May 2nd: This Day in History

 

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

The significant event in history that the website focused on for today was the first sighting of the legendary "Loch Ness Monster" in Scotland. Interesting. One of those mysteries that neither side has been able to either prove or disprove. Sometimes, it seems hard to believe, yet I guess on some level, the "monster" is on the edge of plausibility. So, it remains a controversy, and dwells in the domain of legends. Interesting that it has now been eighty years that this legend has persisted, and continues to persist to this day. Here is the link to the website, where you can check out the History Channel's website on your own, and I have also posted their brief history on it below:

 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 1194, King Richard I of England gave Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. In 1230 on this day, William de Braose, 10th Baron Abergavenny, was hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great. John Cabot departed for North-America on this day in 1497. On this day in 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died. France and Spain signed the Peace of Vervins on this day in 1598. In 1668 on this day, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the first peace of Aken, was signed, ending the War of Devolution, French-Spanish war in The Netherlands. On this day in 1670, King Charles II of England granted a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, which was made up of the group of French explorers who opened the lucrative North American fur trade to London merchants. On this day in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels fighting against the British. William Herschel discovered the first binary star, Xi Ursae Majoris, on this day in 1780. On this day in 1798, Haiti's General Toussaint L’Ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo. In 1808 on this day, the people of Madrid revolted against French rule under Napoleon. Napoleon defeated the Russians and the Prussians at Grossgorschen on this day in 1813. On this day in 1824, Goethe visited Ettersberg (Buchenwald). On this day in 1918 during the Great War (World War I), in a conference of Allied military leaders at Abbeville, France, the U.S., Britain and France argued over the entrance of American troops into World War I. The first modern reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland occurred on this day in 1933.On this day in 1945, in the final stages of the European theater of World War II, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany, which surrendered to the Red Army General Zhukov. They managed to take Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting. The Allies also announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria on this same day. Approximately one million German soldiers laid down their arms as the terms of the German unconditional surrender, signed at Caserta on April 29, come into effect. On this day in 1964, the Beatles' "Beatles' 2nd Album" rose to #1 and stayed there for five weeks. This day in 1972 marked the end of an era for the FBI. After nearly five decades as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover died, leaving the powerful government agency without the administrator who had been largely responsible for its existence and shape. In 1982 on this day during the Falklands War, Argentina's only cruiser, the General Belgrano, was sunk by British submarine HMS  Conqueror, killing more than 350 men. On this day in 1994, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in South Africa’s first democratic, multiracial election. This election, and his ascension to power, marked the final end of white minority rule and that country's days of racial segregation. known as apartheid.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 1194, King Richard I of England gave Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.

• In 1230 on this day, William de Braose, 10th Baron Abergavenny, was hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great.

1335 - Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia.

1345 - "Quaden Maendach" in Gent: Battles between volders & weavers

• John Cabot departed for North-America on this day in 1497.

Bust of Leonardo da Vinci

• On this day in 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died.

1526 - German evangelical monarchy joins Schmalkaldische League

1536 - King Henry VIII accused Anna Boleyn of adultery & incest

1595 - King Philip II names Albrecht of Austria land guardian of Netherlands

• France and Spain signed the Peace of Vervins on this day in 1598. 

• In 1668 on this day, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the first peace of Aken, was signed, ending the War of Devolution, French-Spanish war in The Netherlands.

• On this day in 1670, King Charles II of England granted a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, which was made up of the group of French explorers who opened the lucrative North American fur trade to London merchants. The charter conferred on them not only a trading monopoly but also effective control over the vast region surrounding North America's Hudson Bay.    Although contested by other English traders and the French in the region, the Hudson's Bay Company was highly successful in exploiting what would become eastern Canada. During the 18th century, the company gained an advantage over the French in the area but was also strongly criticized in Britain for its repeated failures to find a northwest passage out of Hudson Bay. After France's loss of Canada at the end of the French and Indian Wars, new competition developed with the establishment of the North West Company by Montreal merchants and Scottish traders. As both companies attempted to dominate fur potentials in central and western Canada, violence sometimes erupted, and in 1821 the two companies were amalgamated under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company. The united company ruled a vast territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and under the governorship of Sir George Simpson from 1821 to 1856, reached the peak of its fortunes.    After Canada was granted dominion status in 1867, the company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, but it had diversified its business ventures and remained Canada's largest corporation through the 1920s.

