TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2018 On this day in history:

0408 - Theodosius II succeeded to the throne of Constantinople.

1308 - King Albert was murdered by his nephew John, because he refused his share of the Habsburg lands. 1486 - Christopher Columbus convinced Queen Isabella to fund an expedition to the West Indies.

1707 - England, Wales and Scotland were united to form Great Britain.

1770 - Forby Sutherland becomes the first Englishman to be buried on Australian soil. 1839 - Eyre departs Adelaide to explore country to the north.

1891 - Australia’s first May Day marches are held in support of the shearers’ strike in Barcaldine.

1912 - In London’s Kensington Gardens, a statue of Peter Pan was erected.

1927 - Adolf Hitler held his first Nazi meeting in Berlin. 1945 - Martin Bormann, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, escaped from the Fuehrerbunker as the Red Army advanced on Berlin. 1945 - Admiral Karl Doenitz succeeded Hitler as leader of the Third Reich. This was one day after Hitler committed suicide.

1948 - The People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed. 1961 - Fidel Castro announced there would be no more elections in Cuba.

1967 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle became president of Nicaragua.

1986 - The Tass News Agency reported the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. 1999 - On Mount Everest, a group of US mountain climbers discovered the body of George Mallory. Mallory had died in June of 1924 while trying to become the first person to reach the summit of Everest. At the time of the discovery it was unclear whether or not Mallory had actually reached the summit. 2011 - U.S. President Barack Obama announced that U.S. soldiers had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

2011 - Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.