1899 – John Burr patents an improved rotary blade lawn mower in the US
1922 – International Astronomical Union formally adopts Annie Jump Cannon’s stellar classification system, which, with only minor changes, is still used today
1960 – Nigeria becomes a member of British Commonwealth
1965 – The Beatles attend a Bob Dylan concert, at the Royal Albert Hall in London
1969 – Following his release from prison Ian Paisley, North Ireland Loyalist holds a ‘victory’ meeting
1971 – Friends of Earth return 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes
1979 – Iranian-Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is the 1st Jew executed by the Islamic government firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran
1987 – 183 die aboard a Polish jetliner that crashes in Warsaw
1993 – Landslide in Nambija Ecuador, kills 300
2012 – Mark Rothko’s “Orange, Red, Yellow” becomes the most expensive contemporary art piece sold at auction for $86.9 million
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 8th May 2025
1907 – Canadian Tommy Burns retains his world heavyweight boxing title after beating Philadelphia Jack O’Brien on points in 20 rounds in Los Angeles, California
1959 – Little Caesars Pizza is founded by Mike Ilitch and his wife Marian Ilitch in Garden City, Michigan
1969 – Cambodia recognizes the German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
1970 – Thousands of students protest against the Vietnam War following the Kent State University shootings in Ohio
1973 – Wounded Knee Occupation ends after 10 weeks as 200 Oglala Lakota of the American Indian Movement surrender the South Dakota hamlet
1976 – The rollercoaster Revolution (roller coaster), the first steel coaster with a vertical flip, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain
1988 – François Mitterrand elected President of France
2013 – 33 people are killed after an overloaded bus falls into a river in Himachal Pradesh, India
2018 – President Trump pulls the US out of the multilateral Iran nuclear deal
2024 – New York has more millionaires than any other city in the world, one in 24, with 744 centi-millionaires worth more than 100 million and 60 billionaires according to new ranking
Historical Events for 7th May 2025
1771 – Samuel Hearne explores Copper Mine River of Canada
1800 – Indiana Territory organized
1862 – Battle of West Point, Virginia at Eltham’s Landing, Barnhamsville
1934 – Princess Juliana of the Netherlands opens Juliana Canal between Maastricht and Maasbracht
1960 – Webster and Fain’s musical “Christine”, based on Hilda Wernher’s novel “My Indian Family”, closes at 46th St Theater, NYC, after 12 performances
1992 – US space shuttle STS-49 launched, the maiden voyage of Endeavour
1992 – Champion Puerto Rican jockey Ángel Cordero Jr. retires after winning 7,057 thoroughbred horse races
2007 – Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University announces he has discovered the tomb of Herod the Great at Herodium, West Bank
2011 – 137th Kentucky Derby: John Velazquez aboard Animal Kingdom wins in 2:02.04
2013 – 4 people are killed after the Mayon Volcano erupts in the Philippines
Historical Events for 6th May 2025
878 – Battle of Edington: Alfred the Great and his West Saxon army defeat Viking army of Guthrum the Old [earliest possible date]
1787 – 1st African American Masonic Lodge (African # 459) forms Prince Hall, Boston
1853 – 1st major US rail disaster kills 46 at Norwalk, Connecticut
1934 – MLB Boston Red Sox score 12 runs in 4th inning, including record 4 consecutive triples hit by Carl Reynolds, Moose Solters, Rick Ferrell, and B Walters
1944 – 70th Kentucky Derby: Conn McCreary aboard Pensive wins in 2:04.2
1975 – 3 people die in tornado that strikes Omaha, Nebraska
1978 – 104th Kentucky Derby: Steve Cauthen wins aboard Affirmed – first and only Derby victory and 1st-leg of Triple Crown
1987 – Mario Andretti sets one-lap speed record at Indy at 218.204 MPH
1996 – Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Hartford, Connecticut on WCCC 106.9 FM
2012 – Greek parliamentary election results in 60% support for parties opposed to austerity measures
Historical Events for 5th May 2025
1665 – Dutch politician Nicolaas Witsen visits the politically powerful Patriarch Nikon, head of the Russian Orthodox church in Moscow
1917 – Eugene Bullard gains his pilot’s license from Aéro-Club de France and becomes the 1st African-American military pilot (French Air Service)
1921 – First ranger for Cleveland Metroparks is hired
1962 – “West Side Story” soundtrack album goes #1 and stays #1 for 54 weeks, more than 20 weeks longer than any other album
1971 – Courtney, Courtney, and Link’s musical “Earl of Ruston” opens at Billy Rose Theater, NYC, runs for 5 performances
1999 – 34th Academy of Country Music Awards: Garth Brooks, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw win
2008 – American/Columbia Records releases “Home Before Dark”, the twenty-seventh studio album by Neil Diamond; tops charts in US, UK and NZ
2018 – Childish Gambino [Donald Glover] releases the music video to new single “This is America” to wide acclaim
2020 – São Luis, in Maranhão state becomes the first Brazilian city to enter lockdown because of COVID-19 as its health services struggle to cope
