Today in History

On This Day In History, April 30th

1993, CERN announced that World Wide Web protocols would remain free
By offering the software required to operate a web server with an open license, the European organization ensured its dissemination, and the WWW flourished.

1993 Tennis ace Monica Seles is stabbed by an obsessed fan
Although the stab wound proved to be relatively harmless, the psychological ramifications meant that Seles did not play any tournaments for over two years.

1975 The fall of Saigon marks the end of the Vietnam War
As Communist forces gained control of Saigon, South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh, who had only been in office for 2 days, surrendered unconditionally.

1916, Germany and its World War I allies became the first countries to use daylight saving time (DST)
The rationale was to save energy to aid the war effort. Other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, first introduced DST later that year.

1789, George Washington became the first U.S. President
Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. In the United States, he is venerated as one of the country's founding fathers.
 

Births On This Day, April 30th 🎂

1982 Kirsten Dunst
American actress, singer

1959 Stephen Harper
Canadian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Canada

1956 Lars von Trier
Danish director, screenwriter

1933 Willie Nelson
American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor

1777 Carl Friedrich Gauss
German mathematician

Deaths On This Day, April 30th 🪦

1983 Muddy Waters
American singer-songwriter, guitarist

1980 Luis Muñoz Marín
Puerto Rican poet, politician, and 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

1945 Adolf Hitler
Austrian/German politician, Chancellor of Germany

1883 Édouard Manet
French painter

1030 Mahmud of Ghazni
 
April 30th
April 30 marks the anniversary of the creation of the National Health Service (NHS), which officially began its operations on July 5, 1948. The NHS was the brainchild of health minister Aneurin Bevan and was a cornerstone of the post-war welfare state established in Britain. The NHS was founded with the principle that healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth or status, and it remains a defining feature of British society today.
 

April 30th:
1939
baseball player, Lou Gehrig sets Major League Baseball record by playing in his 2,130th consecutive& final game with NY Yankees. His record is broken by Baltimore Oriole player, Cal Ripken, Jr on Sept 20,1995
1952
'Mr Potato Head' by Hasbro is 1st toy advertised on TV, cost was 98 cents Inside the kit were hands,feet, ear, 2 mouths,2 pairs of eyes, 4 noses and 3 hats
1989
WWW{World Wide Web} is 1st launched in public domain by computer scientist, Tim Bernes- Lee
2022
Jacky Hunt- Broersma sets world record for running in 104 consecutive marathons in 104 days. She survived cancer and running on a prosthetic leg.
 
On This Day In History, May 1st

1978 Naomi Uemura becomes of the first person to reach the North Pole alone
The Japanese adventurer is also credited with the first solo ascent of Mount McKinley and the first solo rafting of the Amazon river. He disappeared in 1984 during a winter ascent of Mount McKinley.

1961, Fidel Castro declared Cuba a socialist nation and banned elections
A month after Cuban troops had fought off a U.S.-backed military invasion at the Bay of Pigs, Castro announced that “The revolution has no time for elections.”

1945, Adolf Hitler's death was announced on German radio
As the Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, the German people are informed that “our leader, Adolf Hitler, has fallen for Germany, fighting to his last breath against Bolshevism.”

1925, the world's largest trade union was founded
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions has more than 300 million members.

1840 The world's first adhesive postage stamp is issued in the United Kingdom
The Penny Black shows a portrait of Queen Victoria. Despite its historical significance, the stamp can be bought for around £25 as over 68 million copies were distributed.
 
