T J Jackson to Harper's Ferry
1862 - Union captain David Farragut conquers New Orleans
1863 - Battle of Chancellorsville, VA (29,000 injured or died)
1863 - Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi
1863 - Confederate "National Flag" replaces "Stars & Bars"
1863 - Confederate congress passed resolution to kill black soldiers
1864 - -8] Battle at Alexandria, Louisiana (Red River Campaign)
1864 - Atlanta campaign, GA begins
1864 - Wilderness campaign
1866 - American Equal Rights Association forms
1867 - Howard University chartered
1867 - Reconstruction of South begins, black voter registration
1869 - Folies Bergere opens in Paris
1873 - 1st US postal card issued
1873 - Emperor Franz Jozef opens 5th World's Fair in Vienna
1873 - International Exhibition opens in Vienna
1875 - 238 members of "Whiskey Ring" accused of anti-US activities
1875 - Alexandra Palace reopens after the 1873 fire burnt it down.
1883 - "Buffalo Bill" Cody put on his 1st Wild West Show
1883 - Amsterdam World's Fair opens
1883 - Baseball returns to Phila, 1st NL game since 1876
1883 - NY Athletic Club hires Bob Rogers as 1st American pro sports trainer
1884 - Construction begins on Chicago 1st skyscraper (10 stories)
1884 - Moses Walker became 1st black player in major league
1884 - Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.
1885 - Maria "Goeie Mie" Swanenburg sentence to life for killing 27 in Neth
1886 - US general strike for 8 hour day, begins
1889 - 1st International Workers Day, according to 2nd International
1889 - Bayer introduces aspirin in powder form (Germany)
1891 - Cy Young pitches 1st game played in Cleveland's League Park Cleveland Spiders 12, Cincinnati Redlegs 3
1892 - US Quarantine Station opens on Angel Island, SF Bay
1893 - World Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago
1898 - George Dewey commands, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley" as US route Spanish fleet at Manila
1900 - Premature blast collapses mine tunnel killing 200 at Scofield, Utah
1900 - Roermond soccer team forms in Roermond
1901 - Detroit Tigers commit 12 errors against Chicago White Sox
1901 - Herb McFarland hit 1st grand slam in American League
1901 - Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo
1906 - Phillie's John Lush no-hits Bkln Dodgers, 6-0
1907 - Belgium govt of De Trooz forms
1907 - Indian Mine Laws passes (concessions from Neth-Indies)
1908 - World's most intense shower (2.47" in 3 minutes) at Portobelo Panama
1909 - Netherlands begins unity with Belgium
1912 - Amsterdam-North soccer team DWV forms
1912 - Beverly Hills Hotel opens
1913 - Longacre Theater opens at 220 W 48th St NYC
1914 - China's 1st president Yuan Shikai wins dictatorial qualification
1915 - British Lusitania leaves NY, for Liverpool
1915 - German submarine sinks US ship Gulflight
1919 - Mount Kelud (Indonesia) erupts, boiling crater lake which broke through crater wall killing 5,000 people in 104 small villages
1920 - Babe Ruth's 1st Yankee HR & 50th of career, out of Polo Grounds
1920 - Belgian-Luxembourg toll tunnel opens
1920 - Brooklyn Dodgers tie Boston Braves, 1-1, in 26 innings
1921 - Drusian sultan Pasja al-Atrasj elected governor of Suwayda
1922 - Charlie Robertson of Chicago pitches a perfect no-hit, no-run game
1924 - Admiral Paul Koundouriotis becomes president of Greece
1925 - A's Jimmie Foxx, 17, 1st game; he pinch-hits a single
1925 - Cyprus becomes a British Crown Colony
1926 - British coal-miners go on strike
1926 - Brooklyn Dodgers & Boston Braves deadlock at 1-1 in 26 innings
1926 - Satchel Paige makes pitching debut in Negro Southern League
1927 - 1st British airliner to serve cooked meals (Imperial Airways)
1927 - Netherlands beats Belgium 3-2 in soccer match in Amsterdam
1927 - Panningen soccer team forms in Panningen
1928 - 6 children die & 10 injured by hailstones in Klausenburg, Romania
1928 - Drunken fascist Erich Wichman attacks VARA-radio transmitter
1928 - Lei Day begun (a Hawaiian celebration)
1928 - Pitcairn Airlines (later Eastern) begins service
1928 - Rotterdam soccer team Black White '28 forms