2021 – Baltimore Orioles pitcher John Means no-hits Seattle Mariners, 6-0 at T-Mobile Park, Seattle
Historical Events for 4th May 2025
1883 – John Gordon Cashman publishes the first edition of the “Vicksburg Evening Post” in Mississippi
1919 – Demonstrates organised by students erupt in China, after news from the Paris Peace Conference that the Allies intend to give Shangtung to Japan
1933 – Pulitzer Prize for poetry awarded to Archibald Macleish for “Conquistador”
1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather reach a record height of 34,668 meters in a balloon
1968 – 1st ABA championship: Pitts Pipers beat NO Buccaneers, 4 games to 3
1977 – US Catholic bishops rescind automatic excommunications for divorced and remarried Catholics (receiving communion still outlawed if the previous marriages were not annulled by Church tribunals)
1991 – Phil Collins, Al Jarreau, Ikutaro Kakehashi and Joe Zawinul receive honorary doctorate degrees from the Berklee College of Music in Boston
1991 – MLB Cleveland Indians’ Chris James sets club record for most RBIs in a game (9)
1992 – US Army and Marine Corps forces arrive in Los Angeles to end rioting following the acquittal of four police officers over the beating of Rodney King
2016 – Ohio Governor John Kasich bows out of the race for US Republican Presidential nominee
Historical Events for 3rd May 2025
1837 – The University of Athens is founded by King Otto of Greece – first modern university in the Eastern Mediterranean
1902 – 28th Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Winkfield on Alan-a-Dale wins in 2:08.75
1922 – Salt layer find at Winterswijk
1953 – Westchester conference of American Library Association proclaims “Freedom to Read”
1968 – Holland Pirate Radio Station VRON becomes Radio Veronica Intl
1970 – World premiere of The Beatles’ “Let it Be” documentary film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, in New York City
1982 – NY Times reports that military will get 25% of NASA’s budget
1992 – NY Met Eddie Murray is 24th to hit 400 HRs
2018 – Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan becomes NFL’s first $30m per season player after agreeing to $150m contract extension
2018 – Indian government confirms around 110 people have died in dust storms in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the last 9 days
Historical Events for 2nd May 2025
1809 – Dartmoor Prison in England opens to house French prisoners of war
1906 – Tsar Nicolas II of Russia dismisses his moderate Prime Minister Witte and appoints Ivan Goremykin, a conservative bureaucrat
1950 – Dutch PM Malan recognizes South-Africa but not People’s Republic of China
1956 – US Lab detects high-temperature microwave radiation from Venus
1979 – 14th Academy of Country Music Awards: Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell win
1985 – US performs underground nuclear test “Towanda” at Nevada Test Site, with an estimated 150 ton yield
1993 – “Tango Passion” closes at Longacre Theater NYC after 5 performances
1998 – 124th Kentucky Derby: Kent Desormeaux aboard Real Quiet wins in 2:02.20
2011 – E. coli O104:H4 outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others sick
2019 – Drone delivers a kidney for transplant surgery in Baltimore, Maryland, for the first time
Historical Events for 1st May 2025
1778 – American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
1863 – Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi
1927 – Imperial Airways is the first British airliner to serve cooked meals
1946 – The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy
1950 – Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for “Annie Allen”
1977 – American golfer Gene Littler wins the Houston Open, his 29th and final PGA title
1980 – 15th Academy of Country Music Awards: Larry Gatlin and Crystal Gayle win
1995 – Montreal Canadiens lose 2-0 at Buffalo to miss Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 25 years
2004 – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
2005 – 17-year old Lionel Messi scores his 1st senior league goal for FC Barcelona in 2-0 win against Albacete Balompié, at the Spotify Camp Nou in Barcelona
Historical Events for 30th April 2025
1804 – The New Hague Theater opens in The Hague, Netherlands
1864 – Battle of Jenkin’s Ferry, Arkansas; Confederate General William Reid Scurry is killed
1922 – Chicago pitcher Charlie Robertson throws a perfect game as the White Sox beat Detroit Tigers, 2-0 at Navin Field
1945 – Adolf Hitler commits suicide along with his new wife Eva Braun in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin as the Red Army captures the city
1967 – MLB Baltimore Orioles’ Stu Miller and Steve Barber lose 2-1 despite no-hitting Tigers
1988 – NY Knights 1st arena football game beats Cobras 60-52 (10,157 in LA)
1990 – As Met pitcher David Cone argues a call at 1st base, 2 Braves score
2015 – US senator Bernie Sanders announces he will seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for President
2018 – Superhero film “Avengers: Infinity War” sets new record for an opening weekend earning $250 million in the US, $630 million worldwide
2020 – Russian Prime Minister Mikhail V. Mishustin says he has COVID-19