1672 - John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.

1703 - Portugal signs treaty with England to become a Great Covenant

1749 - Empress Maria Theresa signs "Haugwitzschen State reform"

1750 - Carlo Goldoni's "La Botega di Caffè," premieres in Mantua

• On this day in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War of Independence, France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels fighting against the British.

• William Herschel discovered the first binary star, Xi Ursae Majoris, on this day in 1780.

1797 - A mutiny in the British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.

Flag of Haiti

• On this day in 1798, Haiti's General Toussaint L’Ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.

• In 1808 on this day, the people of Madrid revolted against French rule under Napoleon.  During the Peninsular War, a popular uprising against the French occupation of Spain begins in Madrid, culminating in a fierce battle fought out in the Puerta del Sol, Madrid's central square. The Spanish rebels were defeated, and during the night the French army under Grand Duke Joachim Murat shot hundreds of citizens along the Prado promenade in reprisal. The gruesome events of the day were depicted by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya in two well-known prints.    On February 16, 1808, under the pretext of sending reinforcements to the French army occupying Portugal, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain. Thus began the Peninsular War, an important phase of the Napoleonic Wars fought between France and much of Europe between 1792 to 1815. During the first few weeks after their 1808 invasion of Spain, French forces captured Pamplona and Barcelona and on March 19 forced King Charles IV of Spain to abdicate. Four days later, the French entered Madrid under Joachim Murat. In early May, Madrid revolted, and on June 15 Napoleon's brother, Joseph, was proclaimed the new king of Spain, leading to a general anti-French revolt across the Iberian Peninsula.    In August, a British expeditionary force under Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, landed on the Portuguese coast to expel the French from the Iberian Peninsula. By mid 1809, the French were driven from Portugal, but Spain proved more elusive. Thus began a long series of seesaw campaigns between the French and British in Spain, where the British were aided by small bands of Spanish irregulars known as guerrillas. Finally, on June 21, 1813, allied forces under Wellesley routed the French forces of Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean Jourdan at Vitoria, Spain. By October, the Iberian Peninsula was liberated, and Wellesley launched an invasion of France. The allies had penetrated France as far as Toulouse when news of Napoleon's abdication reached them in April 1814, ending the Peninsular War.

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

• Napoleon defeated the Russians and the Prussians at Grossgorschen on this day in 1813.

Bust of Social Philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• On this day in 1824, Goethe visited Ettersberg (Buchenwald).

1829 - After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of the HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.

1833 - Czar Nicolas bans public sale of serfs

1845 - Domingo Sarmiento publishes "Civilización y Barbarie"

1847 - Sabbath famine

1853 - Franconi’s Hippodrome opened at Broadway and 23rd Street in New York City.

1863 - South defeats North in Battle of Chancellorsville, Va

1863 - Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was wounded by his own men in the battle of Chancellorsville, VA. He died 8 days later.

1865 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

1866 - Peruvian defenders fight off Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.

1876 - Ross Barnes hit 1st home run in National League

1876 - The April Uprising breaks out in Bulgaria.

1878 - US stops minting 20 cent coin

1885 - The Congo Free State was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.

1885 - The magazine "Good Housekeeping" was first published.

1887 - Hannibal W. Goodwin applied for a patent on celluloid photographic film. This is the film from which movies are shown.

1887 - G Rossini's corpse transfered to Santa Croce, Florence

1889 - Abyssinian emperor Menelik II/Italy signs Treaty of Wichale

1890 - The Oklahoma Territory was organized.

1900 - George Bernard Shaws "You Never Can Tell," premieres in London

1902 - "A Trip to the Moon," the first science fiction film was released. It was created by magician George Melies.

1903 - 29th Kentucky Derby: Hal Booker aboard Judge Himes wins in 2:09

1904 - 30th Kentucky Derby: Shorty Prior aboard Elwood wins in 2:08.50

1905 - French newspapers publish lists of Jules Vernes unpublished work

1906 - 32nd Kentucky Derby: Roscoe Troxler aboard Sir Huon wins in 2:08.8

1907 - Belgium Jules baron de Trooz forms Belgian government

1908 - "Take me out to the Ball Game registered for copyright.