Births On This Day, May 1st 🎂

1987 Shahar Pe'er
Israeli tennis player

1967 Tim McGraw
American singer-songwriter, actor

1924 Terry Southern
American author, screenwriter

1923 Joseph Heller
American author, playwright

1769 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Irish/English field marshal, politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Deaths On This Day, May 1st 🪦

1994 Ayrton Senna
Brazilian race car driver

1990 Sergio Franchi
Italian/American singer, actor

1960 Charles Holden
English architect, designed the Bristol Central Library

1904 Antonín Dvořák
Czech composer

1873 David Livingstone
Scottish missionary, explorer
 
1st May

1118 The death (aged 38) of Matilda of Scotland, Queen of England and the first wife of Henry I.

1517 The Evil May Day Riots were violent disturbances that took place in London during the evening of 30 April 1517 and early hours of 1 May against foreigners living in the city. It is considered to be one of the earliest race riots in the world and early modern London’s largest outbreak of violence against immigrants. a mob terrorised the streets of London and took up arms against foreigners.

1707 The Acts of Union, passed by the English and Scottish Parliaments, led to the creation of a united kingdom to be called “Great Britain”.

1851 Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London.

1982 British planes attacked two airstrips near Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands to rid the islands of Argentine forces.

2015 The death of Geoff Duke, aged 92. He spent 10 years at the highest level of motorcycle racing, winning six World Championships and six Isle of Man TT races during the 1950s.
 
1863
hospital for ruptured& crippled opens in NYC,its the oldest orthopaedic hospital in U.S
The name was changed to Hosptial of Special Surgeries. Its a major academic/medical research center
1931
The Empire State Building opens in NYC, at the time was the world's tallest building. In 1970 The World Trade Center surpass it
1941
General Mills introduces' Cheeri Oats' ,an oat based ready to eat cereal. The name was changed in 1945 to 'Cherrios', its the company's best selling cereal
1950
composer, Richard Rogers,lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II receive Pulitzer Prize for their musical 'South Pacific'
1961
Harper Lee wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel' To Kill a Mockingbird' The movie version was released in 1962, starring Gregory Peck as 'Atticus Finch'
2019
NYC officially names a street'Sesame Street' at intersection of West 63rd St&Broadway in honor of the show's 50th anniversary
 
2nd May 1980
Pink Floyd's hit single "Another Brick in the Wall", with its chorus of kids chanting "We Don't Need No Education", is banned by the South African government.
Black children, upset about inferior education, adopt the song as their anthem. The government says the song is "prejudicial to the safety of the state."
 
On This Day In History, May 2nd

2011 Osama bin Laden is killed by a U.S. commando
Bin Laden was the founder of al-Qaeda, a militant group that claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks on U.S. targets on September 11, 2001.

1997 Tony Blair becomes British Prime Minister, ending 18 years of Conservative Party reign
Blair's Labor Party achieved a landslide victory in the general elections. Many of his early fans were bitterly disappointed when he supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

1989 The Iron Curtain begins to crumble as Hungary dismantles its border fence
By gradually opening its border to Austria, Hungary facilitated the escape of hundreds of East Germans in the months before the Berlin Wall fell.

1982 The British Royal Navy sinks the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano
323 lives were lost in the attack, more than half of the total number of Argentinian casualties during the Falklands War. The British Sun tabloid newspaper commented the controversial attack with one of its most notorious headlines: “Gotcha”.

1952 The jet age begins with the first scheduled flight of the De Havilland Comet 1
Precisely one year after the maiden flight from London to Johannesburg, a Comet 1 crashed due to structural problems, killing 43 people. A series of similar accidents soon led to the grounding of the entire Comet fleet.
 

Births On This Day, May 2nd 🎂

1985 Lily Allen
English singer-songwriter

1975 David Beckham
English footballer, coach, model

1921 Satyajit Ray
Indian director, producer, screenwriter

1808 Emma Darwin
English wife of Charles Darwin

1729 Catherine the Great
Russian wife of Peter III of Russia

Deaths On This Day, May 2nd 🪦

2011 Osama bin Laden
Saudi Arabian terrorist, founded al-Qaeda

1972 J. Edgar Hoover
American 1st Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

1957 Joseph McCarthy
American politician

1864 Giacomo Meyerbeer
German composer

1519 Leonardo da Vinci
Italian painter, sculptor, architect
 
2nd May

1536 Anne Boleyn, second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was sent to the Tower of London, accused of adultery, incest and treason. She was executed 17 days later.