1929 - Brooklyn's Johnny Finn sets 100 yard sack race in 14.4 seconds
1929 - Farm workers strike begins in East-Groningen
1929 - Police kill 19 Mayday demonstrators in Berlin
1930 - Bradman scores 236 Aust v Worcs, his 1st f-class innings in Eng
1931 - Empire State Building opens in NYC
1931 - Norway claims Peter I Island
1931 - Singer Kate Smith begins her long-running radio program on CBS
1932 - 1st Suriname union congress at Paramaribo
1934 - Austria signs pact with Vatican
1934 - Philippine legislature accepts US proposal for independence
1934 - Water state kingdom dismisses NSB-leader Anton Mussert
1935 - Boulder Dam completed
1935 - Canada's 1st silver dollar is circulated
1936 - Emperor Haile Selassie leaves Ethiopia as Italian invades
1936 - FBI's J Edgar Hoover arrests Alvin Karpis
1937 - FDR signs act of neutrality
1939 - Batman comics hit street
1939 - Pulitzer Prize awarded to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Yearling)
1940 - 140 Palestinian Jews die as German planes bomb their ship
1940 - The 1940 Olympics are cancelled
1941 - "Citizen Kane," directed & starring Orson Welles, premieres in NY
1941 - General Mills introduces Cheerios
1941 - German assault on Tobruk
1942 - Radio Orange calls to defy order to wear "Jewish star"
1943 - 1st edition of illegal "The Free Artist" appears in Amsterdam
1943 - 69th Kentucky Derby: Johnny Longden aboard Count Fleet wins in 2:04
1943 - Food rationing begins in US
1943 - German Wehrmacht deployed in order to break Dutch strikes
1943 - German plane sinks boat loaded with Palestinian Jews bound for Malta
1943 - Rauter signs unofficial death sentence
1944 - Messerschmitt Me 262 Sturmvogel, 1st jet bomber, makes 1st flight
1944 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Martin Flavin (Journey in the dark)
1944 - Surprise attack on Weteringschans Amsterdam, fails
1945 - 900 occupiers of Demmin Vorpommeren, commit suicide
1945 - Admiral Karl Doenitz forms German government
1945 - Australian & Dutch troops lands on Tarakan
1945 - General Belgian Labor Union (ABVV) party forms
1945 - Radio Budapest, Hungary re-enters shortwave broadcasting after WW II
1945 - Seys-Inquart flees to Flensburg
1945 - Soviet army reach Rostock
1946 - Fieldmarshal Montgomery appointed British supreme commander
1946 - Mrs Emma Clarissa Clement named "American Mother of Year"
1946 - Start of 3 year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
1946 - The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy.
1947 - Cleve Indians abandon League Park to play all games at Municipal Stad
1947 - Lt General Hoyt S Vandenberg, USA, ends term as 2nd head of CIA
1947 - Radar for coml & private planes 1st demonstrated
1947 - Rear Admiral Roscoe H Hillenkoetter, USN, becomes 3th director of CIA
1948 - 74th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Arcaro aboard Citation wins in 2:05.4
1948 - North Korean proclaims itself People's Democratic Republic of Korea
1948 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Auspicia quaedam
1948 - Glenn Taylor, Idaho Senator, arrested in Birmingham Alabama for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked "for Negroes"
1949 - A's Elmer Valo is 1st AL'er to hit 2 bases-loaded triples in a game
1949 - Gerard Kuiper discovers Nereid, (2nd satellite of Neptune)
1950 - Gwendolyn Brooks, is 1st Black awarded a Pulitzer Prize (poetry)
1950 - Mayor of Brussels reluctantly bans May Day parade
1950 - New marriage laws enforced in People's Republic China
1950 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Rodgers & Hammerstein (South Pacific)
1950 - WJIM (now WLNS) TV channel 6 in Lansing, MI (CBS) begins broadcasting
1951 - 600,000 march for peace & freedom in Germany
1951 - Dutch Reformed Church introduces new church choir
1951 - Mickey Mantle's 1st HR
1951 - Minnie Minoso becomes the 1st black to play for the White Sox
1952 - Marines take part in an atomic explosion training in Nevada
1952 - Mr Potato Head, introduced
1952 - TWA introduces tourist class
1954 - 80th Kentucky Derby: Raymond York aboard Determine wins in 2:03