1909 - Honus Wagner steals his way around bases in 1st inning against Cubs

1911 - French troops occupy Fès El Bali Morocco

1915 - Old Fordham Road in Bronx renamed Landing Road

1916 - US president Wilson signs Harrison Drug Act

1916 - 2nd Ave and Bronx Terrace renamed Bronx Blvd; Seward Pl renamed Sycamore Ave; Herald Ave renamed Dickinson Ave; Monroe and Selwyn Avenue named

1917 - Cincinnati's Fred Tooney and Chicago's Hippo Vaughn pitch duel no-hitter, Vaughn gives up 2 hits and a run in 10th, so Cincinnati wins 1-0

On this day in 1918 during the Great War (World War I), in a conference of Allied military leaders at Abbeville, France, the U.S., Britain and France argued over the entrance of American troops into World War I.    On March 23, two days after the launch of a major German offensive in northern France, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George telegraphed the British ambassador in Washington, Lord Reading, urging him to explain to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson that without help from the U.S., "we cannot keep our divisions suppliedfor more than a short time at the present rate of loss.This situation is undoubtedly critical and if America delays now she may be too late." In response, Wilson agreed to send a direct order to the commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force, General John J. Pershing, telling him that American troops already in France should join British and French divisions immediately, without waiting for enough soldiers to arrive to form brigades of their own. Pershing agreed to this on April 2, providing a boost in morale for the exhausted Allies.    The continued German offensive continued to take its toll throughout the month of April, however, as the majority of American troops in Europe—now arriving at a rate of 120,000 month—still did not see battle. In a meeting of the Supreme War Council of Allied leaders at Abbeville, near the coast of the English Channel, which began on May 1, 1918, Clemenceau, Lloyd George and General Ferdinand Foch, the recently named generalissimo of all Allied forces on the Western Front, worked to persuade Pershing to send all the existing American troops into the fray at once. Pershing resisted, reminding the group that the U.S. had entered the war "independently" of the other Allies—indeed, the U.S. would insist during and after the war on being known as an "associate" rather than a full-fledged ally—and stating "I do not suppose that the American army is to be entirely at the disposal of the French and British commands."    On May 2, the second day of the meeting, the debate continued, with Pershing holding his ground in the face of heated appeals by the other leaders. He proposed a compromise, which in the end Lloyd George and Clemenceau had no choice but to accept: the U.S. would send the 130,000 troops arriving in May, as well as another 150,000 in June, to join the Allied line directly. He would make no provision for July. This agreement meant that of the 650,000 American troops in Europe by the end of May 1918, roughly one-third would see action that summer; the other two-thirds would not join the line until they were organized, trained and ready to fight as a purely American army, which Pershing estimated would not happen until the late spring of 1919. By the time the war ended, though, on November 11, 1918, more than 2 million American soldiers had served on the battlefields of Western Europe, and some 50,000 of them had lost their lives.

1918 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.

1919 - First US air passenger service starts

1920 - First game of National Negro Baseball League played in Indianapolis

1921 - Begin third anti-German revolt in Upper-Silesia

1922 - WBAP-AM begins broadcasting from Fort Worth Texas

1923 - Senator Walter Johnson pitches his 100th shutout, beats Yanks 3-0

1924 - Netherlands refuses to recognize USSR

1925 - Kezar Stadium in SF's Golden Gate Park opens

1926 -  U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to put down a revolt and to protect U.S. interests. They did not depart until 1933.

1926 - In India, Hindu women gained the right to seek elected office.

