Today in History - May 1
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This day is dedicated to St. David, the
patron
of Wales.
(WSJ, 8/3/98, p.A12)
305 May 1,
Emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Jovius of Rome
abdicated. Constantius I Chlorus (Flavius Valerius Constantius)
became Western emperor. Galerius (Gaius Galerius Valerius
Maximianus) became Eastern emperor.
(www.ancienthistory.about.com)
408 May 1, Theodosius II
succeeded to the throne of Constantinople.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1006 May 1, A supernova was
observed by Chinese and Egyptians in constellation Lupus.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1171 May 1, Dermot MacMurrough
(b.1110), last Irish King of Leinster, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diarmait_Mac_Murchada)
1308 May 1, King Albert [of
Austria] was murdered by his nephew John, because he refused his
share of the Habsburg lands.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1486 May 1, Christopher
Columbus convinced Queen Isabella to fund expedition to the West
Indies.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1493 May 1, Phillippus
Paracelsus, physician and alchemist, was born in Switzerland.
(HN, 5/1/98)(MC, 5/1/02)
1528 May 1, The Spanish Narvaez
expedition began an inland march to Florida with some 300 men and 40
horses.
(ON, 10/03, p.1)
1562 May 1, The 1st French
colonists in the US, a 5-vessel Huguenot expedition led by Jean
Ribault (1520-1565), landed in Florida. He continued north and
established a colony named Charlesfort at Parris Island, SC.
(Arch, 1/05,
p.47)(www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0841765.html)
1567 May 1, Michiel Jansz van
Mierevelt, Dutch royal painter, was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1572 May 1, Pius V (Antonio
Ghislieri), grand inquisitor, Pope (1566-72), died. He was succeeded
by Gregory XIII.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(MC, 5/1/02)
1628 May 1, A May festival in
Quincy, Mass., degenerated into an orgy with Indian women.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1633 May 1, Sebastien le
Prestre de Vauban, French fortress architect, was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1672 May 1, Joseph Addison
(d.1719), English essayist (Spectator) and poet, was born. "We are
always doing, says he, something for posterity, but I would fain see
posterity do something for us." "A man must be both stupid and
uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own
side."
(AHD, 1971, p.14)(AP, 11/21/97)(AP, 7/14/98)(MC,
5/1/02)
1700 May 1, John Dryden
(b.1631), English poet, playwright (Rival Ladies), died. He had
written that repentance was virtue of weak minds and the want of
power to sin.
(MC, 5/1/02)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.70)
1704 May 1, Boston Newsletter
published the 1st US newspaper ad.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1707 May 1, Effective on this
day Scotland and England, which already included Wales, were united
by an act of Parliament to form Great Britain.
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(AP, 5/1/07)
1759 May 1, British fleet
occupied Guadeloupe, in the West Indies. [see Apr 23]
(MC, 5/1/02)
1764 May 1, Benjamin Henry
Latrobe, architect of the U.S. Capitol, was born.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1764 May 1, Gottfried Rieger,
composer, was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1769 May 1,
Arthur Wellsley, Duke of Wellington "Iron Duke," was born. He
defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and later became the British prime
minister (1828-30). [see Apr 24]
(HN, 5/1/99)(MC, 5/1/02)
1776 May 1, Adam Weishaupt
founded the secret society of Illuminati.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1777 May 1, Richard Brinsley
Sheridan's "School for Scandal," premiered in London with Georgiana
Cavendish as Lady Teazle. "Its assumptions are that lust and greed -
when allied with beauty and cunning - deserve to triumph over
dullness and age." He also wrote “A Trip to Scarborough,” a rewrite
of a Restoration original.
(WSJ,11/24/95, p.A-6)(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)(MC,
5/1/02)
1781 May 1, Emperor Josef II
decreed protection of population.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1786 May 1, The opera "The
Marriage of Figaro," by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premiered in
Vienna.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1805 May 1, The state of
Virginia passed a law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state,
or risk either imprisonment or deportation.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1807 May 1, John Bankhead
"Prince John" Magruder, Major General (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1825 May 1, George Inness, US
landscape painter (Delaware Water Gap), was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1830 May 1, Mother (Mary
Harris) Jones, reformer and labor organizer, was born. [see 1837]
(HN, 5/1/01)
1839 May 1, Louis-Maire-Hilaire
Bernigaud, French chemist, inventor of rayon, was born.
(HN, 5/1/01)
1840 May 1, The 1st adhesive
postage stamps, the” Penny Blacks" from England, were issued.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1841 May 1, The 1st emigrant
wagon train left Independence, Missouri, for California.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1844 May 1, Whig convention
nominated Henry Clay as presidential candidate.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1844 May 1, Samuel Morse
(1791-1872) sent the 1st telegraphic message as a demonstration
between Washington, DC, and Baltimore [see Jan 6, 1838]. The line
officially opened on May 24, 1844.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Morse)
1851 May 1, The Great Council
Exhibition, the first-ever World’s Fair, opened in London’s Hyde
Park. Some 6 million people came to see the new glass and iron
Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton (1823-1865). Paxton used
roof ventilators and underground air-cooling chambers to regulate
indoor temperature.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A16)(ON, 7/04, p.12)(Econ,
12/4/04, TQ p.17)
1852 May 1, Calamity [Martha]
Jane [Burke], frontier adventurer, Indian fighter, was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1855 May 1, In San Francisco a
deed was granted to Fr. Anthony Maraschi for Lot 127 on Market St.
between Fourth and Fifth. It had been owned by Thomas O. Larkin, the
first American consul in Monterey, who sold it for $11,500.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1857 May 1, William Walker,
conqueror of Nicaragua, surrendered to the US Navy. Cornelius
Vanderbilt helped finance a Costa Rican army, which defeated
Walker’s forces, and paid men under Walker’s command to defect.
Walker later sought protection on a British naval vessel, whose
captain turned him over to Hondurans, who executed him in 1860.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(soldier))(WSJ,
8/30/08, p.W7)
1858 May 1, Anthony Johnson
Showalter, composer, was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1862 May 1, Marcel Prevost,
French publisher, writer (Les demis-vierges), was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1863 May 1, Confederate
congress passed a resolution to kill black Union soldiers.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1863 May 1, Confederate
"National Flag" replaced "Stars & Bars."
(MC, 5/1/02)
1863 May 1, The beginning of
the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va., in the East and the Battle Port
Gibson in the west. The new Union commander, ‘Fighting Joe’ Hooker,
planned to encircle Robert E. Lee at the Virginia crossroads hamlet
of Chancellorsville.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1864 May 1-8, Battle at
Alexandria, Louisiana (Red River Campaign).
(MC, 5/1/02)
1864 May 1, Atlanta campaign,
GA.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1865 May 1, In Charleston, SC,
some 10,000 people paraded to a mass grave site of Union soldiers at
a former race track. This was likely the 1st large-scale US Memorial
Day event. [see May 5, 1866]
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A1)
1867 May 1, Reconstruction in
the South began with black voter registration.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1869 May 1, Folies Bergere
opened in Paris.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1872 May 1, Hugo Alfvjen,
composer (Midsommarvaka), was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1873 May 1, David Livingstone
(60), British physician, explorer (Africa), died in Chitambo,
Zambia. His body passed through Zanzibar for a funeral in London in
Apr 18, 1874.
(www.heroesofhistory.com/page55.html)(SSFC,
7/13/03, p.C9)
1875 May 1, 238 members of
"Whiskey Ring" were accused of anti-US activities.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1877 May 1, President Hayes
ordered the withdrawal all Federal troops from the South, ending
Reconstruction.
(http://www.historycentral.com/rec/EndofRec.html)
1878 May 1, James Graham was
born. He was the inventor of the first naval aircraft-carrying ship
and the first man to film a total eclipse of the Sun.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1881 May 1, Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin (d.1955), French Jesuit philosopher, paleontologist, was
born. He authored the “Phenomenon of Man” wherein he proposed the
idea of the noosphere, i.e. sphere of mind, in which all the minds
of all the humans on earth could be conceived of as both separate
and as combined in one great, single intelligence.
(V.D.-H.K.p.388)(MC, 5/1/02)
1883 May 1, "Buffalo Bill" Cody
put on his 1st Wild West Show.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1884 May 1, Construction began
on the first steel-skeleton skyscraper, a 10-story structure in
Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney and built by the Home
Insurance Co. of New York. It was completed in 1885. It stood 9
stories and had 2 added in 1891.
(HT, 5/97, p.23)(SFEC, 11/22/98, Z1 p.8)(AP,
5/1/99)
1889 May 1, Bayer in
Germany introduced aspirin in powder form.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1892 May 1, Howard Barlow,
conductor (Voice of Firestone), was born in Plain City, Ohio.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1892 May 1, A US quarantine
station opened on Angel Island, SF Bay.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1893 May 1, The World’s
Columbian Exposition was officially opened in Chicago by President
Cleveland. The El in Chicago was erected to take visitors to the
World’s Columbian Exposition. It created a section of town called
the Loop encircled by the railway. The exposition grounds covered
over 600 acres of south Chicago along Lake Michigan. The exposition
attracted over 21 million visitors who saw such wonders as the
Ferris Wheel and electricity (first displayed in the Paris
Exposition in 1889, but still unknown to most Americans). It was the
first American exposition to make a profit. In 2003 Erik Larson
authored “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and madness at
the Fair That Changed America.”
