May 1

Handbook cover

La Salute è in voi! ("Health/Salvation is in you!") was an early 1900s bomb-making handbook associated with the Galleanisti, followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani, particularly in the United States. The anonymously written, Italian-language handbook repackaged technical content from encyclopedias and applied chemistry books into plain directions for non-technical amateurs to build explosives. It wrapped this content in a political manifesto advocating for impoverished workers to overcome their despair and commit to individual, revolutionary acts. American police and historians used the handbook to profile anarchists and imply guilt by possession. It figured prominently in the prosecution of the Bresci Circle, a case that revolved around the anarchists' right to read. Successful political bombers of this era ultimately had career backgrounds in explosives and were not the self-taught amateurs the handbook sought to create. (Full article...)

May 1: Beltane and Samhain in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively; Maharashtra Day in Maharashtra, India (1960); Loyalty Day in the United States

Empire State Building

• 305 – Diocletian and Maximian retired as co-rulers of the Roman Empire, being succeeded by Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.
• 1625 – Dutch–Portuguese War: Portuguese and Spanish forces recaptured the Brazilian city of Bahia, which had previously been captured by the Dutch Republic.
• 1931 – New York City's Empire State Building (pictured), at the time the tallest building in the world, opened.
• 1941 – Citizen Kane, a widely acclaimed film by actor and director Orson Welles, premiered.
• 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.

May 1

The Rock Springs massacre occurred in 1885 in the present-day United States city of Rock Springs, Wyoming. The riot, and resulting massacre of immigrant Chinese miners by white immigrant miners, was the result of racial prejudice toward the Chinese miners, who were perceived to be taking jobs from the white miners. The Union Pacific Coal Department found it economically beneficial to give preference in hiring to Chinese miners, who were willing to work for lower wages than their white counterparts, angering the white miners. When the rioting ended, at least 28 Chinese miners were dead and 15 were injured. Rioters burned 78 Chinese homes, resulting in approximately $150,000 in property damage (equal to $5.09 million in 2020 terms). The massacre in Rock Springs touched off a wave of anti-Chinese violence, especially in the Puget Sound area of Washington Territory. Artwork credit: Thure de Thulstrup; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Pelléas et Mélisande Sphalerite Libellula depressa Archive More featured pictures

May 2

Western Chalukya Empire in 1121

The Western Chalukya Empire ruled most of the western Deccan, South India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This Kannadiga dynasty is sometimes called the Kalyani Chalukya after its regal capital at Kalyani, today's Basavakalyan in the modern Bidar District of Karnataka state, and alternatively the Later Chalukya from its theoretical relationship to the sixth-century Chalukya dynasty of Badami. Prior to the rise of the Western and Eastern Chalukyas, the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta controlled most of the Deccan and Central India for over two centuries. In 973, seeing confusion in the Rashtrakuta Empire after a successful invasion of their capital by the ruler of the Paramara dynasty of Malwa, Tailapa II, a feudatory of the Rashtrakuta dynasty ruling from Bijapur region, defeated his overlords and made Manyakheta his capital. The dynasty quickly rose to power and grew into an empire under Someshvara I who moved the capital to Kalyani. (Full article...)

May 2: National Day of Prayer in the United States (2024); Flag Day in Poland

Aerial view of Old Portsmouth

• 1194 – King Richard I of England gave the city of Portsmouth (pictured) its first royal charter.
• 1559 – Presbyterian clergyman John Knox returned from exile to lead the Scottish Reformation.
• 1670 – A royal charter granted the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly in the fur trade in Rupert's Land (present-day Canada).
• 1999 – Mireya Moscoso became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
• 2003 – Cyclone Manou formed in the Indian Ocean; over the next two weeks it struck Madagascar and left more than 100,000 people homeless.
• 2011 – Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six in his private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

May 2

John Rocque's maps of London were published in 1746. A French-born British surveyor and cartographer, John Rocque produced two maps of London and the surrounding area. The better known of these, depicted here, is a 24-sheet map of the City of London and the surrounding area, surveyed by Rocque and engraved by John Pine and titled A Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, and Borough of Southwark. Rocque combined two surveying techniques: he made a ground-level survey with a compass and a physical metal chain – the unit of length also being the chain. Compass bearings were taken of the lines measured. He also created a triangulation network over the entire area to be covered by taking readings from church towers and similar high places using a theodolite made by Jonathan Sisson (the inventor of the telescopic-sighted theodolite) to measure the observed angle between two other prominent locations. The process was repeated from point to point. This image depicts all 24 sheets of Rocque's map. Map credit: John Rocque and John Pine Recently featured: Rock Springs massacre Pelléas et Mélisande Sphalerite Archive More featured pictures

May 3

John Oliver, comedian

Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption was a legally recognized church in the United States established by the comedian and satirist John Oliver (pictured). Announced on August 16, 2015, in an episode of the television program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the church's purpose was to highlight and criticize televangelists, such as Kenneth Copeland and Robert Tilton, who Oliver argued used television broadcasts of Christian church services for private gain. Oliver also established Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption to draw attention to the tax-exempt status given to churches. During his show on September 13, 2015, Oliver announced that the church had received "thousands of dollars" and a variety of other items from viewers, and stated that the Church would be shutting down. All monetary donations were given to Doctors Without Borders. Oliver set up spinoffs of the Church in 2018 and 2021. The segments and later spinoff segments featured the comedian Rachel Dratch as Oliver's fictional wife, Wanda Jo. (Full article...)

May 3: World Press Freedom Day; Constitution Memorial Day in Japan (1947); Constitution Day in Poland (1791)

Benty Grange helmet

• 1491 – Nkuwu Nzinga, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, was baptised as João I by Portuguese missionaries.
• 1848 – The Benty Grange helmet (pictured), a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet similar to those mentioned in the contemporary epic poem Beowulf, was discovered in Derbyshire, England.
• 1921 – Under the British Government of Ireland Act, Ireland was partitioned into two self-governing territories, Northern and Southern Ireland.
• 1963 – Police in Birmingham, Alabama, used high-pressure water hoses and dogs against civil-rights protesters, bringing scrutiny on racial segregation in the southern United States.
• 2007 – Three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal; she has never been found.

May 3

Alan Brooke, the first commanding officer of the Mobile Division

The British 1st Armoured Division had eight permanent commanders, or general officer commanding (GOC). The 1st Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army. It was formed in 1937 and disbanded in 1945. The division was commanded by a GOC, who received orders from a level above him in the chain of command, and then used the forces within the division to undertake the mission assigned. In addition to directing the tactical battle in which the division was involved, the GOC oversaw a staff and the administrative, logistical, medical, training, and discipline concerns of the division. On 24 November 1937, after several years of debate on such a formation, the division was founded as the Mobile Division. It was then renamed, in April 1939, as the 1st Armoured Division. Following the start of the Second World War, subordinate units and formations were withdrawn from the division to reinforce others. It was eventually deployed for combat, in May 1940. (Full list...)

May 3

The great blue turaco (Corythaeola cristata) is a bird species in the turaco family, Musophagidae, which is widespread throughout the African tropical rainforest. It has a typical length of around 75 cm (30 in) with a mass of around 1 kg (2 lb). The adult great blue turaco has predominantly gray-blue upperparts with an upright blue-black crest. Its bill is yellow and the two sexes have similar plumage. This great blue turaco was photographed in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Photograph credit: Giles Laurent Recently featured: John Rocque's maps of London Rock Springs massacre Pelléas et Mélisande Archive More featured pictures

May 4

Dorothy Olsen (July 10, 1916 – July 23, 2019) was an American aircraft pilot and member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II. She developed an interest in aviation at a young age and earned her private pilot's license in 1939, when it was unusual for women to be pilots. In 1943, Olsen joined the newly-formed WASPs as a civil service employee. After training in Texas, she was assigned to the Sixth Ferrying Group in Long Beach, California, where she worked ferrying new aircraft from the factories where they were built to U.S. airbases. She flew more than 20 types of military airplanes, including high performance fighters – such as the P-51 and the twin-engine P-38 – which she favored over larger aircraft such as bombers. After the war, Olsen retired from flying and moved to Washington State, where she married, raised a family, and lived for the rest of her life. In 2009, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal honoring her service during the war. (Full article...)

May 4: Youth Day in China; Literary Day in Taiwan; Star Wars Day

Margaret Thatcher

• 1677 – Trunajaya rebellion: Dutch East India Company forces under Cornelis Speelman began an attack on Surabaya, Java.
• 1886 – During a labor rally in Chicago, a bomb explosion and gunfire led to the deaths of eight police officers and four members of the public.
• 1974 – An all-female Japanese team reached the summit of Manaslu in the Himalayas, becoming the first women to climb a peak higher than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) above sea level.
• 1979 – Margaret Thatcher (pictured) became the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom.

May 4

The Nazca lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created in two major phases - the Paracas phase, from 400 to 200 BC, and Nazca phase, from 200 BC to 500 AD. The combined length of all the lines is more than 1,300 km (800 mi), and the group covers an area of about 50 km2 (19 sq mi). Most lines run straight across the landscape, but there are also figurative designs of animals and plants. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general, they ascribe religious significance to them. The lines were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. This is an aerial view of the "monkey", one of the geoglyphs in the Nazca lines. Photograph credit: Diego Delso Recently featured: Great blue turaco John Rocque's maps of London Rock Springs massacre Archive More featured pictures

May 5

Adele

"Can I Get It" is a song by English singer Adele from her fourth studio album, 30 (2021). Adele wrote the song with its producers, Max Martin and Shellback. It was released by Columbia Records as the album's sixth track on 19 November 2021. A pop song with pop rock and country pop influences, "Can I Get It" has acoustic guitar, drum, and horn instrumentation and a whistled hook. The song is about moving on from a breakup and desiring a committed relationship, exploring Adele's search for true love and a new relationship. Music critics were generally positive about its acoustic portion and lyrics but highly criticised its whistled hook. They thought the brazen pop production of "Can I Get It" catered to the tastes of mainstream radio, which made it an outlier on 30, and compared it to Flo Rida's single "Whistle" (2012). The song reached the top 20 in Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Finland, and Norway and entered the top 40 in some other countries. (This article is part of a featured topic: 30 (album).)

May 5: Lixia begins in China (2024); Children's Day in Japan; Cinco de Mayo in Mexico and the United States

A depiction of the Battle of the Wilderness

• 1646 – First English Civil War: Charles I surrendered himself to Scottish Covenanter leader David Leslie near Newark, England.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in Virginia began with the inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness (pictured) in Spotsylvania County.
• 1945 – World War II: The citizens of Prague spontaneously rose up against the city's German occupiers.
• 1980 – The British Special Air Service recaptured the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege by Iranian Arab separatists.
• 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashed immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Cameroon, resulting in the deaths of all 114 people aboard.

May 5

Ruddigore is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan, it was first performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in London in 1887. Some critics and audience members initially felt that Ruddygore (its original title) did not measure up to its predecessor, The Mikado. After changes, including respelling the title, it achieved a run of 288 performances and was profitable. This illustration by Amédée Forestier depicts scenes from the opera for The Illustrated London News. Since D'Oyly Carte revived the piece in 1920, it has been regularly performed. Illustration credit: Amédée Forestier; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Nazca lines Great blue turaco John Rocque's maps of London Archive More featured pictures

May 6

Kajioka Sadamichi commanded the convoy.

The Take Ichi convoy was a Japanese convoy of World War II. The convoy, under the command of rear admiral Sadamichi Kajioka (pictured), left Shanghai on 17 April 1944, carrying two infantry divisions to reinforce Japan's defensive positions in the Philippines and western New Guinea. United States Navy submarines attacked the convoy on 26 April and 6 May, sinking four transports and killing more than 4,000 soldiers. These losses caused the convoy to be diverted to Halmahera, where the surviving soldiers and their equipment were unloaded. The failure to bring the two divisions to their destination without loss contributed to the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters' decision to move Japan's defensive perimeter back by 1,000 km (600 mi). The divisions' combat power was also blunted by their losses, and while they both saw action against United States Army forces, they contributed little to Japan's attempt to defend its empire. (Full article...)

May 6

The Grand Palace in the 1860s

• 1536 – Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Sapa Inca emperor Manco Inca Yupanqui's army began a ten-month siege of Cusco against a garrison of Spanish conquistadors and Indian auxiliaries led by Hernando Pizarro.
• 1782 – Construction began on the Grand Palace (pictured) in Bangkok, the official residence of the king of Thailand.
• 1915 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Aurora, anchored in McMurdo Sound, broke loose during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal in the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean for her 18-man crew.
• 2004 – The final episode of the television sitcom Friends was aired.
• 2013 – Amanda Berry escaped from the Cleveland, Ohio, home of her captor, Ariel Castro, having been held there with two other women for ten years.

May 6

Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel

The American sitcom Friends has earned many awards and nominations. The show aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004. During its run, it won six Primetime Emmy Awards from sixty-two nominations, including the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 and acting wins for cast members Jennifer Aniston (pictured) and Lisa Kudrow. Friends was also nominated five times for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy; Aniston won a Golden Globe in 2003 for her performance. In industry awards, it won two Screen Actors Guild Awards and earned nominations for awards from the Directors, Producers, and Writers Guilds of America. The show was a major popular success and received eleven People's Choice Awards and twelve Teen Choice Awards from audiences. After the show ended, it received the TCA Heritage Award in 2018 and four Emmy nominations for its 2021 reunion special. (Full list...)