1954 - Bishops publish Mandement (member socialist org forbidden)
1954 - HSA-UWC Forms (Unification Church) (Moonies)
1954 - WAPA TV channel 4 in San Juan, PR (NBC/SFN) begins broadcasting
1955 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Peach Blossom Golf Tournament
1955 - Bob Feller's 15th 1 or less hitter (12 1-hitters, 3 no-hitters)
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 - Flevo Boys soccer team forms in Emmeloord
1957 - Larry King's 1st radio broadcast
1957 - US give Poland credit of $95 million
1957 - Vanguard TV-1 booster test reaches 195 km
1958 - Ambonese rebellion bombed Ambon/conquer Morotai
1958 - Arturo Frondizi sworn in as president of Argentina
1959 - Floyd Patterson KOs Brian London in 11 for heavyweight boxing title
1959 - West Germany introduces 5 day work week
1959 - White Sox Early Wynn beats Red Sox 1-0 on his own HR
1960 - India's Bombay state split into Gujarat & Maharashtra states
1960 - Pancho Gonzalez retires from tennis
1960 - Russia shoots down Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk
1961 - 1st US airplane hijacked to Cuba
1961 - Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba
1961 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
1961 - Tanganyika granted full internal self-government by Britain
1962 - 1st French underground nuclear experiment in the Sahara
1962 - Bo Belinsky pitches a no-hitter, in his 4th start
1962 - France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria
1962 - JFK authorizes Area Redevelopment Act (ARA)
1963 - 1st American (James Whittaker) conquers Mount Everest
1963 - Indonesia takes control of Irian Jaya (west New Guinea) from Neth
1964 - 1st BASIC program runs on a computer (Dartmouth)
1965 - 91st Kentucky Derby: Bill Shoemaker on Lucky Debonair wins in 2:01.2
1965 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens beat Chicago Blackhawks, 4 games to 3
1965 - USSR launches Luna 5; later impacts on Moon
1965 - Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC, takes place.
1966 - Last British concert by Beatles (Empire Pool in Wembley)
1966 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Shreveport Kiwanis Club Golf Invitational
1966 - Radio RSA, South Africa begins shortwave transmitting
1966 - US troops shooting targets in Cambodia
1967 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle becomes president of Nicaragua
1967 - Elvis Presley & Pricilla Beaulieu wed
1967 - Jelle Zijlstra becomes president of Netherlands Bank
1967 - Priscilla Beaulieu & Elvis Presley wed in Las Vegas
1967 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Bernard Malamud (Fixer)
1968 - "Ben Franklin in Paris" closes at Lunt Fontanne NYC after 215 perfs
1968 - Phillies J Boozer is ejected for throwing spitballs during his warmup
1969 - 43 Unification church couples wed in NYC
1969 - Houston Don Wilson 2nd no-hitter beats Cin Reds, 4-0
1969 - Leonard Tose buys NFL Philadelphia Eagles for $16,155,000
1969 - Pirate Radio Station 259 (England/France) begins transmitting
1971 - 97th Kentucky Derby: Gustavo Avila on Canonero II wins in 2:03.2
1971 - Amtrak Railroad begins operation
1971 - Rolling Stones release "Brown Sugar"
1972 - "Different Times" opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 24 performances
1972 - North Vietnamese troops occupy Quang Tri Activities Committee
1972 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Wallace Stegner (Angle of Repose)
1972 - Radio's Mutual Black Network premieres
1973 - SF Giants score 7 runs with 2 outs in 9th to beat Pirates, 8-7
1975 - Islander Parise & Potvin score within 14 seconds in playoffs Flyers 5-Isles 4-semifinals-Flyers hold 2-0 lead
1976 - 102nd Kentucky Derby: Angel Cordero Jr on Bold Forbes wins in 2:01.6
1976 - Jos Hermens, runs Dutch record for 20K (57:24.2)
1977 - Chantal Langlace runs female world record marathon (2:35:15.4)
1977 - Debbie Austin wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic
1977 - Empress Lilly dedicated
1977 - 36 people are killed in Taksim Square, Istanbul, during the Labour Day celebrations.
