NOW & THEN
1MAY
1517: “Evil May Day” riots in London as apprentices attacked foreign residents. Sixty rioters later were hanged.
1522: England declared war on France and Scotland.
1648: Scots began second Civil War.
1650: The present metrical version of the Psalms came into official use in the Kirk of Scotland. 1707: The Act of Union between Scotland and England came into force.
1840: The first Penny Black stamps with Queen Victoria’s head went on sale five days before the official issue date. 1851: The Great Exhibition was opened in Hyde Park by Queen Victoria..
1912: The statue of Peter Pan was installed in Kensington Gardens, London. JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, commissioned and paid for the statue, although children were told fairies put it there.
1925: Cyprus was declared a British crown colony.
1931: President Hoover opened New York’s Empire State Building, 1,245ft high, with 102 floors. 1949: Britain’s gas industry was nationalised.
1960: American U-2 reconnaissance plane, piloted by Gary Powers, was shot down in the Soviet Union. Powers, who parachuted to safety, pleaded guilty and was convicted of espionage on 19 August and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and seven years of hard labour. He served one and three-quarter years of the sentence before being exchanged for Rudolf Abel on 10 February, 1962.
1961: The Betting and Gaming Act came into force, and betting shops opened in Britain.
1982: British Vulcan bombers flew epic 3,500 miles from Ascension Island to bomb Falklands airport at Port Stanley. 1990: Secret naval documents published in The Scotsman revealed history of accidents involving the multi-million pound submarine hoists at Faslane.
1991: Government forced War Crimes Bill through, using Parliament Act for first time in 40 years to override Lords objections.
1994: World motor racing champion Ayrton Senna was killed when his car hit a wall at 190mph during the San Marino Grand Prix.
1997: Seven Tory Cabinet ministers lost their seats as Labour
swept back to power after 18 years in a general election landslide and Tony Blair became prime minister.
2003: Ten countries – Estonia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – joined the 25-member European Union.
2010: New York City police defused an improvised car bomb parked in Times Square. Propane tanks, fireworks, petrol and a clock device were removed from a parked sports utility vehicle.
2011: The late Pope, John Paul II, was officially beatified at a ceremony at the Vatican in front of hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful.
2019: Beavers became a legally protected species in Scotland, a decade after they were reintroduced to Scottish waterways.
Rodger Arneil, Scottish rugby player, 77; Julie Benz, US actress, 49; Steve Cauthen, US jockey, 61; Roger Chapman, British golfer, 62; Judy Collins, US singer, 82; Rita Coolidge, US pianist/singer, 76; Ian Curteis, British playwright and film director, 86; Tony Dobbin, Northern Irish jockey, 49; Professor Phillip King, sculptor, president of the Royal Academy of Arts 1997-2004, 87; Joanna Lumley OBE, British actress, 75; Danny Mcgrain MBE, Scottish footballer, 71; Julian Mitchell, British author, 86; Antony Worrall Thompson, British TV chef and restaurateur, 70; Aliona Vilani, dancer, 37.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1672 Joseph Addison, poet, essayist and co-founder of The Spectator; 1878 James Graham, 6th Duke of Montrose, inventor; 1916 Glenn Ford, actor; 1923 Joseph Heller, author (Catch-22).
Deaths: 1859 John Walker, inventor of friction match; 1904 Antonin Dvorák, composer; 1994 Ayrton Senna, world motor racing champion; 1998 Justin Fashanu, footballer; 2011 Ted Lowe MBE, British snooker commentator; 2011 Sir Henry Cooper OBE, former British heavyweight boxing champion.