May 6

Phoenicolacerta troodica, commonly known as the troodos lizard or troodos wall lizard, is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. It is endemic to Cyprus, where it is common and widespread. Its natural habitats are Mediterranean-type shrubland and rocky areas, in both rural and urban areas. Its length is up to 22cm, with males slightly larger than females. It has a long tail, which can grow to more than twice its body length. This P. troodica individual was photographed under the Elia Bridge in Limassol District, Cyprus. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp Recently featured: Ruddigore Nazca lines Great blue turaco Archive More featured pictures

May 7

Front cover of the first edition

The Structure of Literature is a 1954 book of literary criticism by Paul Goodman, the published version of his doctoral dissertation. It proposes a mode of formal literary analysis in which Goodman defines a formal structure within an isolated literary work, finds how parts of the work interact with each other to form a whole, and uses those definitions to study other works. Goodman analyzes multiple literary works as examples with close reading and genre discussion. Goodman finished his dissertation in 1940, but took 14 years to publish it. In mixed reviews, critics described the book as falling short of its aims; engaging psychological insight and incisive asides were mired in glaring style issues and jargon that made passages impenetrable or obscured his argument. Though Goodman contributed to the development of the Chicago School of Aristotelian formal literary criticism, he neither received wide academic recognition for his dissertation nor was his method accepted by his field. (Full article...)

May 7

Maximilien Robespierre

• 1487 – Granada War: Forces of Aragon and Castile began a siege of Málaga, a Muslim city in the south of the Iberian Peninsula.
• 1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre (pictured) established the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
• 1798 – War of the First Coalition: A British garrison repelled a French attack on the Îles Saint-Marcouf off the Normandy coast, inflicting heavy losses.
• 1937 – Employees at Fleischer Studios in New York City went on strike in the animation industry's first major labor strike.
• 1946 – Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded the telecommunications corporation Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, later renamed Sony.

May 7

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many critics and musicologists as a masterpiece of Western classical music. It is one of the best-known works in common practice music and one of the most frequently performed symphonies worldwide. Symphony No. 9 was the first example of a major composer scoring vocal parts in a symphony. In the 20th century, an instrumental arrangement of the chorus was adopted by the Council of Europe, and later the European Union, as the Anthem of Europe. This photograph displays page 12 of Beethoven's original manuscript and is currently held in the collection of the Berlin State Library. Manuscript credit: Ludwig van Beethoven Recently featured: Phoenicolacerta troodica Ruddigore Nazca lines Archive More featured pictures

May 8

Anna Blackburne (1726 – 30 December 1793) was an English botanist and collector. She was born at Orford Hall in Lancashire into a family of landowners and after her mother's death she remained there with her father, John Blackburne, who had hothouses for exotic plants and an extensive library. Anne taught herself Latin so she could read the Systema Naturae of Carl Linnaeus and created a natural history museum where she collected insects, shells, minerals and birds. She knew the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster who instructed her in entomology, and corresponded with other naturalists, including Linnaeus. Her brother Ashton, who lived in New York, sent her specimens of North American birds. The naturalist Thomas Pennant described these birds in his Arctic Zoology. After her father's death, Anna and her museum moved to nearby Fairfield Hall. After her death, her nephew John Blackburne inherited her collection. Several species are named for her, including the Blackburnian warbler. (Full article...)

May 8: Anniversary of the birth of Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico (1753); Victory in Europe Day (1945)

Lady Blanche Arundell

• 1643 – First English Civil War: The first siege of Wardour Castle ended after six days with the surrender of the Royalist garrison under Lady Blanche Arundell (pictured).
• 1842 – A train derailed and caught fire near Versailles, France, killing at least 52 people.
• 1945 – A parade in Sétif, French Algeria, celebrating the end of World War II in Europe became a riot and was followed by reprisals, carried out by colonial authorities over the following weeks, that killed thousands.
• 1963 – In Huế, South Vietnam, soldiers opened fire into a crowd of Buddhists protesting against a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Phật Đản, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.
• 1972 – Four members of Black September hijacked Sabena Flight 571 to demand the release of 315 Palestinians convicted on terrorism charges.

May 8

Heungseon Daewongun (1821–1898) was the title of Yi Ha-eung, the regent of Joseon during the minority of Emperor Gojong in the 1860s. Until his death, he was a key political figure of late Joseon Korea. He is remembered both for the wide-ranging reforms he attempted during his regency, as well as for what was described by historian Hilary Conroy as "vigorous enforcement of the seclusion policy, persecution of Christians, and the killing or driving off of foreigners who landed on Korean soil". This silk painting of the Daewongun was created by an unknown artist in around 1869 and is designated as a Treasure of Korea. Photograph credit: unknown Recently featured: Symphony No. 9 Phoenicolacerta troodica Ruddigore Archive More featured pictures