Major Events From This day in History May 1st

 http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/may2nd.html

1931 U.S.A. The Empire State Building

1931 : The Empire State Building in New York Officially opens.

2003 U.S.A. George W. Bush announces major combat in Iraq is over

2003 : President George W. Bush on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California

 coast announces in a speech to the nation, major combat in Iraq is over.

1960 Soviet Union American U–2 spy plane

1960 : An American U–2 spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union near Sverdlovsk.

The Soviet Union captured the pilot Gary Powers which prompted continuing deterioration in 

relations between the US and the Soviet Union.

1962 U.S.A. First KMART Department Store

1962 : The first Kmart department store opens in Garden City, Michigan selling a range of Clothes, 

shoes, housewares, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and electronics. Kmart went 

through a period of rapid expansion up to the early eighties but from the late 80's due to lack of 

investment in technology and increased competition from the growing Walmart and Target stores 

and change in customer tastes sales continued to decline. In 2005 following sales decline 

Kmart merged with Sears, Roebuck and Company.

1942 World War II The Fighting Forces

1942 : 

United Nations Total Fighting Men and Women 12 - 18 million

Axis Powers Total Fighting Men and Women 12 - 14 million

1941 U.S.A. Code Talkers

1941 : The first "Code talkers" Navajo Indians are specially recruited by the Marines to serve 

in their standard communications units in the Pacific Theater, they provide an unbreakable 

combat voice communications code.

1941 U.S.A. Citizen Kane

1941 : The movie "Citizen Kane," the first feature film directed by Orson Welles, also starring 

Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane premiers in New York.

1925 Germany Field Marshall Hinderburg

1925 : Field Marshall Hinderburg a right wing conservative was elected as the president of 

Germany.

1931 U.S.A. Al Capone

1931 : The Gangster Al Capone is being sought for questioning over the murder of 

Mike De Pike Hitler from a rival gang by detectives in Chicago a number of other members 

of his gang.

1931 U.S.A. Kate Smith

1931 : Kate Smith began her radio career on CBS. She became best known for her 

rendition of Irving Berlin's song "God Bless America." Her career spanned an amazing 

five decades and peaked during the 1940s

1937 U.S.A. Neutrality Acts

1937 : America strengthens it's Neutrality Act first passed in 1935 and amended in 1936 which 

created an embargo on arms trading with the countries at war, loans or credits to countries at war. 

In 1937 the Neutrality Act was amended again stating "all trade with countries involved in war 

must be conducted on a cash-and-carry basis."

1942 England Free French Resistance

1942 : The leader of the Free French Military Resistance Movement based in London 

Charles De Gaulle is rallying troops and support to help keep up the fight for freedom 

for his french compatriots.

1961 Cuba Castro Bans Elections

1961 : Castro bans elections in Cuba saying "The revolution has no time for elections." 

and telling the 10,000's who attended the May Day Celebrations Cuba is a socialist country. 

He has also stated all Roman Catholic priests would be expelled and all Roman Catholic 

and private schools would be nationalized.

1965 Santa Dominica Fighting

1965 : Fierce fighting is still happening on the streets in Dominica between US Paratroopers 

and local forces despite a cease fire having been agreed and signed.

1967 U.S.A. Elvis Presley Marries

1967 : Elvis Presley, married his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Ann Beaulieu, 21, at a at the 

Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas.

1971 US AMTRAK

1971 : Amtrak went into service, to provide inter city passenger train services. 

All Amtrak's preferred stock is owned by the U.S. federal government.

1973 England 1.5 Million Strike On Day of Protest

1973 : About one and a half million workers joined the TUC call for a one-day strike in protest 

at the government's pay restraint policy and price rises. The biggest effect was in the transport 

industry including the railways which forced many others to stay home because they could not 

get to work.

1977 Turkey Gunfight

1977 : A march by 100,000 May Day protesters turned into a gunfight between rival leftist 

groups and 33 people were left dead from the fighting.

1982 Knoxville World's Fair

1982 : The 1982 World’s Fair opens in Knoxville, Tennessee. The theme of the year was 

“Energy Turns the World” and more than 11 million people visited the exposition during the 

seven months that it was open.

