On this day: 1 May
Events, births and deaths on 1 May. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Tashi Wangdi
10 years ago2016
- Events · 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire
100 years ago1926
- Births · Peter Lax
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1118 · Deaths · Matilda of Scotland
Events · 29
- 1455Battle of Arkinholm — 1455 Scottish clan battle
- 1625Recapture of Salvador — 1625 battle of the Eighty Years War
- 1707(Julian date)Kingdom of Great Britain — constitutional monarchy in Western Europe (1707–1800)
- 1776Illuminati — Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1st May 1776
- 1844Hong Kong Police Force — law enforcement agency of Hong Kong
- 1851Great Exhibition — 1st World's Fair in 1851 in London, England
- 1863Battle of Port Gibson — 1863 battle of the American Civil War
- 1865Treaty of the Triple Alliance — South American military alliance against Paraguay
- 1893World's Columbian Exposition — 1893 World's Fair held in Chicago, Illinois
- 1898Battle of Manila Bay — 1898 naval battle
- 19211921 Jaffa riots — 1921 riots in Jaffa, Mandate Palestine
- 1925All-China Federation of Trade Unions — world's largest trade union
- 19291929 Koppeh Dagh earthquake — 1929 earthquake centered on the Iran-Turkmenistan border
- 1945Battle of Elephant Point — part of the Burma Campaign during World War 2
- 19461946 Pilbara strike — workers strike in the Pilbara region of Western Australia
- 1947Portella della Ginestra massacre — May Day massacre at the Portella della Ginestra, Sicily, in 1947
- 19601960 U-2 incident spy aircraft — aviation incident
- 1969AMD — American multinational semiconductor company
- 19941994 San Marino Grand Prix — Formula One motor event held in 1994
- 1994death of Ayrton Senna — 1994 racing death
- 19971997 United Kingdom general election — election for members of the British House of Commons
- 2003Mission Accomplished speech — speech made by President George W. Bush concerning the Iraq war
- 20042004 enlargement of the European Union — enlargement of the European Union
- 2008Hangzhou Bay Bridge — long 36km sea-crossing highway bridge with two separate cable-stayed spans and a mid-bridge service center, completed 2008 across the mouth of Hangzhou Bay in Zhejiang, China
- 20082008 Sai Kung bus crash — incident in New Territories, Hong Kong
- 2009
- 20102010 Times Square car bombing attempt — attempted terrorist attack in New York City
- 20162016 Fort McMurray Wildfire — wildfire in Alberta, Canada
- 2019Reiwa era — era of Japanese history, starting 1 May 2019
Births · 60
- 1218Rudolph I of Germany — count of Habsburg, king of Germany (1218–1291)
- 1672Joseph Addison — English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672–1719)
- 1769Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington — British Field Marshal, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1828–1830, 1834 (1769-1852)
- 1825Johann Jakob Balmer — Swiss mathematician (1825–1898)
- 1827Jules Breton — French painter (1827-1906)
- 1829José de Alencar — Brazilian writer (1829–1877)
- 1830
- 1850Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn — British prince (1850–1942), Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916
- 1852Santiago Ramón y Cajal — Spanish scientist (1852-1934)
- 1852Calamity Jane — American scout and frontierswoman
- 1857Theo Van Gogh — Dutch art dealer (1857-1891), brother of painter Vincent van Gogh
- 1872Sidónio Pais — assassinated Portuguese president (1872-1918)
- 1872Hugo Alfvén — Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter (1872-1960)
- 1881Pierre Teilhard de Chardin — French philosopher, Jesuit priest, and paleontologist
- 1895Nikolai Yezhov — NKVD director under Joseph Stalin (1895-1940)
- 1896Mark W. Clark — United States Army general (1896–1984)
- 1896Herbert Backe — German politician (1896-1947)
- 1900Ignazio Silone — Italian writer and politician (1900-1978)
- 1908Giovannino Guareschi — Italian journalist, cartoonist and humorist (1908-1968)
- 1909Yannis Ritsos — Greek poet
- 1910J. Allen Hynek — American astronomer (1910–1986)
- 1916Glenn Ford — Canadian-American actor (1916–2006)
- 1917Danielle Darrieux — French actress and singer
- 1919Dan O'Herlihy — Irish actor (1919–2005)
- 1919Manna Dey — Indian playback singer, music director, musician and vocalist (1919–2013)
Deaths · 60
- 408(Julian date)Arcadius — Roman Emperor from 395–408 (377–408)
- 1118(Julian date)Matilda of Scotland — Queen consort of England
- 1171(Julian date)Diarmait Mac Murchada — King of Leinster in Ireland
- 1187(Julian date)Roger de Moulins — Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller
- 1278William II of Villehardouin — Prince of Achaea from 1246 to 1278
- 1308(Julian date)Albert I of Germany — King of Germany (1255-1308)
- 1539(Julian date)Isabella of Portugal — 16th-century Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Spain (1503-1539)
- 1555(Julian date)Marcellus II — pope of the Catholic Church and bishop of Rome from 9 April to 1 May 1555
- 1572(Julian date)Pius V — 16th‑century Italian pope and Catholic saint, leading Counter‑Reformation reformer
- 1668Frans Luycx — Flemish Baroque painter (1604–1668)
- 1730François de Troy — French painter (1645-1730)
- 1738Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle — English politician and noble (1669-1738)
- 1772Gottfried Achenwall — German historian and jurist (1719–1772)
- 1813Jean-Baptiste Bessières — Marshal of France (1768-1813)
- 1838Antoine Louis Dugès — French zoologist (1797-1838)
- 1873David Livingstone — Scottish missionary and explorer (1813-1873)
- 1904Antonín Dvořák — Czech composer (1841–1904)
- 1917José Enrique Rodó — Uruguayan writer (1871–1917)
- 1920Princess Margaret of Connaught — British princess; Crown Princess of Sweden as the first wife of King Gustaf VI Adolf (1882-1920)
- 1935Henri Pélissier — French racing cyclist (1889–1935)
- 1945Joseph Goebbels — Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister (1897–1945)
- 1945Magda Goebbels — German politician (1901–1945)
- 1949Kijirō Nambu — military officer and firearms designer (1869-1949) of Japan
- 1953Everett Shinn — American artist (1876-1953)
- 1956LeRoy Samse — athletics competitor (1883–1956)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.