1 May 2039

A Sunday in history

Weekday

Sunday

Season

Spring (N. Hemisphere)

Century

21st century

Records

302

  1. 2016

    The evacuation of nearly 88,000 people began when a wildfire swept through Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, and burned for another 14 months, becoming the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

  2. 2010

    Faisal Shahzad attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, New York City, but it failed to explode.

  3. 2002

    The Horncastle boar's head (pictured), which probably once formed part of the crest of an Anglo-Saxon helmet, was found.

  4. 1991

    In Major League Baseball, Rickey Henderson broke the record for stolen bases on the same night that Nolan Ryan broke his own record for no-hitters.

  5. 1974

    Argentine president Juan Perón expelled Montoneros from a demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, forcing the group to become a clandestine organization.

  6. 1950

    Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

  7. 1947

    Sicilian separatist Salvatore Giuliano and his gang fired into a crowd of May Day marchers near Piana degli Albanesi, Sicily, killing 11 and wounding 33.

  8. 1945

    Second World War: British and Indian forces conducted a successful airborne assault on a Japanese artillery battery during the advance to liberate Rangoon, Burma.

  9. 1941

    Citizen Kane, a widely acclaimed film by actor and director Orson Welles, premiered.

  10. 1931

    New York City's Empire State Building (pictured), at the time the tallest building in the world, opened.

  11. 1900

    A dust explosion at a coal mine near Scofield, Utah, U.S., killed at least 200 miners.

  12. 1897

    The Ramakrishna Mission was founded by Swami Vivekananda to serve as the humanitarian counterpart to the Hindu monastic order Ramakrishna Math.

  13. 1885

    The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opened for business.

  14. 1884

    Moses Fleetwood Walker (pictured), the last African American in Major League Baseball until Jackie Robinson, played his first game for the Toledo Blue Stockings.

  15. 1794

    War of the Pyrenees: France regained nearly all the land it lost to Spain the previous year with its victory in the Second Battle of Boulou.

  16. 1786

    The Marriage of Figaro (audio featured), an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna.

  17. 1707

    Under the terms of the Acts of Union, the Kingdoms of England and Scotland merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, with a single parliament and government based in Westminster.

  18. 1699

    Francis Nicholson and James Blair organize five May Day orations given by students of the College of William & Mary, leading to the establishment of Williamsburg as Virginia's new capital.

  19. 1625

    Dutch–Portuguese War: Portuguese and Spanish forces recaptured the Brazilian city of Bahia, which had previously been captured by the Dutch Republic.

  20. 1576

    Stephen Báthory and Anna Jagiellon were crowned as the elected rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

  21. 1169

    Norman mercenaries landed at Bannow Bay in Leinster, beginning the Norman invasion of Ireland.

  22. 880

    The Nea Ekklesia church in Constantinople, on which many later cross-in-square Eastern Orthodox churches were based, was consecrated.

  23. 305

    Diocletian and Maximian retired as co-rulers of the Roman Empire, being succeeded by Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.

Photo archive

24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.

What was life like?

Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.

Sources & fact check

Every claim is traced to primary sources, archives, universities and the press — with an explicit confidence rating. Dossiers are generated once and cached permanently.