First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - MAY 1st

Sir Thomas Malory, Quote

“The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May.”

~ Sir Thomas Malory

Wikiquote (Sir Thomas Malory (1405 - March 14, 1471) an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur.)

This Day in History

May 1st, 305

Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that began growing on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world

Roman Empire:
305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.

Wikipedia  Image: Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus; Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus (Latin: Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini, Italian: Tempio di Giove Ottimo Massimo, English: "Temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitoline") was the most important temple in Ancient Rome, located on the Capitoline Hill.
● Ancient roman statue ● Detail of Head from Roman Statue of Antinous, credit Corbis ● Statue of Neptune, Trevi Fountain, Rome ● International Sand Sculpture Festival, FIESA 7 ancient Rome.

May 1st, 880

Byzantine Empire Collage Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562)

Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
880 - Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches.

Wikipedia  Image: The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria; Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna; The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid); Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty.
Photo: Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562).

May 1st, 1778

American Revolutionary War Collage American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, by Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842)

American Revolutionary War:
1778 - Battle of Crooked Billet; begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.

Wikipedia  Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Painting: Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, by Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842).

May 1st, 1785

Hawaiian Islands Chain Collage: Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll (the northwesternmost island in Hawaii is Green Island, which is joined to the Kure Atoll)

Kamehameha I, the king of Hawaiʻi, defeats Kalanikupule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

Wikipedia  Hawaiian Islands, NOAA Satellite; Na Pali Coast, Kaua'i, by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, National Geographic; Volcanic Coast, Haleakala National Park, by Paul Chesley, National Geographic; Living Earth - Pu'u 'O'o crater, by Frans Lanting; Volcano erupting on the Big Island in Hawaii in July by Alain Barbezat for National Geographic; The blue ocean line of Honolulu - an aerial view.
Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll (the northwesternmost island in Hawaii is Green Island, which is joined to the Kure Atoll).

May 1st, 1794

Napoleonic Wars: (1803–15) were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions

French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1794 - War of the Pyrenees; Battle of Boulou - ends, in which France forces defeat the Spanish and regain nearly all the land they lost to Spain in 1793.

Wikipedia  Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar; Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806; Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet; Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani); Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo; Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807; Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars; Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen; Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford; Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.

May 1st, 1844

Hong Kong Island and skyline, famous sights such as 'The Peak', Ocean Park, many historical sites and mountain ranges

Hong Kong Island: Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second modern police force and Asia's first, is established.

Wikipedia  Photo: Hong Kong Island and skyline, famous sights such as "The Peak", Ocean Park, many historical sites and mountain ranges

May 1st, 1862

Lincoln Memorial: an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument American Civil War: Battle of Antietam; Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland American Civil War: American Civil War: First Battle Between Ironclads; CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads

American Civil War:
1862 - The Union Army completes the Capture of New Orleans.
1863 - Battle of Chancellorsville: begins.

Wikipedia  Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war. ● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.

May 1st, 1869

Folies Bergère stages its first revue

Folies Bergère opens in Paris.

Wikipedia  Image: Jules Cheret, Folies Bergère, Fleur de Lotus, 1893 Art Nouveau poster for the Ballet Pantomime; Josephine Baker in a banana skirt from the Folies Bergère production Un Vent de Folie; A Bar at the Folies-Bergere (Un bar aux Folies Bergère), by Edouard Manet, 1882, Paris, France.

May 1st, 1884

Eight Hour Day Monument in Melbourne, Australia

1884 - Eight-hour day: Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.
1886 - Haymarket Affair Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day.

Wikipedia  Photo: Eight Hour Day Monument in Melbourne, Australia ● Haymarket Monument, Mary Brogger, 2004 /Image & Artwork: designslinger.

May 1st, 1894

Panic of 1893: Coxey's Army reaches Washington, D.C. to protest the unemployment

Panic of 1893: Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march arrives in Washington, D.C..

Wikipedia  Photo: Coxey's Army marchers leaving their camp ● Followers of labor leader Jacob S. Coxey, known as Coxey's Army, on a march to Washington, D.C. in 1894 to protest the federal government's response to the economic depression of the 1890s.