1927 - Intl Economic Conference (52 countries including USSR) opens

1927 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Louis Bromfield (Early Autumn)

1928 - KPQ-AM in Wenatchee WA begins radio transmissions

1930 - Des Moines (Western League) defeats Wichita 13-6 to open first ballpark with permanently installed lights

1932 - Jack Benny's first radio show premieres (NBC Blue Network)

1932 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Pearl S Buck (Good Earth)

1933 - In Germany, Adolf Hitler banned trade unions

• The first modern reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland occurred on this day in 1933. Although accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland's Loch Ness date back 1,500 years, the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a sighting makes local news on May 2, 1933. The newspaper Inverness Courier related an account of a local couple who claimed to have seen "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface." The story of the "monster" (a moniker chosen by the Courier editor) became a media phenomenon, with London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and a circus offering a 20,000 pound sterling reward for capture of the beast.    Loch Ness, located in the Scottish Highlands, has the largest volume of fresh water in Great Britain; the body of water reaches a depth of nearly 800 feet and a length of about 23 miles. Scholars of the Loch Ness Monster find a dozen references to "Nessie" in Scottish history, dating back to around A.D. 500, when local Picts carved a strange aquatic creature into standing stones near Loch Ness. The earliest written reference to a monster in Loch Ness is a 7th-century biography of Saint Columba, the Irish missionary who introduced Christianity to Scotland. In 565, according to the biographer, Columba was on his way to visit the king of the northern Picts near Inverness when he stopped at Loch Ness to confront a beast that had been killing people in the lake. Seeing a large beast about to attack another man, Columba intervened, invoking the name of God and commanding the creature to "go back with all speed." The monster retreated and never killed another man.    In 1933, a new road was completed along Loch Ness' shore, affording drivers a clear view of the loch. After an April 1933 sighting was reported in the local paper on May 2, interest steadily grew, especially after another couple claimed to have seen the beast on land, crossing the shore road. Several British newspapers sent reporters to Scotland, including London's Daily Mail, which hired big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell to capture the beast. After a few days searching the loch, Wetherell reported finding footprints of a large four-legged animal. In response, the Daily Mail carried the dramatic headline: "MONSTER OF LOCH NESS IS NOT LEGEND BUT A FACT." Scores of tourists descended on Loch Ness and sat in boats or decks chairs waiting for an appearance by the beast. Plaster casts of the footprints were sent to the British Natural History Museum, which reported that the tracks were that of a hippopotamus, specifically one hippopotamus foot, probably stuffed. The hoax temporarily deflated Loch Ness Monster mania, but stories of sightings continued.    A famous 1934 photograph seemed to show a dinosaur-like creature with a long neck emerging out of the murky waters, leading some to speculate that "Nessie" was a solitary survivor of the long-extinct plesiosaurs. The aquatic plesiosaurs were thought to have died off with the rest of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Loch Ness was frozen solid during the recent ice ages, however, so this creature would have had to have made its way up the River Ness from the sea in the past 10,000 years. And the plesiosaurs, believed to be cold-blooded, would not long survive in the frigid waters of Loch Ness. More likely, others suggested, it was an archeocyte, a primitive whale with a serpentine neck that is thought to have been extinct for 18 million years. Skeptics argued that what people were seeing in Loch Ness were "seiches"--oscillations in the water surface caused by the inflow of cold river water into the slightly warmer loch.    Amateur investigators kept an almost constant vigil, and in the 1960s several British universities launched expeditions to Loch Ness, using sonar to search the deep. Nothing conclusive was found, but in each expedition the sonar operators detected large, moving underwater objects they could not explain. In 1975, Boston's Academy of Applied Science combined sonar and underwater photography in an expedition to Loch Ness. A photo resulted that, after enhancement, appeared to show the giant flipper of a plesiosaur-like creature. Further sonar expeditions in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in more tantalizing, if inconclusive, readings. Revelations in 1994 that the famous 1934 photo was a hoax hardly dampened the enthusiasm of tourists and professional and amateur investigators to the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

1934 - Nazi-Germany begins People's court

1936 - "Peter and the Wolf" premieres in Moscow

1936 - 62nd Kentucky Derby: Ira Hanford aboard Bold Venture wins in 2:03.6

1936 - Emperor Haile Selassie and family flee Abyssinia

1939 - Lou Gehrig set a new major league baseball record when he played in his 2,130th game. The streak began on June 1, 1925.  It would take another 57 years before Cal Ripken, Jr., broke it.

1941 - Hostilities broke out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s pro-German faction.

1941 - The Federal Communications Commission agreed to let regular scheduling of TV broadcasts by commercial TV stations begin on July 1, 1941. This was the start of network television.

