May 1 in history — What Happened Today in History

Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa is assassinated in Colombo in a suicide bombing carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Angolan Civil War: The MPLA and UNITA agree to the Bicesse Accords, which are formally signed on May 31 in Lisbon.

Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands War.

Vietnam War: A student anti-war strike erupts in response to U.S. and South Vietnamese forces attacking Vietnamese communists in a Cambodian Campaign.

Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.

A Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes while attempting to return to Blackbushe Airport in Yateley, killing 34.

Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano where 11 persons are killed and 33 wounded.

Start of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.

World War II: German radio broadcasts news of Adolf Hitler's death, falsely stating that he has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin. Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army.

The 7.2 Mw Kopet Dag earthquake shakes the Iran–Turkmenistan border region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing up to 3,800 and injuring 1,121.

The Jaffa riots begin.

The Scofield Mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.

Spanish–American War: Battle of Manila Bay: The Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy destroys the Pacific Squadron of the Spanish Navy after a seven-hour battle. Spain loses all seven of its ships, and 381 Spanish sailors die. There are no American vessel losses or combat deaths.

While on a pilgrimage of Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine in Ray, Tehran, Naser al-Din Shah of Qajar Persia, was assassinated by Mirza Reza Kermani.

Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C.

The 1891 New Orleans Lynchings: 11 Italian immigrants are lynched by a mob in Louisiana, USA after the acquittal of several defendants in a murder case, the largest mass lynching in U.S. history.

On Labor Day in Catania, Sicily, workers establish the first successful Fascio Siciliano, launching a movement of peasants and laborers protesting poverty, landlordism, taxation, and economic hardship across Sicily.

Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day in many countries.

The Memphis Race Riots begin. Over three days, 46 blacks and two whites were killed. Reports of the atrocities influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The Empire of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance.

American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville between Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac under Joseph Hooker begins.

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant win the Battle of Port Gibson and establish a firm presence on the east side of the Mississippi River.

Queen Victoria opens The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London.

Execution of the Cato Street Conspirators, who plotted to kill the British Cabinet and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool.

The Slave Trade Act 1807 takes effect, abolishing the slave trade within the British Empire.

Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.

The Act of Union joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain takes effect.

Henry Morgan's raid on Lake Maracaibo: the Spanish Armada de Barlovento is defeated by an English Privateer fleet led by Captain Henry Morgan.

Hani, South Korean singer and actress

Bradley Roby, American football player

Marcus Stroman, American baseball player

Scooter Gennett, American baseball player

Caitlin Stasey, Australian actress

Victoria Monét, American singer-songwriter

Anushka Sharma, Indian actress and film producer

Leonardo Bonucci, Italian footballer

Amir Johnson, American basketball player

Shahar Pe'er, Israeli tennis player

Christian Benítez, Ecuadorian footballer (died 2013)

Jesse Klaver, Dutch politician

David Backes, American ice hockey player

Mordechai Virshubski, German-Israeli lawyer and politician (born 1930)

Henry Cooper, English boxer (born 1934)

Ted Lowe, English sportscaster (born 1920)

Helen Wagner, American actress (born 1918)

Anthony Mamo, Maltese judge and politician, 1st President of Malta (born 1909)

Philipp von Boeselager, German soldier and economist (born 1917)

Kenneth Clark, American psychologist and academic (born 1914)

Miss Elizabeth, American wrestler and manager (born 1960)

Wim van Est, Dutch cyclist (born 1923)

Steve Reeves, American bodybuilder and actor (born 1926)

Eldridge Cleaver, American author and activist (born 1935)

Fernand Dumont, Canadian sociologist, philosopher, and poet (born 1927)

Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (born 1960)