1978 - 1st black mayor of New Orleans (Ernest Morial) inaugurated
1978 - MVV soccer team forms in Maastricht
1978 - Naomi Uemura became 1st to reach North Pole overland alone
1979 - Elton John becomes 1st pop star to perform in Israel
1979 - Home rule introduced to Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland)
1979 - Marshall Islands (in Pacific) become self-governing
1980 - "Day in Hollywood, A Night..." opens at John Golden NYC for 588 perf
1980 - 15th Academy of Country Music Awards: Barbara Mandrell wins
1980 - Sabres & Islanders play to 1:20 of 5th period in a playoff
1980 - Amer Book Award: William Styron (Sophie Choice)/T Wolfe (Right Stuff)
1981 - Billie Jean King admits to a lesbian affair with Marilyn Barnett
1981 - Harrison Williams (Sen-D-NJ) convicted on FBI Abscam charges
1981 - Radio Shack releases Model III TRSDOS 1.3
1982 - 108th Kentucky Derby: Ed Delahoussaye on Gato Del Sol wins in 2:02.4
1982 - 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville Tennessee opens
1982 - Nordiques 4-Isles 5 (OT)-semifinals-Isles hold 3-0 lead
1983 - "My One & Only" opens at St James Theater NYC for 767 performances
1983 - Hollis Stacy wins LPGA CPC International Golf Tournament
1983 - Nolan Ryan surpasses Walter Johnson for most strikeouts (3,508)
1984 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1984 - Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) files for bankruptcy
1985 - "Communist" bomb attack kills 2 firemen in Brussels
1985 - US president Reagan ends embargo against Nicaragua
1985 - William Hoffman's "As Is," premieres in NYC
1986 - Bill Elliott sets stock car speed record of 212.229 mph
1986 - Tass reports Chernobyl nuclear power plant mishap
1986 - Will Stegers expedition reaches North Pole
1987 - 46 HRs hit in 13 baseball games
1987 - Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish born nun
1988 - "Romance/Romance" opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC for 297 perfs
1988 - IRA attack in Roermond, kills 3
1988 - Patti Rizzo wins LPGA Sara Lee Golf Classic
1989 - 135 acre Disney's MGM studio officially opens to public
1989 - Jockey Chris Antley ends record of 64 consecutive winning days
1989 - US Supreme Court rules employees have legal burden to prove non- discriminatory reasons for not hiring or promoting
1990 - "Prelude to a Kiss" opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC
1991 - "Will Rogers Follies" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 983 performances
1991 - A's Rickey Henderson steals an all time record 939th base vs Yanks
1991 - Actor Robert Duvall weds Sharon Brophy
1991 - Angola's civil war ends
1991 - Last day of Test cricket for Gordon Greenidge
1991 - Milwaukee Brewers beat Chicago Cubs, 10-9, in 19 innings
1991 - Rickey Henderson breaks Lou Brocks record with his 939th steal
1991 - Texas Ranger Nolan Ryan pitches record 7th no hitter (beats Toronto 3-0)
1991 - Skin-Spit-Skin featuring lesbain, homosexual & hetrosexual nude couples caressing, is seen by 5,000 in NYC
1992 - Eric Houston kills 4 in a Calif HS where he failed history 4 yrs prior
1992 - LA Dodgers postpone 3 games due to racial riots due to Rodney King
1992 - NY Rangers wins their 1st ever 7th game of a playoff (vs NJ Devils)
1992 - Rickey Henderson steals his 1,000th base
1992 - The Greatest Ever "Devharsh Trivedi" was born.
1993 - 119th Kentucky Derby: Jerry Bailey aboard Sea Hero wins in 2:02.4
1993 - Bomb attack on Sri Lankan president (26 die)
1994 - "My Fair Lady" closes at Virginia Theater NYC after 165 performances
1994 - "Rise & Fall of Little Voice" opens at Neil Simon NYC for 9 perfs
1994 - -3] Tornado & hail storms hit Jiangxi China, 95 killed
1994 - Charles Kuralt, retires as CBS newsman (On the Road)
1994 - Sandra Palmer wins LPGA Sprint Senior Challenge Golf Tournament
1994 - Sherri Steinhauer wins LPGA Sprint Golf Championship
1995 - "On the Waterfront" opens at Atkinson Theater NYC for 8 performances
1995 - Steve Waugh scores 200 for Australia v WI at Sabina Park
1995 - Croatian forces launch Operation Flash during the Croatian War of Independence.
1996 - "Ideal Husband" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 308 performances
1996 - Gerald Williams is 1st NY Yankee since 1934 to get 6 hits in a game
1997 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in San Diego CA on KIOZ 105.3 FM
1997 - Toni Blair elected PM of UK
1997 - Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality.
2000 - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares the existence of "a state of rebellion", hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion.
2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" on board the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.
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 closes the Department of Education and 42 other government agencies due to significant shortages in cash flow.
2007 - The Los Angeles May Day mêlée occurs, in which the Los Angeles Police Department's response to a May Day pro-immigration rally become a matter of controversy.
2008 - The London Agreement on translation of European patents, concluded in 2000, enters into force in 14 of the 34 Contracting States to the European Patent Convention.
2009 - Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.
2010 - Car bomb fails to go off in Times Square, New York City