(AP, 5/1/97)(Hem. 7/96, p.25)(HNQ, 2/18/01)(SSFC,
3/30/03, p.M1)
1896 May 1, Mark Clark,
American general, was born. He commanded the Fifth Army in Italy
during World War II.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1896 May 1, Nasr-ed-Din (65),
shah of Persia, was murdered.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1898 May 1, US Commodore George
Dewey gave the command, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley,"
as an American naval force destroyed a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.
Admiral George Dewey led the US Navy in victory over the Spanish
navy at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines. Dewey’s
ships lobbed shells into Filipino-dug trenches and the battle became
a massacre.
(AP, 5/1/97)(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70)(SFEC, 1/31/99,
Z1 p.4)(HN, 5/1/99)
1902 May 1, John Glover (85),
English chemist (production sulfuric acid), died.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1904 May 1, Antonin Dvorak
(b.1841), Czech composer (Slavonic Dances, New World Symphony), died
at age 62. He spent 1892-1895 in the US as an honored guest. In 2002
Michael B. Beckerman authored “New Worlds of Dvorak: Searching in
America for the Composer’s Inner Life.”
(MC, 5/1/02)(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.M5)
1907 May 1, Kate Smith
(d.1986), singer, was born in Washington, DC.
(AP,
5/1/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Smith)
1909 May 1, Walter Reed
Hospital opened in Washington DC as an 80-bed Army medical center.
It closed in 2011 and operations were moved to facilities in
Maryland and Virginia.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.A13)(SFC, 7/28/11, p.A4)
1913 May 1, Walter Susskind,
conductor, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1914 May 1, Yuan Shikai,
China's 1st president, won dictatorial qualification.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1915 May 1, The luxury liner
Lusitania left New York Harbor for a voyage to Europe. There were
warnings by the German government in NYC newspapers that it regarded
the refurbished liner a battle target. She was sunk by a German
U-boat six days later.
(HN, 5/1/99)(MC, 5/1/02)
1915 May 1, A German submarine
sank the U.S. ship Gulflight I.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1916 May 1, Glenn Ford, actor,
was born in Quebec, Canada. He starred in the film "The Blackboard
Jungle."
(HN, 5/1/99)(MC, 5/1/02)
1917 May 1, Caucasian unity was
proclaimed at the first Mountain People's Congress in Vladikavkaz.
The idea of a Caucasus Confederation had its origins in the spring
of 1917 and was developed further in 1918. At the Congress the
"Alliance of United Mountain People of the North Caucasus and
Dagestan", headed by T. Chermoev, a Chechen, R. Kaplanov, a Kumyk,
P. Kotsev, a Kabardian, V. Dzhabagiev, an Ingush, and others, was
officially established. The Abkhazian people also became full
members of this alliance. A Mountain Peoples' Government was formed
in November 1917.
(www.ciaonet.org/olj/crs/crs_1998sp/crs98sp_las01.html)
1918 May 1, Jack Paar (d.2004),
later late-night TV talk show host, was born in Canton, Ohio.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/paarjack/paarjack.htm)
1919 May 1, Dan O'Herlihy,
actor (Fail Safe, Last Starfighter, Robocop), was born in Ireland.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1919 May 1, In Indonesia Mount
Kelud erupted. A powerful explosion that could be heard hundreds of
miles away destroyed dozens of villages and killed at least 5,160
when a boiling crater lake broke through the crater wall killing
people in 104 small villages.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(AP, 11/3/07)
1919 May 1, In Mexico Pancho
Villa married Soledad Seanez Holguin. This was recognized by the
state in 1946 after proof showed the pair had both a civil and a
church wedding.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p. A19)
1920 May 1, Belgian-Luxembourg
toll tunnel opened.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1923 May 1, Joseph Heller
(d.1999), American author, was born in Brooklyn, NY. His work
included the novel "Catch 22."
(HN, 5/1/99)(SFC, 12/14/99, p.A10)(MC, 5/1/02)
1924 May 1, Terry Southern,
novelist and screenwriter (Candy, The Magic Christian, Dr.
Strangelove, Easy Rider), was born.
(HN, 5/1/01)(MC, 5/1/02)
1925 May 1, Malcolm Scott
Carpenter, astronaut (Mercury 7-Aurora 7), was born in Boulder,
Colo.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1925 May 1, Cyprus became a
British Crown Colony.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1926 May 1, Satchel Paige made
his pitching debut in Negro Southern League.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1927 May 1, Adolf Hitler held
the first Nazi meeting in Berlin.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1928 May 1, Lei Day, a Hawaiian
celebration, was begun.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1928 May 1, Pitcairn Airlines
(later Eastern) began service.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1929 May 1, Police killed 19
Mayday demonstrators in Berlin.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1930 May 1, Anton J. Anderson,
a Sausalito fisherman, returned to port in SF, Ca., towing 2 boats
and carrying the bodies of Allen Curry (29), a deputy fish and game
warden, and James Burke (48), a former game warden. Anderson himself
was wounded and explained that he had shot the 2 men in self defense
after they tried to confiscate his nets. Anderson was not indicted
and returned to fishing. He died mysteriously 3 years later off the
Mendocino shore.
(SSFC, 8/17/08, DB p.58)
1930 May 1, Pluto was first
publicly announced as the name of a newly discovered
planet. Venetia Phair (11) had suggested the name to her
grandfather, librarian Falconer Madan, who relayed the suggestion to
his friend Herbert Hall Turner, professor of astronomy at Oxford.
Madan rewarded Phair (1919-2009) with a five-pound note. The same
purchasing power in 2009 would be about 230 pounds, or $350.
(AP, 5/7/09)
1931 May 1,
Singer Kate Smith began her long-running radio program on CBS.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1931 May 1, New York City's
102-story Empire State Building was dedicated. A 3,000 man
construction crew completed the building in one year and 45 days. It
was designed by the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and financed by
John J. Raskob, a former GM executive.
(SFC, 2/24/96, p.A13)(AP, 5/1/97)(HT, 5/97,
p.26)(AP, 5/1/08)
1934 May 1, The Philippine
legislature accepted a U.S. proposal for independence.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1936 May 1, In New Orleans the
FBI under J Edgar Hoover arrested kidnapper and gunman Alvin Karpis
(1907-1979). Known for his alliance with the Barker gang in the
1930s, he was the last "public enemy" to be taken. Karpis was born
to Lithuanian immigrants in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and was raised
in Wichita, Kansas. In August he was imprisoned at Alcatraz. Karpis
was released on parole in 1969 and deported to Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Karpis)(SSFC,
7/31/11, DB p.42)
1936 May 1, Emperor Haile
Selassie left Ethiopia as Italians invaded.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1937 May 1, President Franklin
Roosevelt signed an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out
of World War II.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1939 May 1, Judy Collins,
singer (Send in the Clowns, Clouds), was born in Seattle, Wash.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Collins)
1939 May 1, Batman comics hit
the street in Detective Comics No. 27. Bob Kane (d.1998 at 83)
created Batman for DC Comics. The cartoon hero was based on Zorro,
da Vinci’s sketch of a flying man, and a silent mystery movie titled
"The Bat."
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.D5)(SFC, 12/14/00, p.C9)(WSJ,
10/25/02, p.A1)(AP, 8/2/10)
1940 May 1, Bobbie Ann Mason,
American writer (Shiloh and Other Stories, In Country), was born.
(HN, 5/1/01)
1940 May 1, The 1940 Olympics
were cancelled.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1940 May 1, 140 Palestinian
Jews died as German planes bombed their ship.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1941 May 1,
The motion picture "Citizen Kane," directed and starring Orson
Welles (24), premiered in New York. Randolph Hearst attempted to
bury the film by banning all advertising in his newspapers. One in
five Americans read a Hearst paper at this time. Citizen Kane won an
Academy Award. A PBS special from the American Experience covered
the story in 1996. His biography, “Rosebud: The Story of Orson
Welles” by David Thompson, was published in 1996.
(WSJ, 1/25/96, p.A-16)(TMC, 1994, p.1941)(SFC,
6/9/96, BR p.15)
1941 May 1, General Mills
introduced Cheerioats, later renamed Cheerios. It was made possible
by the development of the “puffing gun” invented earlier by Lester
Borchardt Sr.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerios)(WSJ,
1/27/07, p.A6)
1941 May 1, A German assault
took place on Tobruk.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1943 May 1, Food rationing
began in US. [see Mar 29]
(MC, 5/1/02)
1943 May 1, British India SN
Company troop transport in convoy with 23 merchantmen and escorted
by eleven destroyers, was bound for Malta. When some 30 miles north
of Benghazi, the convoy was attacked by German bombers and torpedo
carrying aircraft. On board the Erinpura (Capt. P.V. Cotter) were
1,025 troops. One large bomb exploded in the hold sinking the ship
in a matter of minutes. Forty four crewmembers, three gunners and an
unspecified number of troops were lost. On the same day, near the
Tunisian coast, another troopship (name unknown) was torpedoed and
sank. On board were a number of troops from Basutoland (later
Lesotho) who were serving with the British Eighth Army. In this
tragic sinking, 618 Basutos lost their lives.
(http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/maritime-1a.html)
1943 May 1, A German plane sank
a boat loaded with Palestinian Jews bound for Malta.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1943 May 1, German forces were
deployed in the following places: Norway (200,000), France
(900,000), Africa (150,000), Balkans (80,000), Finland (180,000),
Eastern Europe (210,000), Caucasus (260,000), Russia (1,900,000).
