Today in History, 5/1

1328: The Wars of Scottish Independence end as the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northhampton is signed and England recognizes Scotland's sovereignty.
1707: The Act of Union combines Scotland and England into the Kingdom of Great Britain. See, Scotland had tried to set up its own trading empire in Darien, Panama. Trouble is, Spain owned Panama. The Spanish asked the British to cut off the settlement and the English (who were going to do it anyway) passed laws prohibiting anyone in England from investing in or trading with or otherwise lending assistance to the settlement. Unable to trade with the largest trading empire on Earth, the settlement foundered and everyone died. Also, they weren't expecting hostile Natives and Spaniards, high temperatures and humidity and rampant disease. They were a little naive. Anyway, this venture cost the Scottish people (many invested everything they had) a total of about 400,000 pounds, something like 40% of their total cash. The English sidled up and said, "Hey, we've got a lot of money! We'll pay off your debts if you'll just sign right here."
1751: The first cricket match is played in America.
1753: Carolus Linnaeus publishes Species Plantarum, his book on plant taxonomy.1776: Adam Weishaupt establishes the Illuminati. Before the Bilderberg Group, before Bohemian Grove, this is the granddaddy of all overarching conspiracy theories. I bet Adam Weishaupt was one of them lizard people.

"Bleah! Bleah!"

1786: The Marriage of Figaro opens in Vienna.
1834: Slavery is abolished in the British colonies.
1851: The Great Exhibition is officially opened in London by Queen Victoria. This building was the Crystal Palace, essentially the world's largest greenhouse.
1852: Calamity Jane is born.
1863: During the Civil War, the Battle of Chancellorsville begins1886: A general strike begins in the United States which would eventually win the eight-hour workday.
1896: General Mark Clark is born. He had a reputation as a bit of a publicity hound. For example, he defied orders and sent his exhausted troops on a two-day march, just so he could be the one to capture Rome.1898: The US Navy destroys the Spanish Fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish American War.
1909: Kate Smith is born. She is best known these days for belting out "God Bless America."

1913: Louis Nye is born. He was a big comedic actor and was in Sex Kittens Go To College, a movie that is sadly not out on DVD.

1915: The RMS Lusitania departs New York on her final voyage.1919: Daniel O'Herlihy is born. He is probably most famous as The Old Man in the greatest movie ever made, Robocop, but he also played the mass hypnotist who dupes a barful of people into thinking the US is being invaded by stock footage in the 1950's Invasion USA. O'Herlihy's part starts at about 4:45.

1923: Joseph Heller is born. He wrote Catch-22 and well, nothing else worth mentioning.1924: Art Fleming is born. He was the original host of Jeopardy!

1927: Imperial Airways announces the first cooked meals on a regularly scheduled flight from London to Paris.1930: The planet Pluto is officially named. And I don't care what a bunch of eggheads say, it's a planet. Give an old man that.
1931: The Empire State Building is dedicated.1939: Judy Collins is born. The Crosby, Stills & Nash song Suite: Judy Blue Eyes is about her.1940: The 1940 Summer Olympics are called on account of war.
1941: Citizen Kane premieres in New York.

1945: Soviet troops raise the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Berlin.
1945: Rita Coolidge is born. As a pre-teen I worshiped her. I don't know what it was, but something about her triggered very compelling feelings in a nine-year old Bryan. I think it was the hair.

Damn you, Kristofferson!

1948: The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) is founded with Kim Il-sung as president.

Kim is a die-hard Braves fan

1950: Guam is organized as a US commonwealth.
1954: Ray Parker, Jr. is born.

1960: Francis Gary Powers is shot down in his Lockheed U-2 spyplane over the Soviet Union, precipitating a diplomatic crisis.1961: Fidel Castro proclaims Cuba as a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
1967: Elvis marries Priscilla in Vegas.1971: Amtrak is formed to take over US passenger rail service.
1978: The first e-mail spam is sent by a DEC marketing rep to every ARPANET address on the West Coast.
1982: The 1982 World's Fair opens in Knoxville, TN.

Now used for wig storage.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.