The flag of the USSR (Soviet Union)

• On this day in 1945, in the final stages of the European theater of World War II, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany, which surrendered to the Red Army General Zhukov. They managed to take Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting. The Allies also announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria on this same day. Approximately one million German soldiers laid down their arms as the terms of the German unconditional surrender, signed at Caserta on April 29, come into effect. Many Germans surrender to Japanese soldiers—Japanese Americans. Among the American tank crews that entered the northern Italian town of Biella was an all-Nisei (second-generation) infantry battalion, composed of Japanese Americans from Hawaii.    Early that same day, Russian Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov accepts the surrender of the German capital. The Red Army takes 134,000 German soldiers prisoner.

1946 - Prisoners revolted at California's Alcatraz prison.

1949 - Arthur Miller wins Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman"

1949 - Bolivian state of siege proclaimed

1949 - Don Newcombe, first start, shuts out Cincinnati on 5 hits to win 3-0

1950 - Carlo Terrons "Giuditta," premieres in Milan

1950 - Dutch first Chamber accept Laws on immigration

1950 - Dutch PM Malan recognizes South-Africa but not China PR

1952 - 1st performance of John Cage's "Water Music"

1952 - 1st scheduled jet airliner passenger service began with a BOAC Comet

1952 - Operations begin at United Suriname Workers of Netherlands which flew from London to Johannesburg carrying 36 passengers

1953 - 79th Kentucky Derby: Hank Moreno aboard Dark Star wins in 2:02

1953 - Feisal II installed as king of Iraq

1953 - Hussein I installed as king of Jordan

1954 - Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals set a new major league record when he hit 5 home runs against the New York Giants.

1955 - India poses discrimination "onaanraakbaren" punishable

1955 - Pulitzer prize awarded Tennessee Williams for (Cat on Hot Tin Roof)

1955 - WGBH TV channel 2 in Boston, MA (PBS) begins broadcasting

1956 - US Lab detects high-temperature microwave radiation from Venus

1956 - US Methodist church disallows race separation

1958 - Yanks threaten to broadcast games nationwide if NL goes ahead with plans to broadcast, games into NYC

1959 - 85th Kentucky Derby: Bill Shoemaker aboard Tomy Lee wins in 2:02.2

1960 - Caryl Chessman was executed. He was a convicted sex offender and had become a best selling author while on death row.

1960 - Harry Belafonte 2nd Carnegie Hall performance

1960 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Al Drury (Advice and Consent)

1960 - "American Bandstand's" Dick Clark

1960 - House investigating committee, looking into payola questions

1962 - Benfica wins 7th Europe Cup I

1962 - OAS strikes in Algeria 1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island

1962 - WMHT TV channel 17 in Schenectady-Alby-Tro, NY (PBS) 1st broadcast

1964 - 90th Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack aboard Northern Dancer wins in 2:00

  

• On this day in 1964, the Beatles' "Beatles' 2nd Album" rose to #1 and stayed there for five weeks.

1964 - Mad Dog Vachon beats Verne Gagne in Omaha, to become NWA champ

1964 - First ascent of Shishapangma the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders.

1965 - "New Faces of 1965" opens at Booth Theater NYC for 52 performances

1965 - The "Early Bird" satellite goes into commercial service, was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.

1966 - Pulitzer prize awarded Arthur M Schlesinger Jr (Thousand Days)

1967 - Stanley Cup: Toronto Maple Leafs beat Montreal Canadiens, 4 games to 2

1968 - 1st performance of Roger Sessions' 8th Symphony

1968 - 22nd NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat LA Lakers, 4 games to 2

1968 - Gold reaches then record high ($39.35 per ounce) in London

1968 - Israeli television begins transmitting

1969 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II departed on her maiden voyage to New York.

1970 - Student anti-war protesters at Ohio's Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard took control of the campus.