(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A23)
1944 May 1, The Messerschmitt
Me 262 Sturmvogel, the 1st jet bomber, made its first flight.
(HN, 5/1/98)(MC, 5/1/02)
1945 May 1, A
day after Adolf Hitler committed suicide, Admiral Karl Doenitz
effectively became sole leader of the Third Reich with the suicide
of Hitler's propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels. Goebbels committed
suicide with his wife and 8 children.
(AP, 5/1/07)
1945 May 1, Martin Bormann,
private secretary to Adolf Hitler, escaped the Fuhrerbunker as the
Red Army advanced on Berlin. Specialists later determined that he
probably died in May 1945. The mystery behind his fate was settled
in 1972 when construction workers in Berlin dug up a skeleton.
Experts concluded the remains were Bormann's after a five-month
examination that included making X-rays of the bones, studying the
teeth, and using the skull as a model to reconstruct what its face
would've looked like. West German authorities officially declared
him dead in 1973. Some skeptics believed the remains had been
brought from elsewhere to be reburied in Berlin. In 2011 Paul van
Aerschodt, a former Belgian collaborator, said Bormann had escaped
to Latin America and lived there disguised as a priest.
(WSJ, 8/30/99, p.A1)(AP, 9/1/09)(AFP, 2/5/11)
1945 May 1, Arthur
Seys-Inquart, Nazi overlord of Netherlands, fled to Flensburg.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1947 May 1, Radar for
commercial and private planes was 1st demonstrated.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1948 May 1, Glenn Taylor, Idaho
Senator, was arrested in Birmingham Alabama for trying to enter a
meeting through a door marked "for Negroes."
(MC, 5/1/02)
1948 May 1, Christos Ladas,
Greek minister of Justice, was murdered.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1948 May 1, The People's
Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed. The
border between North and South Korea was sealed when Kim Il Sung
established his communist regime.
(SFC, 3/12/97, p.A14)(AP, 5/1/97)
1950 May 1, Gwendolyn Brooks
became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for her
book of poetry called "Annie Allen."
(HN, 5/1/99)
1950 May 1, Lothrop Stoddard
(1883), American political theorist, historian, eugenicist, and
anti-immigration advocate, died. He wrote a number of prominent
books of early 20th-century scientific racism including “The Rising
Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy” (1920).
(WSJ, 1/4/08,
p.W5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothrop_Stoddard)
1950 May 1, New marriage laws
were enforced in People's Republic China.
(www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/restricted/marriage.htm)
1951 May 1, Mickey Mantle hit
his 1st HR.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1951 May 1, Some 600,000
marched for peace and freedom in Germany.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1952 May 1, Marines took part
in an atomic explosion training in Nevada.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1952 May 1, Mr. Potato Head was
introduced.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1952 May 1, TWA introduced
tourist class.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1954 May 1, Ray York rode
Determine to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
(SFC, 9/4/09,
p.D6)(www.kentuckyderby.com/2009/history/statistics/1951-1975)
1954 May 1, Legos, founded by
Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, became a registered
trademark in Denmark.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllego.htm)
1959 May 1, Some 87 guerillas,
mostly Cubans, surrendered without resistance to Panamanian troops
at the village of Nombre de Dios in response to appeals by Castro.
(DBD, p.824)
1959 May 1, West Germany
introduced a 5 day work week.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1960 May 1, India's Bombay
state split into Gujarat and Maharashtra states.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra)
1960 May 1, A Soviet missile
shot down an American U-2 spy plane near Sverdlovsk with pilot
Francis Gary Power. Powers was held in the Soviet Union for 21
months.
(WSJ, 5/8/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A11)(AP,
5/1/97)
1961 May 1, A Pulitzer prize
was awarded to Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
(MC, 5/1/02)
1961 May 1, Fidel Castro
announced that there would be no more elections in Cuba. Radio
Havana was founded.
(HN, 5/1/98)(WSJ, 6/18/02, p.D9)
1963 May 1, James Whittaker
became the 1st American to conquer Mount Everest as he and a Sherpa
guide reached the summit.
(AP, 5/1/03)
1964 May 1, The 1st BASIC
program ran on a computer at Dartmouth.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1965 May 1, Spike Jones (53),
composer (Spike Jones Show), died.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1965 May 1, In Czechoslovakia
Allen Ginsberg was crowned King of May at the Prague May Day
celebration.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A10)
1965 May 1, USSR launched Luna
5; later lands on Moon.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1966 May 1, Last British
concert by Beatles was at Empire Pool in Wembley.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1967 May 1, A Pulitzer prize
was awarded to Bernard Malamud (Fixer).
(MC, 5/1/02)
1967 May 1, Elvis Presley (32)
married Priscilla Beaulieu (20) in Las Vegas at the Aladdin Hotel.
They divorced in 1973. They had met when she was 14 in West Germany.
(AP, 5/1/97)(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.66)
1967 May 1,
Anastasio Somoza Debayle became president of Nicaragua.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1968 May 1, In a second day of
battle, US Marines, with the support of naval fire, continued their
attack on a North Vietnamese Division at Dai Do.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1970 May 1, Students at Kent
State University rioted in downtown Kent, Ohio, in protest of the
American invasion of Cambodia. Campus protests broke out across the
nation.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1970 May 1, The US troop ship
General John Pope came to rest at the Suisun Bay, Ca., reserve fleet
rest stop. It was launched in 1943 and served up to this time. In
2010 it was scheduled to be recycled at a Texas shipyard.
(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A2)
1971 May 1, Amtrak, which
combined and streamlined the operations of 18 US intercity passenger
railroads, went into service. The Southern Pacific Railroad turned
over its money-losing passenger service and railroad cars to the
government which formed Amtrak.
(AP, 5/1/97)(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)
1974 May 1, The US Federal
Hourly Minimum Wage was set at $2.00 an hour.
(www.dol.gov/ESA/minwage/chart.htm)
1975 May 1, The US brokerage
industry, acting on a mandate by the SEC, deregulated commissions.
Charles Schwab soon became one of the first to slash the price of
equity trades.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.E3)(Econ, 10/21/06, p.87)
1975 May 1, United Aircraft
became United Technologies Corp.
(WSJ, 4/8/04, p.C4)
1976 May 1, Kawika Kapahulehua
(d.2007 at 76), leading a 15-man crew on a double-hulled canoe with
sails, departed Hawaii to Tahiti. Organizer and anthropologist Ben
Finney wanted to prove the trip was possible. They reached Tahiti
after 34 days despite issues of ethnicity raised by part of the
crew. Mau Piailug (1932-2010), Micronesian master navigator, steered
the Hokule’a (Star of Gladness) by the stars, the feel of the wind
and the look of the sea.
(SFC, 5/28/07, p.D3)(Econ, 7/24/10, p.84)
1976 May 1, Alexandros
Panagoulis (b.1939), Greek politician and poet, died in a car crash
possibly rigged by his enemies. He became famous for his attempt to
assassinate dictator George Papadopoulos on 13 August 1968, and also
for the torture that he was subjected to during his detention.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandros_Panagoulis)
1978 May 1,
Ernest Morial was inaugurated as the first black mayor of New
Orleans.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1978 May 1, Aram Khachaturian
(b.1903), Georgia-born Armenian composer, died in Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram_Khachaturian)
1979 May 1, Elton John and Ray
Cooper performed the first of 5 concerts in Israel. They performed 3
times in Jerusalem and twice in Tel Aviv ending in Tel Aviv on May
6.
(www.vex.net/~paulmac/elton/ej1979.html)
1979 May 1, The people of the
Marshall Islands ratified their own constitution and the
constitutional government came into being. In recognition of the
evolving political status of the Marshall Islands, the US recognized
the constitution of the Marshall Islands and the establishment of
the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Mr. Amata
Kabua (1928-1996) became the first president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amata_Kabua)(www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26551.htm)
1979 May 1, Denmark gave home
rule to Greenland, but continued to make key decisions on law and
order. The legislative basis for the Home Rule Administration is Act
no 56 of 21 February 1979 which came into force on 1 May 1979
following a referendum in Greenland.
(WSJ, 1/13/04,
p.A4)(www.gh.gl/uk/govern/organiza.htm)
1980 May 1, American Book Award
went to William Styron for "Sophie's Choice" and T. Wolfe for "Right
Stuff."
(http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id99.htm)
1981 May 1, Harrison Williams
(Sen-D-NJ) was convicted on FBI Abscam charges.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam)(AP, 5/1/01)
1981 May 1, American Airlines
instituted the 1st "frequent flyer" program to keep customers
returning.
(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)(http://tinyurl.com/2uvcut)
1981 May 1, Chile completely
privatized Social Security as part of its economic reforms.
(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A18)
1982 May 1, The 1982 World's
Fair opened in Knoxville, Tenn.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/1/07)
1982 May 1, Richard LaMotta
(1942-2010) dispatched 60 street-cart vendors to the streets of
Manhattan to begin selling his 4½-ounce Chipwich cookies,
which included 3½ ounces of ice cream. Within weeks he was
selling 40,000 a day at $1 each. He sold the company to Coolbrands
Int’l., a Canadian distributor in 2002.
(SSFC, 5/16/10, p.C9)
1983 May 1, "My One & Only"
opened at St James Theater in NYC for 767 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?id=4221)
1983 May 1, Charles McCabe
(68), SF Chronicle columnist, was found dead at his home at 22 Alta
St.
