May 1

Events

1707 - The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1834 - The British colonies abolish slavery.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.
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.
1930 - The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated 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.
- World War II: German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.
1945 - World War II: 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".
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.
1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis – Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
1961 - The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union.

1873 - David Livingstone, Scottish missionary (b. 1813)
1904 - Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (b. 1841)
1945 - Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (suicide with his wife Magda Goebbels) (b. 1897)
1945 - Hans Krebs - World War II German general (b. 1898)
1950 - Lothrop Stoddard, American political theorist, historian and eugenicist (b. 1883)
1998 - Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther (b. 1935)