May 1st, 1898

Spanish-American War: Satellite image Cuba, credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA / GSFC; A Catalan satirical drawing published in La Campana de Gràcia (1896), criticizing U.S. behavior regarding Cuba; W. A. Rogers. 'The Battle of Desmayo - The Cuban Balaklava' In: Harper's Pictorial History of the War with Spain. Vol. 1. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1899. NYPL, United States History, Local History and Genealogy Division

Spanish-American War: Battle of Manila Bay; The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the war.

Wikipedi  Image: Satellite image Cuba, credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA / GSFC; A Catalan satirical drawing published in La Campana de Gràcia (1896), criticizing U.S. behavior regarding Cuba; W. A. Rogers. "The Battle of Desmayo - The Cuban Balaklava" In: Harper's Pictorial History of the War with Spain. Vol. 1. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1899. NYPL, United States History, Local History and Genealogy Division.

May 1st, 1900

In a scene repeated in many homes around Scofield and Winter Quarters, the family of Levi Jones keeps a sad vigil by his casket ● Rescue workers carry the body of one of the 200 miners killed in the Winter Quarters Mine explosion May 1, 1900 MSHA.gov - Utah.gov

Scofield mine disaster: kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in one of the worst mining accident in United States history.

Wikipedia  Photo: In a scene repeated in many homes around Scofield and Winter Quarters, the family of Levi Jones keeps a sad vigil by his casket ● Rescue workers carry the body of one of the 200 miners killed in the Winter Quarters Mine explosion May 1, 1900 MSHA.gov - Utah.gov

May 1st, 1915

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1915 - The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.

Wikipedia  Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.

May 1st, 1927

Imperial Airways Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta outside the hangar at Kisumu, Kenya, credit DesertBlooms, Flickr ● 1936 Brochure for the airline, illustrated with the first Short Empire flying boat, Canopus.

The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial_Airways flight from London to Paris.

Wikipedia  Photo: Imperial Airways Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta outside the hangar at Kisumu, Kenya, credit DesertBlooms, Flickr ● 1936 Brochure for the airline, illustrated with the first Short Empire flying boat, Canopus.

May 1st, 1940

World War II: Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf; Battle of Leyte Gulf; The first kamikaze attack: A Japanese plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island World War II: German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944) World War II: Eastern Front (World War II); was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945

World War II:
1940 - The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.
1941 - German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.
1944 - 200 Communist prisoners are shot by the Germans at Kaisariani in Athens as reprisals for the killing of General Franz_Krech by partisans at Molaoi.
1945 - Germans newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag was raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.
1945 - Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide in the Reich Garden outside the Fuehrerbunker. Goebbels children are murdered by Magda by having cyanide pills inserted into their mouths.
1945 - Yugoslav partisans free Trieste.
Post World War II:
1946 - The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy.
1948 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il-sung as leader.
1950 - Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth.

Wikipedia  Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.

Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.

May 1st, 1960

Cold War: often dated from 1947–1991, was a sustained state of political and military tension between the powers of the Western world, led by the United States and its NATO allies, and the communist world, led by the Soviet Union, its satellite states and allies Cold War: in Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage Cold War: The Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological conflict and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991

Cold War:
1960 - U-2 incident Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.

Wikipedia  Photo: Lockheed C-130 Hercules; RAF Menwith Hill, a large site in the United Kingdom, part of ECHELON and the UKUSA Agreement; New Zealand nuclear test, British nuclear tests near the Malden and Christmas Islands in the mid-Pacific in 1957 and 1958; Nevada nuclear tests, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Bureau of Federal Facilities.
U2, Lockheed TR-1 in flight.

May 1st, 1961

Cuban Revolution Collage

Cuban Revolution:
1961 - The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.

Wikipedia  Photo / Map: The leadership of the Cuban revolution; Fidel Castro played the leading role in the Cuban revolution against Fulgencio Batista (1957) AFP; Fidel Castro leads men in a cheer, Cuba, 1957, Bettmann/ Corbis; Cuban Airlift to the United States (1959 and 1962); Resiste Cuba, homenaje a la revolución cubana y sus héroes música: Protesta-Por Cuba; Che Guevara and Fidel Castro ; Official caption: "Off loading Cuban refugees at the Miami sea buoy", photo dated 4 May 1964; Photo No. 7CGD-050464 #12; Guerrillero Heroico - Alberto Korda's famous photograph of Che Guevara; The popularized cropped version.