(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB p.58)
1984 May 1, Gordon Jenkins
(b.1910), orchestra leader (NBC Comedy Hour), died of Lou Gehrig's
disease in Malibu, Ca.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Jenkins)
1985 May 1, US president Reagan
ordered an embargo against Nicaragua.
(http://tinyurl.com/2qxpo3)
1986 May 1, Will Steger
(b.1943) and his dog sled expedition reached the North Pole without
re-supply.
(www.qsl.net/kg0yh/other.htm)
1986 May 1, Tass News Agency
reported the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1987 May 1, James Webb (b.1946)
began serving as US Sec. of the Navy under Pres. Ronald Reagan. He
resigned in 1988 after refusing to agree to reduce the size of the
Navy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Webb)
1987 May 1,
During a visit to West Germany, Pope John Paul II beatified Edith
Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi
concentration camp at Auschwitz.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1988 May 1, Newsweek magazine
reported that, according to a memoir by former White House chief of
staff Donald Regan (1918-2003), astrology had influenced the
planning of President Reagan's schedule. Regan's memoir was titled
"For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington."
(AP, 5/1/98)(WSJ, 6/11/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/12/03,
p.A25)
1989 May 1, The Supreme Court
ruled that an employer has the legal burden of proving that its
refusal to hire or promote someone is based on legitimate and not
discriminatory reasons.
(AP, 5/1/99)
1989 May 1, Disney held a grand
opening for its 135 acre MGM studio in Orlando, Fl.
(www.miamibeach411.com/disney/mgm-studios.htm)
1990 May 1, In Hampton, NH,
William Flynn (16) and a friend shot and killed Gregory Smart
(b.1965), the husband of Pamela Smart (23) with whom Flynn was
having an affair. Flynn was sentenced 28 years to life. Smart had
enlisted Flynn to kill her husband and was sentenced to life in
prison.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7090228)
1990 May 1, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev and other Kremlin leaders were jeered by
thousands of people during the annual May Day parade in Red Square.
(AP, 5/1/00)
1991 May 1, "Will Rogers
Follies" opened at Palace Theater in NYC for 983 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4643)
1991 May 1, Nolan Ryan of the
Texas Rangers threw his seventh no-hitter at age 44, shutting out
the Toronto Blue Jays 3-to-0.
(AP, 5/1/01)
1991 May 1, Rickey Henderson of
the Oakland A’s set a major league record by stealing his 939th base
during a game against the New York Yankees.
(AP, 5/1/01)
1991 May 1, The government of
Angola and US-backed guerrillas initialed agreements ending their
civil war.
(AP, 5/1/01)
1992 May 1,
On the third day of the Los Angeles riots, beaten motorist Rodney
King appeared in public to appeal for calm, asking, "Can we all get
along?" President Bush delivered a nationally broadcast address in
which he vowed to "use whatever force is necessary" to restore
order.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1992 May 1, It was reported
that a new study indicated that peptic ulcers were caused by a
bacterium called Helicobacter pylori.
(WSJ, 10/24/05, p.A15)
1992 May 1,
Serbian forces began to shell Serajevo.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1993 May 1, The horse Sea Hero
won the Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/1/98)
1993 May 1, President Clinton
held a strategy session with top military and foreign policy
advisers on Bosnia.
(AP, 5/1/98)
1993 May 1, Violence erupted
during a May Day protest in Moscow.
(AP, 5/1/98)
1993 May 1, Pres. Ranasinghe
Premadasa (b.1924),the 3rd president of Sri Lanka, was killed by a
Tiger suicide bomber in Colombo.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)(AP, 5/1/98)(SFC, 6/8/00,
p.A16)
1994 May 1, Israeli and PLO
delegates opened a final round of talks in Cairo, Egypt, on
Palestinian autonomy prior to the signing of an agreement on
self-rule.
(AP, 5/1/99)
1994 May 1, South Africa's
first all-race elections ended.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A12)
1995 May 1, President Clinton
defended his choice for surgeon general, Henry Foster, as a
"pro-life, pro-choice doctor."
(AP, 5/1/00)
1995 May 1, Charges that
Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, had plotted to murder
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan were dropped as jury
selection for her trial was about to begin in Minneapolis.
(AP, 5/1/00)
1995 May 1, The Croatian army
captured the Serb enclave of Western Slavonia in its first major bid
to retake territories occupied in 1991. In reply the Krajina Serbs
launched a rocket attack on Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Milan
Martic, Croatian Serb leader of rebel Serb forces, ordered the
shelling of Zagreb. Martic surrendered to the UN war crimes tribunal
in 2002.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(SFC,
5/8/02, p.A17)
1996 May 1, PLO leader Yasser
Arafat received a statesman's welcome at the White House, where he
met with President Clinton for 45 minutes, then lashed out at Israel
for keeping its borders closed to Palestinian workers.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1996 May 1, Cubans began paying
income taxes for the first time in decades.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-9)
1997 May 1, The TV show Ellen
captured 42 million viewers to hear the Ellen character, played by
Ellen DeGeneres, announce that she was a lesbian.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.C1)
1997 May 1, John and Patsy
Ramsey, the parents of slain child beauty queen JonBenet, declared
their innocence, and asked for the public's help in finding her
killer.
(AP, 5/1/98)
1997 May 1, In Oakland an
armored car flipped in an accident and released some 27 bags of
money claimed to be substantially less than $500,000. People in the
vicinity grabbed much of the cash though some 20% was returned
within 2 days. A total of $106,000 was recovered and $445,000 was
still missing when an amnesty for returning cash ended on May 5.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A1)
1997 May 1, Virtual Pets began
to be marketed by Tiger Electronics and Bandai Ltd. of Japan. The
egg-sized gadgets played out the lives of various animals on a
liquid crystal display.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.B1)
1997 May 1, An Int’l. committee
agreed to create 7 new (WWW) World Wide Web domains. The new
suffixes would be: .firm, .store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info and .nom
for individuals.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A1)
1997 May 1, In Belarus the
government imposed a $3 million tax fine on the Soros Foundation for
alleged currency exchange violations. Soros called it a blatant
attempt to suppress the independent sector.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A16)
1997 May 1, Britain’s Labor
Party led by Tony Blair won a landslide victory with 423 seats over
ruling Conservatives in a national election.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/1/98)
1997 May 1, Romania apologized
for deporting tens of thousands of ethnic Germans to labor camps
during Communist rule or “selling” them by demanding cash from the
Bonn government for emigration permits.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A17)
1998 May 1, Otto Bettmann,
founder of the Bettmann photo archive, died at 94 in Boca Raton,
Fla.
(WSJ, 5/4/98, p.A1)
1998 May 1, Eldridge Cleaver,
ex-Black Panther who later renounced his past and became a
Republican, died at age 62 in Pomona, Ca. He wrote the book “Soul On
Ice” in 1965 while in Folsom Prison. The book was published in 1968.
He jumped bail after a 1968 shooting and returned to the US in 1975.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A1,13)(AP, 5/1/99)
1998 May 1, In Kosovo, Serbia,
a police raid in Drenica left 4 ethnic Albanians dead.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.19A)
1998 May 1, In Nigeria police
fired into a crowd of 5,00 people demanding the ouster of Sani
Abacha and witnesses said 7 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A9)
1998 May 1, Former Rwandan
Prime Minister Jean Kambanda pleaded guilty to charges stemming from
the 1994 genocide of more than 500,000 Tutsis. Kambanda was later
sentenced to life in prison, but has since disavowed his guilty
plea.
(AP, 5/1/03)
1998 May 1, In Zimbabwe labor
leaders called for a 5-day national strike to protest a tax increase
and higher prices.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A9)
1999 May 1, Charismatic, a 30-1
shot, charged to victory in the 125th Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/1/00)
1999 May 1, Pres. Clinton
imposed a trade embargo on Serbia that excepted only food and
medicine.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A3)
1999 May 1, The FCC ordered
that stations affiliated with ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC must build
digital facilities in the 10 largest TV markets by this time.
(Wired, 2/98, p.64)
1999 May 1, The NRA held its
annual convention in Denver 11 days after the Columbine High School
shootings. Some 2,500 attended as 7,000 people protested outside.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A1)(AP,
5/1/00)
1999 May 1, The Liberty Bell 7
Mercury capsule flown by Gus Grissom, which sank in 1961, was found
300 miles offshore from Cape Canaveral in 3 waters 3 miles deep.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A2)(AP, 5/1/00)
1999 May 1, In Hot Springs,
Arkansas, an amphibious tourist boat sank on Lake Hamilton and 11
people drowned. The death toll rose to 13 after one survivor died
and another body was found.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A2)(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A2)
1999 May 1, In London police
arrested David Copeland (22) for the recent nail bombings.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A12)
1999 May 1, Pres. Milosevic
ordered the release of 3 captive Americans following the appeal of
Rev. Jesse Jackson.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A1)
1999 May 1, A NATO strike on a
bridge in Kosovo, 12 miles north of Pristina, hit a civilian bus and
killed between 34 and 60 people including 15 children.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A17)
2000 May 1, The US government
began allowing civilian GPS receivers to pick up more accurate
satellite signals. The sport of geocaching began 2 days later.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A20)
2000 May 1, A US State Dept.
annual report on efforts to combat terrorism listed Cuba, Iran,
Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors for
terrorism. The report indicated a shift from the Middle East to
South Asia with Afghanistan and Pakistan listed as threatening.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.A6)(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A12)
2000 May 1, About three and
a-half million Time Warner cable subscribers temporarily lost access
to seven Disney-owned ABC stations in a quarrel over transmission
rights.
(AP, 5/1/01)
2000 May 1, Steve Reeves,
actor, died in Escondido, California, at age 74. He starred in such
films as “Hercules,” “The Last Days of Pompeii,” and “Duel of the
Titans.”
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.C4)(AP, 5/1/01)
2000 May 1, May Day marches and
protests took place around the world. In Berlin violence erupted as
some 10,000 anarchists marched against “capitalism and imperialism”
after some 1200 neo-Nazis rallied. In London some 2,000
demonstrators caused havoc in London. Tens of thousands gathered in
Madrid and some 15,000 demonstrated in both Russia and Istanbul.
Hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Sao Paulo, Brazil and some
20,000 marched in Quito, Ecuador.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A10)
2000 May 1, Joerg Haider,
leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, stepped down after 14
years as party leader.
(AP, 5/1/01)
2000 May 1, In Iran Hamid
Tefileen, one of 13 Jewish men arrested for espionage, was displayed
on TV and admitted to being paid $500 a month by Israeli
intelligence, Mossad.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A8)
2000 May 1, In Puerto Rico 2 US
warships arrived off the coast of Vieques and some 50 protestors
braced for the arrival of federal agents.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A5)
2000 May 1, In Zimbabwe
thousands opposed to the rule of Pres. Mugabe rallied in Harare.
(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A1)
2001 May 1, Pres. Bush
committed the US to a missile defense shield. He also presented his
case for withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
with Russia.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/2/01, p.A1)(AP,
5/1/02)
2001 May 1, FBI Director Louis
Freeh, appointed in 1993, announced his retirement. He served until
June and then joined MBNA as a senior vice-president managing its
legal and personnel affairs.
(AP, 5/1/02)(WSJ, 6/14/02, p.A4)
2001 May 1, Thomas Blanton Jr.
became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 1963
bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that claimed the lives of
four black girls.
(AP, 5/1/02)
2001 May 1, The space shuttle
Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mohave Desert
following the installation of the billion-dollar robot arm on the
Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A4)
2001 May 1, May Day protests
rallies took place around the world as people demonstrated against
global trade and for workers’ rights.
(WSJ, 5/2/01, p.A1)
2001 May 1, In Seattle Hindus
filed a suit against McDonald’s for nondisclosure of beef flavoring
in French fries.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.A9)
2001 May 1, In the West Bank
Assaf Hershovitz (31), a Jewish settler, was killed when his van was
hit by 27 bullets outside Ramallah.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A8)
2001 May 1, In Japan Kim Jong
Nam (29), the son of Kim Jong Il of North Korea, was detained with
his son as they attempted to visit Tokyo’s Disneyland.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.A14)
2001 May 1, In Macedonia Slavs
rioted in Bitola and trashed Albanian shops following the funerals
of soldiers killed in a rebel ambush. US Sec. of State Powell met
with Macedonia’s Pres. Trajkovski.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A8)
2001 May 1, In the Philippines
Pres. Arroyo declared a “state of rebellion” and ordered the arrest
of 2 senators and several military officials loyal to former Pres.
Estrada. Some 40,000 protesters marched on Malacanang Palace and 3
people were killed.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B1)
2002 May 1, California’s Dept.
of Insurance released a list of former slaves and slaveholders.
Records of 613 salves and 433 slaveholders were made public.
(SFC, 5/1/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A17)
2002 May 1, In Afghanistan some
560-614 prisoners were released from Shibirghan prison controlled by
Gen. Dostum. Some 2,300 prisoners remained.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A12)
2002 May 1, China’s VP Hu
Jintao met with Pres. Bush. Jintao said the Taiwan issue could hurt
relations and defended China’s record on human rights. They agreed
to resume military exchanges.
(WSJ, 5/2/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/3/02, p.A1)
2002 May 1, In Colombia
government soldiers from Caqueta state were pulled from a bus at a
FARC roadblock. Their bodies were reported found on May 12.
(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A6)
2002 May 1, Well over 1 million
people across France marched against far-right leader Jean-Marie Le
Pen, 4 days before Le Pen was defeated by President Jacques Chirac
in a runoff.
(AP, 5/1/03)
2002 May 1, Israeli forces
withdrew from Ramallah and Yasser Arafat, under siege since Mar 29,
emerged from his West Bank compound. 6 wanted Palestinian men were
driven to Jericho under US and British supervision.
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A1)
2002 May 1, In Madrid, Spain, a
bomb exploded near a sports stadium and 17 people were injured.
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A11)
2003 May 1, Pres. Bush,
standing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Navy aircraft carrier in San
Diego, announced that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
Bush landed on the carrier in a Navy S-3B jet and spoke below a
banner that read “Mission Accomplished.”
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/11/04, p.A22)(WSJ,
11/3/04, p.A6)
2003 May 1, Sec. of Defense
Rumsfeld visited Afghanistan and declared most of the nation secure.
He said the 9,000 US soldiers there were engaged mainly in
reconstruction.
(WSJ, 5/2/03, p.A1)
2003 May 1, The US Navy
withdrew from Vieques Island, Costa Rica.
(AP, 5/1/03)
2003 May 1, In Utah climber
Aron Ralston (27) amputated his own arm to escape from a canyon
where he was pinned by a boulder.
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A18)
2003 May 1, A female homicide
victim, Jane Doe, was found near a garbage bin at a restaurant in
Castro Valley, Ca. She had been killed around Apr 22-23 and was
buried Sep 17 as "Unknown child of God. Female, 12-17..." In 2006
police using DNA identified the girl as Yesenia Nungaray (16) and
said she was from Yahualica, Mexico. In 2007 police sought Miguel
Angel Nunez-Castaneda (28) for her murder.
(SFC, 9/18/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/9/06, p.B1)(SFC,
12/22/06, p.B3)(SFC, 11/7/07, p.B5)
2003 May 1, Flooding hit
northwestern Argentina and at least 13 people were killed and 50,000
driven from their homes.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 1, The Australian
stock market began trade in Australia's first-ever listed brothel,
The Daily Planet. Shares began trading at 31 cents. Heidi Fleiss was
on hand to promote the enterprise and her new book, "Pandering."
(AP, 5/1/03)
2003 May 1, Thousands of people
in Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines celebrated May Day by
protesting for higher wages, better hours and political change.
(AP, 5/1/03)
2003 May 1, Three top members
of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime: Mizban Khadr Hadi (military
commander), Abdel Tawab Mullah Huweish (director of the Office
of Military Industrialization and a deputy prime minister in charge
of arms procurement), and Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf (a Kurd who served
as one of two ceremonial vice presidents), were captured.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 1, Israeli troops
raided a Hamas stronghold and exchanged fire with dozens of masked
gunmen. At least 13 Palestinians were killed, including two boys
ages 2 and 13. 2 Palestinian militants were killed in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/1/03)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A8)
2003 May 1, In South Africa a
bus believed to be carrying about 90 people plunged into a reservoir
in South Africa. 10 survivors were rescued outside the town of
Bethlehem. 51 people were killed.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 1, A 6.4 magnitude
earthquake rumbled through southeastern Turkey. 177 people were
killed and 390 injured including 80 students were trapped in the
debris of their school dormitory in Bingol.
(AP, 5/1/03)(SFC, 5/1/03, A16)(SFC, 5/2/03,
p.A3)(AP, 5/4/08)
2004 May 1, Smarty Jones won
the Kentucky Derby and ran his record to 7-for-7, the first unbeaten
Derby winner since Seattle Slew in 1977.
(AP, 5/1/04)
2004 May 1, Shanghai Tobacco,
maker of Panda and other cigarette brands, embarked on a campaign to
extend Panda beyond the political and military elite. WHO statistics
held that China accounts for 30% of the 5.5 trillion cigarettes
consumed daily world-wide.
(WSJ, 5/26/04, p.A1)
2004 May 1, Revelers across
ex-communist eastern Europe celebrated their historic entry to the
European Union. 10 new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia)
joined. Malta joined with 70 exemptions to EU rules. Poland had 43
exemptions. Latvia had 32. The Turkish occupied area of Cyprus was
suspended from entry.
(AP, 5/1/04)(Econ, 2/28/04, p.50)(Econ, 4/16/05,
p.16)
2004 May 1, Jean-Jacques
Laffont (57), an award-winning French economist and one of the
leading figures in the study of information theory, died in southern
France. His books included "Incentives in Public Decision Making"
(1979).
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 May 1, In Iraq US top
commander Lt. Gen. Sanchez notified 6 officers of his intent to
issue a memorandum of reprimand for the abuse of prisoners at the
Abu Ghraib prison.
(SFC, 5/4/04, p.A1)
2004 May 1, In Yanbu, Saudi
Arabia, suspected militants sprayed gunfire inside the offices of
Houston-based ABB Ltd., an oil contractor, killing at least six
people — including two Americans and three other Westerners — and
wounding dozens. Police killed four brothers in a shootout after a
car chase in which the attackers reportedly dragged the naked body
of one victim behind their getaway car.
(AP, 5/1/04)(SFC, 5/3/04, p.A7)(WSJ, 2/25/06,
p.A1)
2005 May 1, Newsweek, in its
May 9th edition, ran a story that said US interrogators at
Guantanamo Bay prison had flushed a Quran, the Muslim holy book,
down a toilet.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.32)
2005 May 1, Hundreds of
thousands of workers mobilized on May Day to demand more political
muscle in the face of global capitalism, as clashes with police
marred some rallies.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, On what was to have
been her wedding day, "runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks was led by
Albuquerque, N.M., police to an airplane that flew her home to
Georgia.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2005 May 1, The bodies of 3
Afghan women were found raped, hanged and dumped on a roadside in
Baglan province with a warning not to work for foreign relief
organizations.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.A15)
2005 May 1, Chinese computer
maker Lenovo completed its purchase of IBM's personal computer
division.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2005 May 1, In Egypt police
detained about 200 people from the home villages of 3 attackers
responsible for a bomb blast and tour bus shooting near Cairo
tourist sites the day before.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, In Iraq insurgents
launched a 3rd straight day of attacks, including ambushes, car
bombs and a drive-by shooting, killing nine Iraqis and wounding more
than 20.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, Five suspects were
arrested by Iraqi forces and confessed to the kidnapping and murder
of British aid worker Margaret Hassan.
(AFP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, In northern Iraq a
car bomb obliterated a tent packed with mourners at the funeral of a
Kurdish official, killing 25 people and wounding more than 50 in the
single deadliest attack since insurgents started bearing down on
Iraq's newly named government late last week.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, A videotape
released by Iraqi militants showed Douglas Wood (63), a kidnapped an
Australian man living in California, who pleaded for U.S.-led
coalition forces to leave Iraq to save his life.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, In Nepal about ten
thousand people marched through Kathmandu, demanding the restoration
of democracy in the biggest show of opposition strength since King
Gyanendra seized absolute power three months ago.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, North Korea
test-fired a short range missile.
(WSJ, 5/2/05, p.A16)
2005 May 1, Russian Orthodox
Patriarch Alexy II wished health and happiness to millions of
Orthodox Christians as believers marked Easter, the holiest day in
the Orthodox calendar.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, Thai fishermen
netted a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish believed to have been the
world's largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 May 1, Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Israel for a visit seeking to mend
relations with the Jewish state and join in a new wave of Middle
East peace efforts.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2006 May 1, The EU imposed
additional retaliatory sanctions valued at $9.1 million against the
US in response to antidumping measures that were ruled illegal.
(WSJ, 5/1/06, p.A10)
2006 May 1, The US Supreme
Court ruled that Anna Nicole Smith could pursue part of her late
husband's oil fortune.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2006 May 1, A Florida judge
sentenced former professor Sami Al-Arian (48) to another year and a
half in prison before he will be deported in his terrorism
conspiracy case. Al-Arian signed a plea agreement April 14 in which
he admitted providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, Thousands of people
rallied in cities across the US for what organizers called “A Day
Without Immigrants.” An estimated 100,000 gathered in San Jose, Ca.,
400,000 in Chicago, 400,000 in Los Angeles and some 75,000 in
Denver.
(SFC, 5/2/06, p.A1)
2006 May 1, In the SF Bay Area
KQED of SF and KTEH of San Jose announced their merger under the
name Northern California Public Broadcasting.
(SFC, 5/2/06, p.A1)
2006 May 1, Pure Digital
Technologies released its new $130 Pure Digital Point & Shoot
Video Camcorder.
(WSJ, 5/3/06, p.D1)
2006 May 1, Workers around the
world held May Day rallies to press for better factory conditions
and higher wages in mostly peaceful marches. Activists the
Philippines used the holiday to show their opposition to their
government in tense protests watched by police.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In Belarus more
than 1,000 protesters carrying banned flags marched through Minsk to
demand the release of jailed opposition leaders who had pledged to
work for the removal of President Alexander Lukashenko.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales ordered the oil and gas sector nationalized, threatening
to evict foreign companies unless they cede control over production
within six months. The biggest natural gas field was operated by
Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras.
(AP, 5/2/06)(SFC, 5/2/06, p.A3)(Econ, 5/6/06,
p.37)
2006 May 1, Egyptian security
forces fatally shot three men wanted in terrorist bombings that
killed at least 18 people in a coastal Sinai Peninsula resort on
April 24. A police officer was also killed.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 1, In western India
police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse battling mobs of
Hindus and Muslims, killing two people as hundreds rioted after
authorities demolished a small Muslim shrine.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In southern India a
truck carrying mangos toppled over, killing 20 workers riding on
board to unload them.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In northern India a
sodium tank exploded at a paper factory, sparking a blaze that
killed at least nine nightshift workers and trapped hundreds more.
One official said 15 people were killed.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In Indonesia 3
Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison for helping
shelter Southeast Asia's top terrorist mastermind and financing
bombings.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In Israel interim
PM Ehud Olmert announced his Cabinet appointments, naming Tzipi
Livni as vice premier and foreign minister. Israeli soldiers shot
and killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her two daughters when
they fired on a West Bank house that an Islamic Jihad militant was
hiding in.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, Locals in Macao
rioted in protests against outsiders, who were finding jobs while
many middle-aged Macanese remained jobless.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.40)
2006 May 1, A day-long protest
dubbed "A Day Without Gringos" drew thousands of Mexicans into the
streets and kept many away from US-owned supermarkets and fast-food
restaurants to support rallies in the United States demanding
immigration reform.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, The government of
Puerto Rico ran out of money, forcing the US commonwealth to close
public schools and shut down government offices, putting almost
100,000 people out of work.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, Rwandan Hutu rebels
attacked a village and an army camp in a raid that left 7 residents
dead. Congolese troops killed six rebels during an attack at an army
camp that also claimed the lives of a soldier and his wife.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 1, Under pressure from
the US rebels in Sudan's Darfur region agreed to continue
negotiations in Nigeria with the Sudanese government after rejecting
a peace proposal that would end a conflict that has killed tens of
thousands of people.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 1, In Turkey, police
fired pepper spray and tear gas to disperse demonstrators denouncing
the IMF and the United States.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2007 May 1, Pres. Bush cast the
2nd veto of his presidency rejecting an attempt by both chambers of
Congress to set a timetable for bringing troops home from Iraq.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.36)
2007 May 1, Julie A. MacDonald,
a deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks,
resigned after an internal review found that she had violated
federal rules by giving government documents to lobbyists for
industry. In November the US Fish and Wildlife Service reversed 7
rulings that had denied endangered species increased protection.
(www.mindfully.org/Heritage/2007/Interior-Wildlife-Decisions21jul07.htm)(SFC,
11/28/07, p.A3)
2007 May 1, John Hickenlooper
(b.1952) was re-elected mayor of Denver with 86.3% of the vote.
(Econ, 11/3/07,
p.39)(www.citymayors.com/mayors/denver_mayor.html)
2007 May 1, Thousands of people
protested across the US to demand a path to citizenship for an
estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2007 May 1, Kenneth John
Freeman (44), a bodybuilder and computer expert from Benton County,
Washington, was arrested in Hong Kong. Freeman, who fled the US 13
months earlier, was accused of raping his daughter and posting a
video of the attack.
(www.usmarshals.gov/news/chron/2007/050207.htm)
2007 May 1, The design for the
Arizona quarter, chosen by Gov. Janet Napolitano, was announced. It
includes a "Grand Canyon State" banner across the middle of the
quarter, separating the canyon view with a multi-rayed sun above and
a saguaro in a desert landscape below. The 48th of the state series
will be released in 2008, followed by Alaska and Hawaii.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, A US ice expert
said the Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is
now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
(Reuters, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Australian police
arrested two men accused of raising money for Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tiger rebels on the pretext of collecting donations for victims of
the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Thirty people were
arrested in raids across Belgium, England, and the Netherlands
targeting suspected animal rights extremists.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, John Browne, head
of BP PLC, resigned after Britain’s highest legal body triggered the
release of documents detailing his relationship with a former lover.
(WSJ, 5/2/07, p.A1)
2007 May 1, Britain's largest
ever trade union, representing about two million public and private
sector workers, was launched following the merger of two workers'
bodies. The Unite union officially formed following a recent vote
for merger by members of Amicus and the Transport and General
Workers Union, founded in 1922.
(AP,
5/1/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_and_General_Workers%27_Union)
2007 May 1, China lashed out at
the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia for restoring diplomatic relations
with Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as
Chinese territory.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, In Indonesia tens
of thousands of workers marked May Day by taking to the streets to
demand better wages and job security, amid a heavy police presence.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Iran stood firm in
opposing language in a nuclear conference agenda that reaffirms the
need for full compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a
stance that diplomats said could scuttle the meeting aimed at
strengthening the accord.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Iraqi officials
have received reports that Abu Ayyub al-Masri (aka Abu Hamza
al-Muhajer), the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed by Sunni
tribesmen, but the chief government spokesman said the information
has not been confirmed. Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said that
al-Masri was believed to have been killed April 30 in the Taji area
north of Baghdad. Gunmen ambushed travelers on a highway leading
from Baghdad to Shiite areas to the south, killing 14 people. Mortar
rounds slammed into an area near the Iraqi prime minister's office
in the US-controlled Green Zone in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Japan and Qatar
stressed their solid energy partnership and agreed to launch initial
negotiations on moves to stimulate Japanese investment in the Gulf
state.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Liberia relaunched
its diamond trade after the UN lifted an embargo, hoping the revival
of the industry will fund reconstruction rather than lead to more
bloodshed.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, In Macao May Day
protesters clashed with riot police as a rally against labor
shortages turned violent, sparking rare scenes of civil unrest in
the southern Chinese territory.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, It was reported
that Malaysian doctors have declared neckties a health hazard and
called on the heath ministry to stop insisting that physicians wear
them.
(Reuters, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, In Mexico 5
soldiers, including a colonel, and a suspected drug cartel enforcer
were killed in a shootout in the western state of Michoacan, which
has been plagued by drug violence and is the target of a
military-led anti-drug offensive.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 1, The leader of
Nepal's Maoists threatened to push the nation back into turmoil by
launching huge nationwide protests unless parliament immediately
ousts the king and declares a republic.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Thousands of people
gathered in heavily guarded squares and stadiums in Nigeria's main
cities to protest last month's flawed presidential election. Dare
Folorunso, a Nigerian journalist of the state-owned radiotelevision
station, was beaten unconscious by policemen at workers rally in
Akure in southern Ondo state. MEND militants kidnapped six foreign
oil workers, including four Italians, in an attack on a floating
storage vessel off the coast of southern Bayelsa State. A Nigerian
sailor was killed.
(Reuters, 5/1/07)(SFC, 5/2/07, p.C2)(AFP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 1, Thousands of
laborers rallied across Pakistan demanding better wages and living
conditions to mark May Day.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Thousands of South
Africans marched in Durban to protest the renaming of streets after
heroes of the ruling African National Congress, sparking warnings of
violence in the Zulu heartland.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Turkish police
charged into crowds of leftist protesters marking the anniversary of
a deadly May Day rally in Istanbul, spraying tear gas and kicking
and clubbing demonstrators as they fled.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, President Hugo
Chavez's government took over Venezuela's last privately run oil
fields, intensifying a struggle with international firms over the
development of the world's largest known petroleum deposit.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 1, Zimbabwe boosted
the price of corn meal, a keystone of the nation’s diet, by nearly
600%.
(WSJ, 5/2/07, p.A1)(AP, 5/7/07)
2008 May 1, Pres. Bush proposed
$770 million in US food aid on top of $200 million released 2 weeks
ago to alleviate the global surge in food prices.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A1)
2008 May 1, Pres. Bush imposed
new sanctions against property owned or controlled by the military
junta in Myanmar.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 May 1, The National Marine
Fishery Service announced a ban on fishing for chinook salmon in the
ocean off California and most of Oregon.
(SFC, 5/2/08, p.B2)
2008 May 1, Philadelphia’s
Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey announced a major
reorganization of the department's command structure and the
addition of nearly 250 officers on street patrols, part of a
crime-fighting strategy he said was already showing results. Mayor
Michael Nutter and the police commissioner had hoped to have 200
more police officers on the streets by this time as part of a new
33-page crime-fighting plan. Murders in the city had reached 392 in
2007. Gov. Ed Rendell agreed to help foot the bill.
(Econ, 2/9/08,
p.33)(http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_9120792)
2008 May 1, A report by the
American Lung Association said the eight metropolitan areas
considered to be the nation's most polluted by every measure were
Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Visalia-Porterfield and
Hanford-Corcoran, all in California; Washington-Baltimore; St.
Louis; and Birmingham, Ala.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, Deborah Palfrey
(b.1956), a woman from Vallejo, Ca., known as the “D.C. Madam,” was
found hanged at her mother’s home in Tarpon Springs, Fl. She had
been convicted on April 15 of racketeering and other charges related
to a prostitution ring, whose clients included high profile
government officials.
(SFC, 5/2/08, p.A13)
2008 May 1, In Afghanistan 2
roadside bombs killed a NATO soldier and 8 civilians.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A1)
2008 May 1, In Australia 6
people were killed in Sydney Harbor when a boat packed with revelers
on a nighttime joyride and a fishing trawler collided.
(Reuters, 5/1/08)(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 1, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales celebrated May Day by announcing the nationalization of
Entel, the country’s leading telecommunications company, and
returning four foreign-owned natural gas companies to state control.
Bolivia privatized the struggling Entel in 1995, handing 50 percent
of the company to Stet International in exchange for the Italian
company's promise to invest $608 million to modernize its services.
Stet later merged with Telecom Italia. The Bolivian government said
Telecom Italia fell short on promised investment and owes some $25
million in taxes.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, Pascal Marlinge,
the country head of Save the Children UK in Chad, was shot dead by
gunmen who held up his three-car convoy between the villages of
Forchana and Hadjer Hadid, not far from the border with Sudan's
Darfur region. UN aid agencies suspended all but their most urgent
work in eastern Chad for two days in a "symbolic protest."
(Reuters, 5/2/08)
2008 May 1, China inaugurated
one of the world's longest bridges, which will provide an important
new route into Shanghai. The 36-kilometer (22-mile) structure
connected Jiaxing city near Shanghai to the port city of Ningbo in
the eastern province of Zhejiang.
(AFP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 1, Cuba announced a
major shake-up of its troubled farm sector on May Day, shifting
control of the island's farms from officials at the Agriculture
Ministry to more than 150 local councils.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, A speeding tourist
bus carrying dozens of Europeans and Canadians overturned, rolled
off an embankment and burst into flames on a desert highway in
Egypt's Sinai peninsula. At least nine passengers were killed and
about 30 wounded.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, Rescuers found the
bodies of five French ski mountaineers who had been missing since
the day before when they were swept away by an avalanche during an
excursion on Punta Basei, a 10,000-foot peak in Italy's northwestern
Alps.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, In Hong Kong 18
people were killed and at least 44 injured when a coach taking
elderly local residents to a religious ceremony overturned.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, It was reported
that Iran has stopped using dollars for oil deals as it seeks to
reduce reliance on the US.
(WSJ, 5/1/08, p.A1)
2008 May 1, A double suicide
bombing killed at least 36 people during a wedding procession as
people cheered the bride and groom in Balad Ruz, a town northeast of
Baghdad. A car bomb aimed at a US patrol in Baghdad killed at least
nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 26. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi
patrol car, killing two Iraqi soldiers in Mosul. 3 al-Qaida
insurgents fired on US soldiers as they tried to stop a vehicle near
Mosul. The soldiers returned fire, killing all three as well as the
driver of the vehicle. The US military said it killed 18 militants
overnight amid escalating fighting in the Shiite slum Sadr City.
Around Iraq, at least 1,080 Iraqi civilians and security forces were
killed nationwide last month, average of 36 a day, according to an
AP tally, down from March's total of 1,269, or an average of 41 per
day.
(AP, 5/1/08)(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 1, Roberto Velasco,
head of Mexico’s federal police organized crime division, was
murdered. Police later said the murder was likely ordered by Arturo
Beltran Leyva, a capo in the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 1, Russia said an
extra contingent of its troops had begun arriving in Georgia's
breakaway region of Abkhazia, a move Tbilisi said was an illegal act
of military aggression.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, An Islamic
insurgent group said the US military killed Aden Hashi Ayro, a man
believed to be the head of al-Qaida in Somalia, and 10 others in an
airstrike overnight.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, South Africa lifted
a 13-year ban on killing elephants. The country had some 18,000
elephants.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 May 1, Three bombs
exploded in Spain's Basque region. No one was injured in the blasts,
which police said were carried out by the separatist group ETA.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, In Sri Lanka
suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a roadside mine, killing two
police commandos, as violence raged on across the north.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, A cabinet minister
said a runoff will be necessary to decide Zimbabwe's presidential
election, citing the government's own election results.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2009 May 1, US cases of the
H1N1 flu rose to 155, based on federal and state tallies. State
laboratory operators believe the number is higher because they are
not testing all suspected cases. Mexico raised its confirmed swine
flu death toll from 15 to 16, adding that the total number of
confirmed cases of the virus had risen to 397. Worldwide, the total
confirmed cases were 653, with the real number also believed to be
much larger.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 1, US government
health officials warned dieters and body builders to immediately
stop using Hydroxycut, a widely sold supplement linked to cases of
serious liver damage and at least one death.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 1, Colorado Gov. Bill
Ritter signed a state budget, overcoming a $1.4 billion deficit by
taping into emergency reserve funds and cutting state services.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.37)
2009 May 1, In south Texas
Reymundo Guerra, former sheriff of Starr county, pleaded guilty to a
drug trafficking charge for sharing law enforcement information with
a Mexican drug ring.
(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A4)
2009 May 1, Danny Gans (52),
one of the most popular entertainers on the Las Vegas Strip for the
last decade, died in his sleep at his home in Henderson, Nev. A
coroner later said Gans' death was accidental, caused by a
prescription painkiller.
(AP, 5/2/09)(AP, 6/9/09)
2009 May 1, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen attacked a troops' convoy as it traveled to a
village to talk to elders about security. The troops killed one
militant in the initial clash and another 14 as they pursued
insurgents who were firing on them from a nearby hillside. 3 Afghan
army soldiers were killed in overnight fighting with insurgents in
eastern Kunar province. 5 international soldiers, including 2
American, were killed in an insurgent attack.
(AP, 5/1/09)(AFP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2009 May 1, Britain awarded the
role of national poet laureate to Carol Ann Duffy (53), the first
woman to hold a post that has been filled by William Wordsworth,
Alfred Lord Tennyson and Ted Hughes. Duffy, a gay woman, has
published more than 30 books, plays and children's stories as well
as poems that mix accessible modern language with traditional forms.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/1/09, p.A3)
2009 May 1, In Cambodia a court
official said Japan has donated $4.17 million to the UN-backed
genocide tribunal trying former Khmer Rouge leaders on war crimes
charges, just as the troubled court was running out of funding.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, In Ethiopia
Communications Minister Bereket Simon said that senior military
officers, including a general, had plotted to assassinate top
government officials. He added that 40 people were under arrest.
Bereket said the plotters belonged to the Ginbot 7 (May 15)
opposition group, saying it was linked to the Coalition for Unity
and Democracy (CUD) headed by Berhanu Nega, currently living in the
United States.
(AFP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, May Day protesters
clashed with riot police in Germany, Turkey and Greece, while
thousands angry at the government's responses to the global
financial crisis took to the streets in France. Riot police battled
700 stone-throwing left-wing militants in Berlin for more than five
hours in May Day clashes that stretched into early pre-dawn hours.
(Reuters, 5/1/09)(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 1, In India officials
said at least 18 people have died in a scorching heat wave that has
swept through more than a dozen Indian states.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, Indonesia's top
graft-buster, Antasari Azhar (56), was named a suspect and a
mastermind in a murder case, dealing a blow to the agency that's
played a key part in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's fight
against corruption. He was one of several suspects in the March 14
murder of Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, a businessman who, according to local
media reports, had been a witness in a corruption case investigated
by the agency.
(Reuters, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, Iran hanged a young
woman (23) who was convicted of murder when she was a minor, drawing
condemnation from international human rights groups who have sought
to end capital punishment for juvenile offenders. Delara Darabi,
initially pleaded guilty to killing her father's cousin in 2003, but
later retracted her confession and said her boyfriend carried out
the killing.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 1, In northern Iraq
Ammar Afif Hamada (19), a would-be Syrian suicide bomber linked to
al-Qaida in Iraq, was tackled by guards on the doorstep of a mosque
in Kirkuk.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 1, Italian PM Silvio
Berlusconi, who has compared himself to Jesus Christ and Napoleon,
boasted that he was the world's most popular leader.
(Reuters, 5/2/09)
2009 May 1, Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi held talks with visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali
Zardari on the situation in Pakistan and ways of bolstering ties
between the two nations. Pakistan and Libya signed a string of
agreements to bolster economic ties on the sidelines of Zardari’s
visit. The countries also decided to bolster ties in the fields of
banking, health, education, public works and construction.
(AFP, 5/1/09)(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 1, In the Netherlands
robbers at the Scheringa Museum for Realism in Spanbroek stole
"Adolescence," a 1941 gouache by Salvadore Dali and "La Musicienne,"
an oil painting from 1929 by Polish-born art deco painter Tamara de
Lempicka. The museum houses the art collection of wealthy Dutch
banker Dirk Scheringa and his wife.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 1, In Pakistan the
battle between security forces and Taliban militants left 55-60
militants dead over the last 24 hours in Buner district near the
capital even as the government pressed with a much-criticized peace
plan in the region. Based on combined tolls released by the
military, nearly 200 militants have been killed in Operation Black
Thunder since tanks, fighter jets and helicopter gunships swung into
action in Buner and neighboring Lower Dir.
(AFP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, In Paraguay Sabino
Montanaro (86), who served as interior minister under ex-dictator
Alfredo Stroessner, arrived in Asuncion after nearly two decades of
self-imposed exile in Honduras. He faced six pending trials for the
disappearance and killings of government opponents in the 1970s and
1980s.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 1, Special forces on a
Portuguese warship seized explosives from suspected Somali pirates
after thwarting an attack on an oil tanker, but later freed the 19
men. Hours later and hundreds of miles away, another band of pirates
hijacked a cargo ship. The captain and 23 crew were all Ukrainians
and the Greek-owned, Maltese-flagged Ariana was carrying a cargo of
soya from Brazil to Iran when pirates attacked it southwest of the
Seychelles islands. The Ariana was freed on Dec 10 following a
ransom payment of $2.8 million by Athens-based Alloceans Shipping.
(AP, 5/2/09)(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 May 1, Sri Lanka's
government dropped leaflets across the northern war zone urging
civilians to flee the fighting amid accusations the military pounded
the area with artillery shells that killed at least 10 civilians.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, A UN agency urged
Israel to freeze demolitions of Arab homes in east Jerusalem, citing
a growing housing crisis in the part of the city the Palestinians
claim as their future capital.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, In Venezuela police
and national guard troops broke up an opposition march in Caracas as
thousands of opponents and supporters of Pres. Chavez held separate
May Day marches.
(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2010 May 1, The worst US oil
spill in decades reached into precious shoreline habitat along the
Gulf Coast as documents emerged showing British Petroleum downplayed
the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the offshore rig that
exploded.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, In Minnesota a
suburban St. Paul police officer was killed during an ambush,
setting off a massive manhunt that ended with one suspect dead and
another in custody.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 1, NYC police found an
"amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to
detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle in
Times Square. The Pakistani Taliban quickly claimed responsibility
for the failed car bomb attack.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 1, In South Carolina
Lee County Sheriff E. J. Melvin was arrested after the FBI caught
him calling drug dealers to tip them off or extort them after
receiving a list of possible dealers in his county.
(SFC, 5/4/10, p.A4)
2010 May 1, Elisabeth Mandala
(18), a Texas high school student, and two Mexican men were found
dead in a crashed pickup truck near Mina, in the northeastern state
of Nuevo Leon. Autopsies revealed that all three died from severe
blows to the head and body. Mandala, a senior at Kempner High School
in Sugar Land, Texas, was last seen April 27 leaving her mother's
home. The two men killed were taxi driver Luis Angel Estrella
Mondragon (44) and merchant Dante Ruiz Siller (38).
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 1, American actress
Helen Wagner (b.1918) died. She played mild-mannered Nancy Hughes on
the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" for more than a
half-century. Wagner opened "As the World Turns" when it premiered
on April 2, 1956, with the words: "Good morning, dear."
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 1, Tens of thousands
of workers marched in cities from Hong Kong to Istanbul to mark
international worker's day, demanding more jobs, better work
conditions and higher wages.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, In Albania 22
opposition Socialist lawmakers and 180 supporters launched a hunger
strike to press the government to allow a partial recount of an
election they claim was tainted by vote-rigging. The government of
PM Sali Berisha, who narrowly won the June 28 general election
controlling 75 of parliament's 140 seats, called their demands
illegal.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, Arab nations
endorsed indirect peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis,
a move that likely paves the way for the start of long-stalled
US-brokered negotiations.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales nationalized 4 electricity generators, 2 of which had
European owners or partners. He skipped the May Day parade as some
marchers carried signs denouncing his purchase of a new French
Dassault jet.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.40)
2010 May 1, In Brazil a jury
convicted a rancher of orchestrating the murder of US nun and Amazon
defender Dorothy Stang. Regivaldo Galvao, the last of five
defendants to stand trial in the case, was sentenced to 30 years in
prison. The verdict came two weeks after another rancher, Vitalmiro
Moura, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being found guilty
of collaborating with Galvao. Galvao was soon released on bail
pending an appeal.
(AP, 5/1/10)(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 1, In China World Expo
2010 officially opened in Shanghai. Two-wheeled Electric Networked
Vehicles (EN-Vs) were unveiled at Expo 2010. They used a balancing
system developed by Segway.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.42)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.87)
2010 May 1, Cuba quietly began
requiring foreign tourists and Cubans who live overseas to hold
travel insurance approved by island authorities, while making those
who don't have coverage buy a local policy that can cost over $3 a
day.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 1, Tens of thousands
of protesters gathered in central Athens and other Greek cities for
May Day rallies fueled by anger at expected harsh austerity measures
needed to secure rescue loans for near-bankrupt Greece.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, In Iraq gunmen
robbed a jewelry store in northern Baghdad and killed its owner. As
they were making their escape, a car bomb exploded nearby, killing
three policemen who were responding to the robbery.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, Kuwaiti media
reported that seven people were arrested in a sweep of a suspected
spy cell.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 1, In Mexico 5 people
were killed in a gunbattle between gang members and soldiers in
Camargo, a small town in Tamaulipas state, which borders Nuevo Leon.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 1, The leader of
Nepal's Maoists called a nationwide general strike, stepping up
pressure on the government to quit as tens of thousands of his
supporters demonstrated in Kathmandu.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, Nigeria's navy
seized a Greek-flagged vessel carrying more than 80 tons of stolen
crude oil and arrested its crew in a crackdown on a multi-million
dollar smuggling racket.
(AFP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 1, In Pakistan a
suicide bomber killed five people in the Swat Valley, fuelling fears
of a Taliban comeback in the area a year after a major army
offensive routed the group.
(Reuters, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, Hundreds of Russian
opposition activists rallied in Moscow, shouting slogans comparing
PM Vladimir Putin to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in a rare protest
approved by the authorities.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 1, In Somalia two
bombs exploded inside a small mosque in the Bakara market district
of Mogadishu killing at least 32 people.
(AP, 5/1/10)(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 1, In Sudan the
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Darfur’s main rebel group,
warned that the government has brought the Darfur peace process to
an end by launching a military offensive.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 1, The Vatican
announced that Pope Benedict XVI would name a papal delegate to
govern the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ and that a special
commission would study its founding constitutions to reform it. The
decisions were made after five Vatican investigators reported to the
pope about their eight-month global inquiry into the order after its
late founder was so thoroughly discredited by revelations of his
double life.
(AP, 5/2/10)
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