1559 Scottish clergyman John Knox returned from exile to become the leader of the 'Scottish Reformation'.

1568 Mary, Queen of Scots, escaped from Loch Leven Castle in Perth and Kinross. She was imprisoned there in 1567 and had been forced to abdicate as queen.

1933 One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933. On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen 'an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface'.

2015 The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to her second child (Charlotte Elizabeth Diana).
 
1885
Good Housekeeping magazine was 1st published in U.S. still publishing
1908
Jack Norworth& Albert Von Tilzer register their popular song' Take Me Out to the Ballgame' for copyright
1932
author, Pearl S. Buck becomes the 1st woman to receive Pultizer Prize for her book' The Good Earth'
1964
The Beatles 2nd album hits #1 on music charts, stays there for 5 weeks
1994
a jury finds singer, Michael Bolton guilty of plagiarizing his 1991 song' Love is a Wonderful Thing' of the Isley Brothers 1966 song of the same name. Bolton was ordered to pay $5.4 million
2011
Islamatic terrorist,Osama bin Laden, mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks& FBI's most wanted man was killed by special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan
2019
a clean up on Mt Everest over a 2 week period removed 6,613 pounds{3 metric tons} of trash and found 4 bodies
2023
after 40 yrs in operation, U.S. weight loss company 'Jenny Craig' ceases operations because it failed to get financial backing
 
On This Day In History, May 3rd

1999 A tornado produced the highest wind speeds ever recorded
The F5 tornado hitting parts of Oklahoma City caused the record wind speed of about 301 mph (484 km/h). 45 people were killed, 665 were injured.

1979 Margaret Thatcher is elected British Prime Minister
The conservative politician was the first female head of state in Europe. During her 11-year reign, her sweeping economic reforms polarised the British public and her toughness earned her the nickname The Iron Lady.

1978 The Digital Equipment Corporation sends the world's first spam email
A representative sent out 600 emails and sold computers for $12 million. Unsolicited bulk emails have since become a scourge of the digital age as spammers attempt to achieve a similar success.

1958 Truman Capote's book Breakfast at Tiffany's is published
The novella is one of the U.S. author's most popular works. The 1961 film of the same name starring Audrey Hepburn is classic in its genre.

1913 The first Indian full-length feature film is premiered
The release of Raja Harishchandra marked the birth of the Indian film industry, the world's largest in terms of films produced and ticket sales.
 
Births On This Day, May 3rd 🎂

1933 James Brown
American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor

1921 Sugar Ray Robinson
American boxer

1919 Pete Seeger
American singer-songwriter, guitarist

1898 Golda Meir
Israeli educator, politician, and 4th Prime Minister of Israel

1469 Niccolò Machiavelli
Italian historian, philosopher

Deaths On This Day, May 3rd 🪦

2014 Jim Oberstar
American politician

1999 Godfrey Evans
English cricketer

1987 Dalida
Egyptian/French singer, actress

1916 Patrick Pearse
Irish activist

1481 Mehmed the Conqueror
Ottoman sultan
 
May 4th:
1904
Charles Rolls meets Henry Royce in Manchester England, they form car manufacturer, Rolls Royce. It ceases production in 2003
1944
movie' Gaslight' directed by George Cukor is released, thriller about a man trying to drive his wife insane. It stars, Ingrid Bergman{ Best Actress Oscar}, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotton, in her film debut, 18yr old actress, Angela Lansbury
1965
Willie Mays, center fielder for San Francsico Giants, hits his 512th HR breaking Mel Ott's 29yr National League record
1979
Margaret Thatcher becomes the 1st woman Prime Minister of United Kingdom,she served from 1979-1990.
1998
a federal judge sentences, domestic terriorist, Ted Kaczynski to 4 life sentences ,plus 30 yrs after he accepts a plea deal
2023
a federal jury finds singer/ songwriter, Ed Sheeran not guilty of copying Marvin Gaye's song' Lets Get It On',from his 2014 single' Thinking Out Loud' in a copyright infridgement suit
 
5th May

1215 Rebel barons renounced their allegiance to King John, part of a chain of events that led to the signing of the Magna Carta.

