May 1st or May Day is the 121st day of the Gregorian calendar (the 122nd in leap years). There are 244 days left until the end of the year.
Saint of the day: Saint Joseph, worker.
May Proverb
Whoever flees May does not flee Kalends
It happened today
1328 – Scottish Wars of Independence: with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, England recognizes Scotland as an independent nation
1707 – The Act of Union unites Scotland with England and Wales, thus forming the Kingdom of Great Britain
1753 – Publication of the Species Plantarum of Linnaeus, and formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
1786 – The premiere of the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is held in Vienna
1851 – The Great Exhibition of 1851, the first universal exhibition, opens its doors in Hyde Park in the city of London
1886 – Beginning of the general strike that will lead to the eight-hour working day in the USA: this event is now commemorated as “May Day”, “Labor Day” or “Labor Day” in most industrialized nations; the date also commemorates the victims of the Chicago incidents which marked the beginning of the workers’ struggles
1925 – The Manifesto of anti-fascist intellectuals is published
1931 – The Empire State Building skyscraper is inaugurated in New York
[1945 – Second World War, Germany: Third Reich Chancellor Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide together in the Berlin Chancellery bunker after killing all six of their children in their sleep
1947 – 11 people (two children and nine adults) are killed and another 27 injured in the Portella della Ginestra massacre
1953 – The steel market is opened within the European Coal and Steel Community, a body prior to the European Union
1956 – The polio vaccine developed three years earlier by Jonas Salk is made available to the public
1994 – Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna dies during the San Marino Grand Prix
2004 – Ten new countries join the European Union: Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary
2009 – FIAT acquires operational control of Chrysler
2015 – The Universal Exposition of Milan is inaugurated in Italy
Birthdays
Leonardo Bonucci – Italian footballer (1987)
Vincenzo Cardarelli – Italian painter (1887 – 18 June 1959)
Roby Facchinetti – Italian singer, member of Pooh (1944)
Giovannino Guareschi – Italian writer (1908 – 22 July 1968)
Violante Placido – Italian actress (1976)
