On This Day: 1 May

Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, beginning the Norman invasion of Ireland		1169
By the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, the Kingdom of England recognises the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state		1328
Dancing around the maypole is revived in the Strand, outside Somerset House, following the Restoration		1661
The Act of Union, joining England and Scotland as the Kingdom of Great Britain, takes effect; the English and Scottish parliaments are united at Westminster		1707
Plant taxonomy is formally adopted under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, as Carl Linnaeus publishes Species Plantarum		1753
Josiah Wedgwood founds his pottery company		1759
Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro first performed, in Vienna		1786
Britain's first railway tunnel built		1800
Charles IV of Spain abdicates in favour of Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoleon		1808
Five of the Cato Street conspirators are hanged at Newgate Prison before a crowd of many thousands		1820
The first penny blacks go on sale		1840
The London Library is officially opened		1841
Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second modern police force and the first in Asia, is established		1844
Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park		1851
The Union army completes its occupation of New Orleans		1862
Race riots begin in Memphis, Tennessee		1866
The Folies Bergère opens in Paris		1869
Alexandra Palace reopens, after being destroyed by fire in 1873		1875
Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India		1876
Construction begins in Chicago on the world's first skyscraper – the 10–storey Home Insurance Company of New York building		1884
Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States		1884
Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight–hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day in many countries		1886
The World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago		1893
The US fleet destroys the obsolete Spanish Pacific fleet in Manila harbour, in the first major battle of the Spanish–American War		1898
Vaclav Nijinsky shocks Paris at the premiere of Debussy's L'apres–midi d'un faune		1912
Reclamation work on the Zuyder Zee begins		1919
The All–China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded; today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members		1925
Cyprus becomes a British Crown colony		1925
TUC calls for a general strike to encourage the government to intervene in the national coal dispute		1926
The planet Pluto – now a dwarf planet – is officially named		1930
President Hoover, in Washington DC, presses a button to open the Empire State Building in New York		1931
Professor Auguste Picard makes the first ascent into the Stratosphere		1931
The FA Cup final is televised for the first time – Sunderland beat Preston North End 3–1		1937
Orson Welles's film Citizen Kane is premiered in New York		1941
German troops execute two hundred Communist prisoners at Kaisariani, Athens, in reprisal for the killing of General Franz Krech by partisans at Molaoi four days earlier		1944
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, commits suicide along with his wife Magda, who inserts cyanide pills into the mouths of their five daughters and one son. 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". The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin. Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin, in Prussian Pomerania, provoked by atrocities committed by soldiers of the Soviet Red Army, in sacking the town on the previous day. Yugoslav Partisans liberate Trieste		1945
The British gas industry is nationalised		1949
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 (caused by mercury poisoning)		1956
All five crew, and 29 of the 30 passengers, lose their lives when a Vickers Viking airliner crashes near Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire		1957
U2 spy plane, piloted by Gary Powers, shot down over the USSR		1960
Off–course betting is legalised in the UK		1961
Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu		1967
£750,000 in gold ingots stolen from a bullion van in Clerkenwell, London		1967
Legoland Family Park opens at Billund, Denmark		1968
Protests erupt after Richard Nixon announces that US and South Vietnamese forces would attack Vietnamese communists in Cambodia		1970
Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of the US passenger rail service		1971
Sir Alf Ramsey's reign as manager of the England football team ends following their failure to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals		1974
Britain's first May Day Bank Holiday		1978
Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone		1978
Admiral Sandy Woodward, Commander of the Falklands Battle Group (on his 50^th birthday), crosses into the Argentine exclusion zone in HMS Hermes and so begins the Falklands War		1982
Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish–born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz		1987
Anti–government protesters in Prague demand the release of dissident playwright Vaclav Havel		1989
Disney–MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida		1989
Three–time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident while leading the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Italy		1994
The body of George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance		1999
SpongeBob SquarePants premières on Nickelodeon		1999
An anti–capitalist demonstration in Parliament Square, London, erupts into violence		2000
Israel lifts its five–month siege of Yasser Arafat's offices, under a deal brokered by the USA and Britain		2002
In what would become known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), US President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended"		2003
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		2004
Same–sex marriage is legalised in Sweden		2009
Al–Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is shot and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by US Navy seals		2011
Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Benedict XVI		2011

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On This Day: 1 May