1760 The 4th Earl Ferrers, Laurence Shirley, was executed at Tyburn. His execution was the first time the "drop" was used at Tyburn and he was the only peer of the realm to be hanged for murder.

1955 Dr Jonas Salk, the world-famous American virologist currently on a trip to the UK, has witnessed a ceremonial polio vaccination in London.

1961 Commander Alan Shepard was recovered from his space capsule in the Atlantic after becoming the first American in space.

1980 The SAS stormed the terrorist-occupied Iranian Embassy at Knightsbridge in London. Four gunmen were killed in the attack and all 19 hostages were rescued.

1981 Riots in Northern Ireland followed the death of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in the Maze prison.

2014 A police officer who handcuffed himself to a man on suspicion of assault locked his keys in his patrol car and found that he had no way of taking the pair of them to the police station. Undeterred he sheepishly knocked on the suspect’s door and asked the boy’s mother if she would be willing to drive them to the station herself …..and she did. 🚔🚨
 
1921
fashion designer, Coco Chanel releases her perfume Chanel #5
1952
TV show' I Love Lucy' episode where Lucy does a TV commerical known as 'Vitameatavegamin' airs, 68% of U.S.viewers tune in
1962
movie soundtrack 'West Side Story' hits #1 on music charts stays there for 54 weeks, more than 20 weeks longer than any other album
2012
Japan shuts down its nuclear reactors,leaving the country without nuclear power for the 1st time since 1970
2022
Pres Joe BIden appoints the 1st African American & LGBTQ woman, Karine Jean-Pierre as White House Press Secretary. She holds that title from May 2022-Jan 2025,later promoted to senior advisor
 
6th May

878 6–12 May - The Battle of Edington, a village in Wiltshire. The arrival of a Danish great army in East Anglia in 865 marked the start of a new phase of Viking attacks on Britain.

1840 The first postage stamp, the ‘Penny Black’ became valid for postage On This Day. It was first issued in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1840 but was not valid for use until 6 May.

1910 Following the death of King Edward VII, George V acceded to the throne.

1954 Roger Bannister, a 25 year old British medical student, became the first man to run a mile in less than four minute (at the Iffley Road Sports Ground, Oxford). His time was 3 minute 59.4 seconds.

1960 Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, married Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey in London. It was the first televised royal wedding and was watched by more than 20 million viewers.

1994 The Queen and France's President Francois Mitterrand formally opened the Channel Tunnel during two elaborate ceremonies in France and Britain.

2019 The Duchess of Sussex gave birth to a boy, the first child for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan.

2023 The coronation of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey, the 40th reigning monarch to be crowned there since 1066. 👑🫅
 
On This Day In History, May 7th

2000 Vladimir Putin became President of Russia
The former KGB officer enjoys high approval ratings in his country as living standards in Russia have improved drastically under his rule. Internationally, he has been criticized for his authoritarian style of government.

1946 Sony is founded
The company started as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering. It is now one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products.

1945 Germany's Nazi regime surrenders unconditionally
The capitulation ended World War II, one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. According to estimates, between 40 and 71 million people died in the war and the Holocaust initiated by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

1915, A German U-Boat sank the RMS Lusitania
1198 lives were lost in the attack, making it the deadliest shipwreck during World War I. The fact that some of the dead were U.S. citizens influenced the country's decision to enter the war in 1917.

1895, Alexander Popov demonstrated the world's first radio receiver
The Russian physicist had initially built the device as a lightning detector. He achieved the first radio transmission between two buildings the following year.
 

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