1982 Falkland Islands British Bombing

1982 : British Warships and Fighter Bombers bombed Argentinean positions at Port Stanley 

on the Islands as war broke out over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands after 

Argentina invaded the Islands.

1994 Italy Ayrton Senna

1994 : The Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna has been killed in a crash 

at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, near Bologna in Italy.

1997 England Labour Party

1997 : After nearly 20 years of Conservative government, British voters give the Labour Party, 

led by Tony Blair, a landslide victory in British parliamentary elections.

2001 U.S.A. 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

2001 : Thomas E. Blanton Jr. became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 

16th Street Baptist Church bombing by members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, 

Alabama. The bombing of the African-American church resulted in the deaths of four girls.

2005 North Korea Tests Missile

2005 : The United States monitored apparent military tests in North Korea. Reports 

had been that the North Korean military fired short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan.

2006 U.S.A. Hispanic Immigrant Strike

2006 : The Great American Strike was a one day boycott of United States schools and 

businesses by immigrants, both legal and illegal, mostly Latin American origin it is 

estimated that one million people participated in the demonstrations of mostly 

Hispanic immigrants skipped work and took to the streets in protest at the immigration 

reform proposals.

2006 Bolivia Nationalizes Natural Gas Reserves

2006 : President Evo Morales signs decree nationalizing hydrocarbons including natural gas, 

he Ordered the military and engineers of YPFB, the state firm, to occupy and secure energy 

installations, and gave 6 months for current operators to re-negotiate contracts which would 

increase the percentage of revenue to the government from resources by 20%.

2007 UK Animal Rights Extremists Arrested in Raids

2007 : Police across the United Kingdom and Europe arrested over thirty people believed 

to be involved with extremist animal rights groups who were targeting various organizations 

and businesses. Some crimes the police believed these groups were planning to commit or 

had already committed included burglary and blackmail.

2008 Australia Ongoing Drought

2008 : Australia's drought continues and is presently in the grip of what the locals call the 

"Big Dry" the worst period of drought in a century. The effects of this ongoing drought range 

from up to 10% of farmers giving up to wheat production going from a high of 25m tonnes 

of wheat each year to wheat crops below 10m tonnes per year a decrease of more than 50%.

2008 China Imposes Smoking Ban

2008 : In an effort to improve the Chinese capital city of Beijing ahead of the 2008 Summer 

Olympics, the government has banned smoking in most public buildings. The government 

has enlisted nearly 100,000 current employees to act as enforcers of the ban. The ban is 

also a measure to improve health conditions in the country, as a large percentage of its 

population are smokers.

2009 UBS Refuses to Share Bank Information with US

2009 : The Swiss bank, UBS, refused to share information with the Internal Revenue Service 

in the United States on over 50,000 customers who are believed to be hiding up to fifteen billion 

dollars in taxes in Swiss bank accounts. The largest bank in Switzerland argued that releasing 

that information would violate the law in Switzerland after the IRS began a civil lawsuit against 

the bank in order to find out the identity of the secret account holders.

2010 Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai, China

2010 : Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai, China it is the largest World's Fair site ever at 

5.28 square km.

2010 Legionaries of Christ Catholic Order Overhauled by Vatican

2010 : Pope Benedict XVI ordered that the Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic order founded 

by Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, be purified. The order's founding priest had been accused 

of sexually abusing boys for over thirty years, among other allegations, but had denied those 

claims until his death in 2006. The statement came from the Pope after an investigation by 

bishops concluded that the allegations were indeed true.

2012 - US Occupy Wall Street Holds Protests

2012 : Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered across the US to stage a day of protest for 

International Workers' Day. Thousands of people gathered in New York, Oakland, 

Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Chicago to peacefully protest, marking 

the first major protest since police disabled the movement's camps across the country in late 2011.

2013 Flash Floods in Saudi Arabia

2013 : Flash floods across Saudi Arabia left at least thirteen people dead. Heavy rainfall flooded 

plains and valleys in the desert country and the rains were reported to be the heaviest to hit 

Saudi Arabia in over twenty-five years.