History of the Day for:
May 1
- 1707: Great Britain was formed from the unification of England and Scotland.
- 1786: The opera "The Marriage of Figaro," by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premiered in Vienna.
- 1883: William "Buffalo Bill" Cody put on his first Wild West Show.
- 1884: Construction on the first skyscraper began in Chicago. The 10-story structure was built by the Home Insurance Co. of New York.
- 1898: 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 during the Spanish-American War.
- 1931: The 102-story Empire State Building was dedicated. At 1,454 feet high, it was the world's tallest until 1973.
- 1941: "Citizen Kane" premiered in New York.
- 1945: Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels committed suicide in his Berlin bunker.
- 1948: North Korean proclaimed itself the People's Democratic Republic of Korea.
- 1955: Jockey Willie Shoemaker won his first Kentucky Derby riding Swaps.
- 1960: The Soviet Union shot down a U.S. U2 spy plane and captured pilot Francis Gary Powers.
- 1961: Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared the country a socialist nation and abolished elections.
- 1963: Sir Winston Churchill announced his retirement from the House of Commons.
- 1967: Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.
- 1971: The Amtrak rail passenger service took over operation of most passenger trains in the United States.
- 1978: Ernest Morial was inaugurated the first black mayor of New Orleans; Naomi Uemura became the first person to reach the North Pole over land alone.
- 1994: Ayrton Senna, three time world Formula 1 auto racing champion, died after a high-speed crash in the San Marino Grand Prix.
- 1995: Croatian forces launch Operation Flash during the Croatian War of Independence.
- 1997: Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality.
- 2001: Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares the existence of "a state of rebellion", hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion.
- 2003: Iraq War: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".
- 2004: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
- 2006: The Puerto Rican government closes the Department of Education and 42 other government agencies due to significant shortages in cash flow.
- 2007: the Los Angeles May Day mêlée occurs, in which the Los Angeles Police Department's response to a May Day pro-immigration rally become a matter of controversy.
- 2008: The London Agreement on translation of European patents, concluded in 2000, enters into force in 14 of the 34 Contracting States to the European Patent Convention.
- 2009: Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.