1970 - First woman jockey at Kentucky Derby (Diane Crump)

1970 - KOAI (now KNAZ) TV channel 2 in Flagstaff, AZ (NBC) 1st broadcast

1972 - Electrical fire in Sunshine Silver mine. 126 die (Kellogg Idaho)

• This day in 1972 marked the end of an era for the FBI. After nearly five decades as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover died, leaving the powerful government agency without the administrator who had been largely responsible for its existence and shape.    Educated as a lawyer and a librarian, Hoover joined the Department of Justice in 1917 and within two years had become special assistant to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Deeply anti-radical in his ideology, Hoover came to the forefront of federal law enforcement during the so-called "Red Scare" of 1919 to 1920. The former librarian set up a card index system listing every radical leader, organization, and publication in the United States and by 1921 had amassed some 450,000 files. More than 10,000 suspected communists were also arrested during this period, but the vast majority of these people were briefly questioned and then released. Although the attorney general was criticized for abusing his authority during the so-called "Palmer Raids," Hoover emerged unscathed, and on May 10, 1924, he was appointed acting director of the Bureau of Investigation, a branch of the Justice Department established in 1909.    During the 1920s, with Congress' approval, Director Hoover drastically restructured and expanded the Bureau of Investigation. He built the corruption-ridden agency into an efficient crime-fighting machine, establishing a centralized fingerprint file, a crime laboratory, and a training school for agents. In the 1930s, the Bureau of Investigation launched a dramatic battle against the epidemic of organized crime brought on by Prohibition. Notorious gangsters such as George "Machine Gun" Kelly and John Dillinger met their ends looking down the barrels of Bureau-issued guns, while others, like Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the elusive head of Murder, Incorporated, were successfully investigated and prosecuted by Hoover's "G-men." Hoover, who had a keen eye for public relations, participated in a number of these widely publicized arrests, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, as it was known after 1935, became highly regarded by Congress and the American public.    With the outbreak of World War II, Hoover revived the anti-espionage techniques he had developed during the first Red Scare, and domestic wiretaps and other electronic surveillance expanded dramatically. After World War II, Hoover focused on the threat of radical, especially communist, subversion. The FBI compiled files on millions of Americans suspected of dissident activity, and Hoover worked closely with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senator Joseph McCarthy, the architect of America's second Red Scare.    In 1956, Hoover initiated Cointelpro, a secret counterintelligence program that initially targeted the U.S. Communist Party but later was expanded to infiltrate and disrupt any radical organization in America. During the 1960s, the immense resources of Cointelpro were used against dangerous groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, but also against African American civil rights organizations and liberal anti-war organizations. One figure especially targeted was civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who endured systematic harassment from the FBI.    By the time Hoover entered service under his eighth president in 1969, the media, the public, and Congress had grown suspicious that the FBI might be abusing its authority. For the first time in his bureaucratic career, Hoover endured widespread criticism, and Congress responded by passing laws requiring Senate confirmation of future FBI directors and limiting their tenure to 10 years. On May 2, 1972, with the Watergate affair about to explode onto the national stage, J. Edgar Hoover died of heart disease at the age of 77. The Watergate affair subsequently revealed that the FBI had illegally protected President Richard Nixon from investigation, and the agency was thoroughly investigated by Congress. Revelations of the FBI's abuses of power and unconstitutional surveillance motivated Congress and the media to become more vigilant in future monitoring of the FBI.

1972 - Lt General Vernon A Walters, USA, becomes deputy director of CIA

1972 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1974 - Former U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals.

1974 - The filming of "Jaws" began in Martha's Vineyard, MA

1975 - Apple records closes down

1977 - "King & I" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 719 performances

1978 - NBA championship: Portland Trailblazers win in 4 games

1979 - "Quadrophenia" premieres in London

1979 - -May 10] Vivekananda (Sri Lanka) begins nonstop ride, cycling 187 hrs, 28 min, around Vihara Maha Devi Park, Colombo, Sri Lanka

1979 - 14th Academy of Country Music Awards: Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell

1980 - Joseph Dohertyand; 3 other IRA men arrested for murder

1980 - Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in Wall (Part II)" is banned in South Africa

1980 - Pope John Paul II begins African tour 1980 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1981 - 107th Kentucky Derby: Jorge Velasquez on Pleasant Colony wins in 2:02

1981 - Radio Shack re-releases Model III TRSDOS 1.3 with 2 fixes

1982 - Beth Daniel wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic

Flag of Argentina

• In 1982 on this day during the Falklands War, Argentina's only cruiser, the General Belgrano, was sunk by British submarine HMS  Conqueror, killing more than 350 men.

