May Day (International Labor Day).
The Act of Union joined England and Wales with Scotland to form a united kingdom of Great Britain, 1707.
Empire State Building opened in New York, 1931.
Hudson's Bay Company chartered, 1670.
Catherine the Great of Russia, born 1729.

Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian statesman and author of The Prince, born 1469.
Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel, born 1898.

Thomas Huxley, English biologist, born 1825.
Haymarket Riot took place in Chicago, 1886.

Cinco de Mayo, Mexico.
Kodomo-no-hi (Children's Day), Japan.
Karl Marx, German author of Das Kapital, born 1818.
First postage stamp issued in England, 1840.
Robert E. Peary, American Arctic explorer, born 1856.
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, born 1856.
Robert Browning, English poet, born 1812.
Johannes Brahms, German composer, born 1833.
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer, born 1840.
Harry S. Truman, 33rd U.S. president, born 1884.
Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day); the day after Germany surrendered, ending World War II in Europe, 1945.

John Brown, American abolitionist, born 1800.
J. M. Barrie, Scottish author, born 1860.
Mother's Day (second Sunday in May) became a public holiday in the United States, 1914.
Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, 1775.
First transcontinental railroad completed in the United States, 1869.
Franco-Prussian War ended, 1871.
Minnesota became the 27th U.S. state, 1858.
Irving Berlin, American songwriter, born 1888.

King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden, born 1496.
Edward Lear, English writer and artist, born 1812.
Florence Nightingale, English nurse, born 1820.
Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, born 1717.
Sir Arthur Sullivan, English composer, born 1842.
United States declared war on Mexico, 1846.
Robert Owen, social reformer, born 1771.
Edward Jenner, British physician, performed the first vaccination against smallpox, 1796.
Lewis and Clark began their trip up the Missouri River, 1804.
Pista Ng Anihan (harvest festival), Philippines.
Pierre Curie, codiscoverer of radium, born 1859.
Flying Doctor Service (now the Royal Flying Doctor Service) began in Australia, 1928.
William Seward, American statesman, born 1801.


Constitution Day, Norway.


Czar Nicholas II of Russia, born 1868.
Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician, born 1872.
Dame Margot Fonteyn, British ballerina, born 1919.
Johns Hopkins, American philanthropist, born 1795.
Dame Nellie Melba, Australian singer, born 1861.
Honore de Balzac, French novelist, born 1799.
John Stuart Mill, English philosopher, born 1806.
Homestead Act signed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, 1862.
Albrecht Durer, German engraver, born 1471.
Alexander Pope, English poet, born 1688.
First U.S. Democratic National Convention held, 1832.
Richard Wagner, German composer, born 1813.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British author, born 1859.
Laurence Olivier, British actor, born 1907.
Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, born 1707.
South Carolina became the eighth U.S. state, 1788.

Jamestown, Virginia, established by the English, 1607.
Gabriel Fahrenheit, German physicist, born 1686.
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, born 1819.
African Freedom Day.
Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia with George Washington as president, 1787.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American author, born 1803.
John Wayne, American actor, born 1907.
British Guiana (now Guyana) became independent, 1966.

Julia Ward Howe, American poet, born 1819.
Golden Gate Bridge opened in San Francisco, 1937.

William Pitt the Younger, British statesman and prime minister, born 1759.


Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople (now Istanbul), 1453.
King Charles II of England, born 1630.
Monarchy restored to England, 1660.
Joan of Arc burned at the stake, 1431.
Christopher Columbus began his third voyage, 1498.

U.S. copyright law enacted, 1790.
Walt Whitman, American poet, born 1819.
South Africa became a republic, 1961.
