What Happened on May 1

Benjamin Henry Latrobe Is Born

On May 1, 1764, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, considered to be the first professional architect in America, was born at Fulneck, a settlement of the... Read more

Battle Of Crooked Billet

The Battle of Crooked Billet was a battle in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought on May 1, 1778 near Crooked Billet... Read more

Battle of Chalk Bluff - Marmaduke Abandons Offensive

Description: Union Brig. Gen. William Vandever pursued Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke to Chalk Bluff, where the Confederates hoped to cross the St.... Read more

Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1 and 2)

On April 27, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker led the V, XI, and XII Corps on a campaign to turn the Confederate left flank by crossing the Rappahannock and... Read more

Battle of Port Gibson

Description: Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant launched his march on Vicksburg in the Spring of 1863, starting his army south, from Milliken’s Bend, on the west... Read more

Haymarket and May Day

On May 1, 1886, Chicago unionists, reformers, socialists, anarchists, and ordinary workers combined to make the city the center of the national... Read more

World's Columbian Exposition

The World's Columbian Exposition (also called The Chicago World's Fair), a World's Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th... Read more

Battle of Manila Bay

The Battle of Manila Bay took place on 1 May 1898, during the Spanish-American War. The American Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey... Read more

Scofield Mine Disaster

The Scofield mine disaster occurred on 1 May 1900 when an explosion ripped through the Winter Quarters Number Four mine located west of Scofield.... Read more

Battles of Dunajec, Przemysl, Krasnik and Przasnysz, and the Evacuations of Warsaw and Fort Grodno

Russian Forces, 2,500,000 Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander-in-Chief General Yanushkevitch, Chief of Staff General Ivanoff General... Read more

Joseph Heller is Born

Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American satirical novelist, short story writer and playwright. He wrote the influential... Read more

Empire State Building Opens

On May 1, 1931, with the press of a ceremonial button in Washington, D.C., President Herbert Hoover turned on the lights of the Empire State... Read more

"Citizen Kane" Is Released

Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, and the first feature film directed by Orson Welles. It was nominated for Academy Awards in nine... Read more

First Bomb of the May Blitz of Liverpool Lands on Wallasey

The May Blitz on Merseyside was one of the last series of big raids on Britain before the German invasion of Russia. It involved 681 bombers in... Read more

Gross-Rosen Becomes Independent Concentration Camp

KL Gross-Rosen (Groß-Rosen) was a German concentration camp, located in Gross-Rosen, Lower Silesia (now Rogoźnica, Poland). It was located directly... Read more

Battle of Elephant Point

On May 1, B-24 Liberators heavily bombed known Japanese defenses south of Rangoon as an Air Force observation post, a small detachment from Force... Read more

Mohammad Mosaddeq nationalizes Iran's oil

On 1 May, Mosaddeq nationalized the AIOC, cancelling its oil concession due to expire in 1993 and expropriating its assets. The next month a... Read more

'The Town' Is Published

The Town (1957) is the second novel in the Snopes trilogy that began with The Hamlet (included in Novels 1936–1940). Here the rise of the rapacious... Read more

American U-2 Spy Plane is Shot Down Over the Soviet Union

On May 1, 1960, thirteen days before the scheduled opening of an East–West summit conference in Paris, a U.S. Lockheed U-2A spy plane, 56-6693,... Read more

Fidel Castro declares Cuba a socialist state

On May 1, 1961, Castro declared Cuba as socialist state and officially abolished multiparty elections. Critics noted that Castro feared elections... Read more

Montreal Canadiens win Stanley Cup

The 1965 Stanley Cup Finals was played between the Chicago Black Hawks and the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens won the best-of-seven series four... Read more

George H.W. Bush Announces his Candidacy for President of the United States

Bush had decided in the late 1970s that he was going to run for president in 1980; in 1979, he attended 850 political events and traveled more than... Read more

"Brewster Place" Airs

Brewster Place is a short lived American drama series which aired on ABC in May 1990. The series was a spinoff of the 1989 miniseries The Women of... Read more

The Vandals release Live Fast, Diarrhea

Live Fast, Diarrhea is the fourth studio album by the southern California punk rock band The Vandals, released in 1995 by Nitro Records. It was the... Read more

"The Millenium" - Season 8 Episode 20 of Seinfeld Premiers

"The Millennium" is the 154th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It was the twentieth episode of the eighth season and aired on May 1,... Read more