Today In History. What Happened This Day In History

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

Today in History
May 1

408		Theodosius II succeeds to the throne of Constantinople.
1308		King Albert is murdered by his nephew John, because he refused his share of the Habsburg lands.
1486		Christopher Columbus convinces Queen Isabella to fund expedition to the West Indies.
1805		The state of Virginia passes a law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state, or risk either imprisonment or deportation.
1863		The Battle of Chancellorsville begins as Union Gen. Joe Hooker starts his three-pronged attack against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
1867		Reconstruction in the South begins with black voter registration.
1877		President Ruthoford B. Hayes withdraws all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.
1898		The U.S. Navy under Dewey defeats the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines.
1915		The luxury liner Lusitania leaves New York Harbor for a voyage to Europe.
1927		Adolf Hitler holds his first Nazi meeting in Berlin.
1931		The Empire State Building opens in New York.
1934		The Philippine legislature accepts a U.S. proposal for independence.
1937		President Franklin Roosevelt signs an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of World War II.
1941		The film Citizen Kane–directed and starring Orson Welles–opens in New York.
1944		The Messerschmitt Me 262, the first combat jet, makes its first flight.
1945		Martin Bormann, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, escapes the Fuehrerbunker as the Red Army advances on Berlin.
1948		North Korea is established.
1950		Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry called Annie Allen.
1960		Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane is shot down over Russia.
1961		Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba.
1968		In the second day of battle, U.S. Marines, with the support of naval fire, continue their attack on a North Vietnamese Division at Dai Do.
1970		Students from Kent State University riot in downtown Kent, Ohio, in protest of the American invasion of Cambodia.
1986		The Tass News Agency reports the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.
2011		Osama Bin Laden is killed in Abbottabad Pakistan by US Navy SEALS in Operation Neptune Spear.
Born on May 1
1493		Phillippus Paracelsus, physician and alchemist.
1764		Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the U.S. Capitol.
1769		Arthur Wellsley, Duke of Wellington.
1830		Mother (Mary Harris) Jones, reformer and labor organizer.
1839		Louis-Maire-Hilaire Bernigaud, French chemist, inventor of rayon.
1878		James Graham, inventor of the first naval aircraft-carrying ship and first man to film a total eclipse of the Sun.
1896		Mark Clark, American general during World War II.
1909		Kate Smith, singer.
1916		Glenn Ford, actor (The Blackboard Jungle).
1923		Joseph Heller, American author (Catch 22).
1924		Terry Southern, novelist and screenwriter (Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider).
1940		Bobbie Ann Mason, American writer (Shiloh and Other Stories, In Country).