1983 - 6.7 earthquake injures 487 in Coalinga Calif

1984 - "Sunday in the Park with George" opens at Booth NYC for 604 perfs

1984 - Indians' Andre Thornton ties record for most walks (6 in 16 inn)

1984 - Mattingly's single breaks up Lamarr Hoyt's perfect game bid

1984 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1985 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1986 - Dynamo Kiev wins 26th Europe Cup II

1986 - Transportation Expo 86 opens in Vancouver, BC

1987 - 113th Kentucky Derby: Chris McCarron aboard Alysheba wins in 2:03.4

1988 - Balt Orioles sign a 15 year lease to remain in Baltimore and get a new park

1988 - David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow," premieres in NYC

1988 - Jackson Pollock's "Search" sold for $4,800,000 1988 - Reds manager Pete Rose is suspended for 30 days for pushing an ump

1990 - "Some Americans Abroad" opens at Vivian Beaumont NYC for 62 perfs

1990 - The white minority apartheid government of South Africa and the African National Congress open talks to end apartheid

1991 - Pope John Paul II's encyclical on Centesimus annus

1992 - "High Rollers Social & Pleasure Club" opens at H Hayes NYC 14 perfs

1992 - 118th Kentucky Derby: Pat Day aboard Lil E Tee wins in 2:03

1992 - Yugoslav Army seize Bosnian Pres Alija Izetbegovic

1993 - "5 Guys Named Moe" closes at Eugene O'Neill NYC after 445 perfs 1993 - "Candida" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 45 performances

1993 - "Redwood Curtain" closes at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC after 40 perfs

1993 - "Tango Passion" closes at Longacre Theater NYC after 5 performances

1993 - At Washington's National Gallery of Art, an exhibit of 80 paintings from the collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes opened.

1993 - Authorities said that they had recovered the remains of David Koresh from the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, TX.

This was a picture (which I have since cropped) of the new South Africa flag of the post-apartheid era. I actually took this one at the apartheid museum, as this was the final display, if you will, of the museum, the symbol of the emergence of a "new South Africa."

Statue of Nelson Mandela in the gardens in front of the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa

• On this day in 1994, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in South Africa’s first democratic, multiracial election. This election, and his ascension to power, marked the final end of white minority rule and that country's days of racial segregation. known as apartheid.

1994 - Bus crashes into a tree at Gdansk Poland, 32 people are killed

1994 - Dr Kervokian found innocent on assisting suicides

1994 - Michael Bolton found plagurized Isley Bros "Love is Wonderful Thing"

1995 - "Hamlet" opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 121 performances

1995 - Expos bat out of order against Mets in 6th inning

1995 - Serb missiles exploded in the heart of Zagreb, killing six

1997 - The Labour Party’s Tony Blair became Prime Minister of Britain, ending 18 years of conservative rule. At 44, he was the youngest prime minister in 185 years.

1997 - Mercury Mail announces its 1 millionth internet subscriber

1997 - Police arrest transsexual hooker Atisone Seiuli with Eddie Murphy

1997 - Republic of Texas security chief Robert Scheidt surrenders

1998 - 124th Kentucky Derby

1998 - The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.

1999 - In the election in Panama, Mireya Moscoso de Grubar, of the Armulfista Party, was elected president, and became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.

2000 - Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveils the Man With Two Hats monument in Apeldoorn and the other in Ottawa on May 11, 2000. Symbolically linking both Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout World War II.

2000 - President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.

2002 - Marad massacre of eight Hindus near Palakkad in Kerala.

2004 - Yelwa massacre of more than 630 nomad Muslims by Christians in Nigeria.

2008 - Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.

2011 - Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

2011 - The 2011 E. coli O104:H4 outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others sick from the bacteria outbreak.

2012 - A pastel version of Edvard Munch's famous painting 'The Scream' sells at auction for $119,922,500   in a New York City auction. The transaction set a new world record for an auctioned piece of art.

2012 - Barcelona football player Lionel Messi breaks the European goal-scoring record with 68 goals



http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may01.htm

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory