[NoRanynn]

Events (April 26th)

• 1467 - The miraculous image of Our Lady of Good Counsel appears in Genazzano, Italy.
• 1478 - The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
• 1564 - Shakespeare was christened.
• 1607 - English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
• 1802 - Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Regime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
• 1805 - United States Marines captured Derne, Tripoli under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina.
• 1865 - Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, in Virginia.
• 1925 - Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.
• 1933 - The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
• 1937 - Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
• 1942 - The worst mining accident in history kills 1,549 miners in an explosion at the Honkeiko Colliery, Manchuria.
• 1945 - World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful German tank-offensive of the war.
• 1946 - Father Divine, a controversial religious leader who claims to be God, marries the much-younger Edna Rose Ritchings, a celebrated anniversary in the International Peace Mission movement.
• 1954 - The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
• 1956 - First container ship left Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas
• 1962 - NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
• 1963 - In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
• 1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
• 1986 - In Ukraine, a nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
• 1991 - Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before its end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).
• 1992 - Riot on the streets of Miami, and several other surrounding towns and suburbs.[citation needed]
• 1994 - A China Airlines Airbus A-300-600R crashes at Nagoya Airport, Japan killing 264.
• 1994 - Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
• 1999 - Last release of the Nemesis OS.
• 2002 - 19-year-old Robert Steinhäuser shoots and kills 17 people at his school in Erfurt, Germany.
• 2005 - Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.

Events (April 27th)

• 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland.
• 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
• 1509 - Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
• 1521 - Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
• 1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
• 1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
• 1667 - The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
• 1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.
• 1773 - The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
• 1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
• 1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
• 1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).
• 1827 - The Petrel, Australian Coal carrying ship sinks in stormy seas, off Hope Bay, Tasmania.
• 1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
• 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
• 1865 - The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
• 1865 - The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.
• 1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• 1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
• 1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
• 1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1936 - The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
• 1941 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.
• 1945 - World War II: Last German troops are expelled from Finnish Lapland (the last day of World War II going on in Finland). The day is the national war veteran day in Finland.
• 1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
• 1950 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
• 1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
• 1960 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
• 1961 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
• 1967 - Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
• 1972 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
• 1974 - 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for impeachment of US President Nixon
• 1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
• 1978 - Former Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
• 1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
• 1987 - The U.S. Justice Department bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
• 1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
• 1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
• 1992 - Russia along with 12 other former Soviet republics win entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• 1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote.
• 1996 - The Israeli military operation in Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, ends after 16 days of heavy bombing.
• 1997 - Production began on Duke Nukem Forever, which was not completed as of the 10th anniversary of this date.
• 2002 - The last successful telemetry from NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
• 2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
• 2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
• 2007 - Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

Events (April 28th)

• 1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.
• 1253 - Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
• 1788 - Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
• 1789 - Mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
• 1796 - The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Admiral David Farragut captures New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 1920 - Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
• 1923 - The F.A cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was played at Wembley, soon named the White Horse Final.
• 1930 - The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
• 1932 - A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
• 1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement.
• 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
• 1950 - Bhumibol Adulyadej, got married with his queen, Queen Sirikit, after their quiet engagement in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 19, 1949.
• 1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO.
• 1952 - Occupied Japan: The United States occupation of Japan ends.
• 1965 - United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. citizens.
• 1967 - Expo 67 opens to the public in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• 1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
• 1977 - The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.
• 1977 - The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed.
• 1978 - President of Afghanistan Mohammed Daoud Khan is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
• 1981 - Galician current Statute of Autonomy.
• 1986 - United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve USS Coral Sea, on station across the "Line of Death" in the Gulf of Sidra off the coast of Libya. The transit began at 0300 and lasted 12 hours.
• 1987 - U.S. engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.
• 1988 - Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing is sucked out of Aloha Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
• 1994 - Former Central Intelligence Agency official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
• 1996 - Whitewater scandal: President Bill Clinton gives 4½ hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
• 1996 - In Tasmania, Australia, Martin Bryant goes on a shooting spree, killing 35 people and seriously injuring 37 more.
• 1997 - The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention goes into effect, with Russia, Iraq and North Korea notable nations who had not ratified the treaty.
• 2001 - Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.
• 2003 - Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store launches, selling 1 million songs in its first week.
• 2005 - The Patent Law Treaty goes into effect.
• 2005 - Taraki Sivaram, a popular Tamil journalist of Sri Lanka kidnapped in Colombo; his body was found the next day near the parliament.

[NoRanynn]

Events (April 29th)

• 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans.
• 1672 - Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
• 1770 - James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.
• 1854 - The Ashmun Institute is officially chartered, becoming the first college for African American students.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union.
• 1862 - American Civil War: New Orleans falls to Union forces under Admiral David Farragut.
• 1864 - The Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
• 1882 - The "Elektromote" – forerunner of the trolleybus – trialed by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin.
• 1903 - A 30 million cubic-metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta, Canada.
• 1910 - Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the second time.
• 1916 - Easter Rebellion: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.
• 1945 - World War II: The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
• 1945 - World War II: Start of Operation Manna.
• 1945 - Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor.
• 1945 - The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
• 1946 - Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.
• 1951 - A Tibetan delegation to the Chinese government was presented with a treaty draft regarding the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
• 1965 - Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) successfully launches seventh rocket in their Rehber series.
• 1967 - After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
• 1974 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings related to the scandal.
• 1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The last U.S. citizens begin evacuation from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.
• 1986 - Roger Clemens sets a major league baseball record with 20 strikeouts in nine innings against the Seattle Mariners.
• 1986 - Fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles Public Library, some 400,000 books and other items damaged or destroyed.
• 1991 - 1991 Bangladesh cyclone struck the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 mph, killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless.
• 1992 - 1992 Los Angeles riots: Riots in Los Angeles, California, follow the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 54 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.
• 1992 - The Legion of Net. Heroes, the first Usenet superhero shared universe, is formed.
• 1997 - The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons among its signatories.
• 1999 - Avala TV Tower near Belgrade destroyed in NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
• 2002 - The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years.
• 2004 - Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
• 2005 - Syria completes withdrawal from Lebanon, ending 29 years of occupation.
• 2005 - Webkinz were introduced.

[NoRanynn]

Events (April 30th)

• 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule.
• 711 - Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
• 1006 - Supernova SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation Lupus.
• 1483 - Orbital calculations suggest that on this day Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503.
• 1492 - Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
• 1671 - Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the Zrinski family, is executed.
• 1794 - The Battle of Boulou is fought, in which French forces defeated the Spanish under General Union.
• 1789 - On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
• 1803 - Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling – overnight – the size of the young nation.
• 1812 - The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
• 1838 - Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation
• 1856 - Battle of Rivas, Nicaragua, against northamerican mercenaries.
• 1863 - Mexican forces attacked the French Foreign Legion in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico.
• 1871 - Camp Grant Massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.
• 1894 - Coxey's Army reaches Washington, D.C. to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893.
• 1900 - Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
• 1900 - Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express.
• 1904 - The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1920 - Peru becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1925 - Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Company for USD $146 million plus $50 million for charity.
• 1927 - The Federal Industrial Institute for Women, opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States.
• 1938 - The animated cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit.

• 1939 - The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.
• 1939 - RCA owned NBC begins regularly scheduled television service from its New York station with the opening ceremonies of the 1939 New York World's Fair broadcast.
• 1939 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to appear on television during the World Fair's opening ceremonies broadcast.
• 1943 - World War II: Operation Mincemeat – The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.
• 1945 - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day.
• 1947 - In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is officially renamed Hoover Dam again.
• 1948 - In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.
• 1966 - The Church of Satan is founded.
• 1973 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned.
• 1975 - Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gains control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.
• 1980 - Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
• 1988 - French-Canadian singer Céline Dion wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland in front of 600 million viewers, representing Switzerland with the song Ne partez pas sans moi
• 1991 - A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh killing an estimated 138,000 people.
• 1993 - The World Wide Web was born at CERN.
• 1993 - During a tennis match between #1 female tennis player Monica Seleš and Magdalena Maleeva, Günter Parche plunged a steak knife between Seleš's shoulderblades. Seleš did not return to competitive tennis for over two years.
• 1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. President to visit Northern Ireland.
• 1999 - Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the total members to 10.
• 2001 - The Mitchell Report on the Arab-Israeli conflict is published.
• 2002 - A referendum in Pakistan overwhelmingly approves the Presidency of Pervez Musharraf for another five years.
• 2006 - Trapped miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell at Beaconsfield, Tasmania are found alive after being unaccounted for for five days.
• 2007 - Last day when it is legal to smoke in a public building in Northern Ireland

[NoRanynn]

Events (May 1st)

• 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.
• 1045 - Gregory VI is appointed Pope.
• 1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – England recognises Scotland as an independent nation.
• 1396 - The Dahu becomes Switzerland's national animal.
• 1576 - Stefan Batory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they become the co-rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• 1707 - The Act of Union joins England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• 1751 - The first cricket match is played in America.
• 1753 - Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
• 1776 - Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.
• 1778 - American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
• 1786 - Opening night of the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna, Italy.
• 1834 - The British colonies abolish slavery.
• 1840 - The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, was issued in the United Kingdom.
• 1851 - The Great Exhibition opens in London by Queen Victoria.
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.
• 1869 - The Folies Bergère opens in Paris.
• 1884 - Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.
• 1886 - The start of the general strike which eventually wins the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labor Day in most industrialized countries.
• 1893 - The World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago.
• 1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington D.C..
• 1898 - Spanish-American War: The Battle of Manila Bay - The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the war.
• 1900 - The Scofield mine disaster kills 200 in Scofield, Utah in the now fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.
• 1901 - The Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York.
• 1915 - RMS Lusitania departs New York City on her two hundred and second and final crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.
• 1925 - The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.
• 1927 - The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris.
• 1927 - The Union Labor Life Insurance Company is founded by the American Federation of Labor.
• 1930 - The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
• 1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
• 1940 - The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.
• 1941 - Orson Welles's Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.
• 1941 - World War II: German forces launch Operation Mercury the largest airborne invasion to date in their bid to capture Crete.
• 1941 - World War II: German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.
• 1945 - Soviet troops raise the Soviet Flag over the Reichstag, in Berlin.
• 1945 - A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany".
• 1946 - Start of 3 year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
• 1946 - The Paris Peace Conference decided that the islands of the Dodecanese are to return to Greece by the Italians.
• 1948 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il Sung as president.
• 1950 - Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth.
• 1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
• 1956 - A doctor in Japan reports an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata disease.
• 1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis – Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking off a diplomatic crisis.
• 1961 - The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
• 1965 - Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC.
• 1967 - Singer Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• 1970 - Protests erupt in Seattle, Washington, following the announcement of President Richard Nixon that U.S. Forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country. [1]
• 1971 - Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) is formed to take over U.S. passenger rail service.
• 1978 - Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
• 1978 - The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as "spam") was sent by a DEC marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
• 1978 - May Day Bank Holiday introduced across England.
• 1982 - The 1982 World's Fair opens in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• 1983 - Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis is awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.
• 1987 - Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
• 1989 - The coat of arms of Greenland is adopted.
• 1989 - Disney-MGM studios opens in Orlando, Florida.
• 1991 - Rickey Henderson would steal his 939th base, making him the all-time leader in this category. However, his accomplishment would be overshadowed later that evening by Nolan Ryan, who would pitch his seventh career no-hitter (breaking his own record).
• 1992 - On the third day of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, African American criminal Rodney King appeared in public before television news cameras to appeal for calm and plead for peace, asking, "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?".
• 1994 - Last day of the standing Kop Grandstand for Liverpool F.C., perhaps the most famous stand in English Football.
• 1994 - Brazilian Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna dies in an accident during the San Marino GP.
• 1995 - Croatian forces launch Operation Flash during the Croatian War of Independence
• 2000 - The Cenotaph and a statue of Winston Churchill are defaced with graffiti amid anti-capitalist riots in London.
• 2001 - Thomas Blanton Jr. became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that claimed the lives of four little girls.
• 2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, President George W. Bush declares "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" on board USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.
• 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 flows.

[NoRanynn]

Events (May 2nd)

• 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.
• 1335 - Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia.
• 1568 - Mary I of Scotland escapes from Loch Leven Castle, where she had been imprisoned by Sir William Douglas.
• 1670 - King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
• 1672 - John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.
• 1808 - Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation.
• 1816 - Léopold of Saxe-Coburg and Charlotte Augusta are wed.
• 1829 - After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering for the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia 8 days later.
• 1866 - Peruvian defenders fight off Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.
• 1885 - Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time.
• 1885 - Cree and Assiniboine warriors won the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
• 1885 - The Congo Free State is established by King Léopold II of Belgium.
• 1889 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, which gives Italy control over Eritrea.
• 1900 - Oscar II, King of Sweden, declares support for Britain at the time of the Second Boer War.
• 1918 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
• 1920 - The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.
• 1932 - Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
• 1933 - Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.
• 1939 - Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record will stand for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks it.
• 1945 - World War II: Fall of Berlin – The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building. German forces surrender in Italy. German forces surrender to the New Zealand Army in Trieste.
• 1946 - "Battle of Alcatraz" - Alcatraz Federal prison, San Francisco is taken over by six inmates following failed escape attempt
• 1952 - The world's first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden voyage, flying from London to Johannesburg.
• 1953 - Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
• 1953 - Blackpool F.C. win the FA Cup Final. Subsequently dubbed "The Matthews Final", Blackpool came back from being 3-1 down to Bolton Wanderers to win 4-3, with Stan Mortensen scoring the first and, to date, only FA Cup Final hat-trick at Wembley.
• 1955 - Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
• 1963 - Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a rocket with three stages with a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
• 1964 - Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the USS Card while docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship.
• 1969 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
• 1972 - Buddy Baker became the first stock car driver to finish a 500-mile race in less than three hours en route to winning the Winston Select 500 at the Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, Alabama.
• 1982 - Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.
• 1986 - The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, opens.
• 1990 - Bristol Rovers beat Bristol City by three goals to nil to clinch English football's Third Division championship.
• 1995 - During the Croatian War of Independence, Serb forces fire cluster bombs at Zagreb, killing 7 and wounding over 175 civilians.
• 1997 - The Labour Party's Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule. At 44, he is the youngest prime minister for 185 years.
• 1998 - The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the EU's monetary policy.
• 1999 - Panamanian election: Mireya Moscoso became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
• 2000 - Bill Clinton announces that GPS access equivalent to the U.S. military would be available for regular citizens.
• 2000 - Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveiled the Man With Two Hats monument in Ottawa on May 11, 2002, and the other in Apeldoorn on May 2, 2000. Symbolically linking both Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout the Second World War.
• 2005 - Airwork Flight 23 crashes after structural failure.
• 2005 - The Pontiac Grand ** ceases production at the 100 year-old Lansing Car Assembly plant.