May 1st, 1965

Chinese Civil War Collage

Chinese Civil War:
1965 - Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC, takes place.

Wikipedia  Photo: In 1934, Mao Zedong headed the Long March. The Long March was when the Chinese Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, forced the Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong, on a march to the caves of Shaanxi. (colorized); Government soldiers train with modern machine guns; People's Liberation Army attacking government defensive positions in Shangtang; US diplomat Patrick J. Hurley, Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek, Chang Ch'ün, Wang Shi Jie (王世杰), Mao Zedong; A Communist leader addressing Long March survivors; The PLA enters Beijing in the Pingjin Campaign and control the later capital of PRC.

May 1st, 1970

Vietnam War: Operation Swift; U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley Vietnam War: Mobs of Vietnamese people scale the wall of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, trying to get to the helicopter pickup zone, just before the end of the Vietnam War on April 29, 1975. Neal Ulevich, AP

Vietnam War:
1970 - Protests erupt in Seattle, Washington, following the announcement by United States President Richard Nixon that U.S. Forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country.

Wikipedia  Photo: Vietnam_War; Side view of an HH-53 helicopter of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron as seen from the gunner's position on an A-1 of the 21st Specialist Operations Squadron. (USAF Photo by Ken Hackman), Boston Globe;
● Mobs of Vietnamese people scale the wall of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, trying to get to the helicopter pickup zone, just before the end of the Vietnam War on April 29, 1975. Neal Ulevich, AP.
Vietnam War: The Big Picture / Boston Globe.

May 1st, 1971

Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.

Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.

Wikipedia  Photo: Amtrak, Amtrak ICE Boston-New York-Washington route, credit Polar.sunynassau.edu/ Amtrak Cascades in Washington State, credit Scott Gutierrez

May 1st, 1978

Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.

Uemura Naom, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.

Wikipedia  Photo: Uemura Naomi Memorial Hall

May 1st, 1991

Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts on August 22nd, 1989

Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics steals his 939th base, making him the all-time leader in this category. However, his accomplishment is overshadowed later that evening by Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers, when he pitches his seventh career no-hitter, breaking his own record.

Wikipedia  Photo: On September 15, 1996, the Texas Rangers retired Nolan Ryan's # 34

May 1st, 1995

Kingdom of Yugoslavia: (Serbo-Croatian: Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија) was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Aug. 30, 1995 by Oleg Stjepanovic (AP) ● Smoke rises from an ammunition depot in Bosnian Serb stronghold Pale near Sarajevo after NATO air strikes ● CK building in the moments after bombing ● Serbia marks the 10th anniversary of the Nato-led bombing campaign ● U.S. F-117 Nighthawk taxis to the runway before taking off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on March 24, 1999

Yugoslav Wars:
1995 - Croatian War of Independence; Operation Flash launched by Croatian forces.

Wikipedia  Map: Kingdom of Yugoslavia; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; A twilight moon rises above the Kamniske mountains and Slovenia’s Sava River Valley, Slovenia, credit National Geographic; Yugoslavia, November 1977, credit National Geographic.
Photo: 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Aug. 30, 1995 by Oleg Stjepanovic (AP) ● Smoke rises from an ammunition depot in Bosnian Serb stronghold Pale near Sarajevo after NATO air strikes ● CK building in the moments after bombing ● Serbia marks the 10th anniversary of the Nato-led bombing campaign ● U.S. F-117 Nighthawk taxis to the runway before taking off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on March 24, 1999.

May 1st, 2003

Iraq War: The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), codenamed Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait

Gulf War - Iraq War:
2003 - In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California, United States President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".

Wikipedia  Photo: USAF F-15Es, F-16s, and a USAF F-15 flying over burning Kuwaiti oil wells; Iraqi Army T-72 main battle tanks. The T-72 tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War; F-15Es parked during Operation Desert Shield; The oil fires caused were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait; Aerial view of destroyed Iraqi T-72 tank, BMP-1 and Type 63 armored personnel carriers and trucks on Highway 8 in March 1991.