ON THIS DAY MAY 1

1489 Christopher Columbus proposes his plan to search for a western route to India in an audience with Spanish monarch, Isabella I. Full support is granted 3 years later, in 1492. 1840 The “Penny Black”, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp is issued by Great Britain.

1854 Amsterdam begins transferring drinking water out of the dunes (fresh rainwater filters through the sandy dunes and floats on top of the salt water from where it can be pumped up, purified, and used as fresh drinking water). 1940 One hundred and forty Palestinian Jews die as German planes bomb their ship.

1948 Glenn Taylor, Idaho Senator, arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked “for Negroes”. 1959 West Germany introduces a 5-day work week.

1960 Russia shoots down Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk, prompting a diplomatic outcry from the US. 1961 Fidel Castro announces that there will be no more elections in Cuba.

1991 The Angolan civil war ends.

1994 Three-time World Formula 1 Drivers’ champion Ayrton Senna of Brazil is killed in a 309km/h crash while leading the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in Italy.

2014 Hundreds march through Nigerian capital, Abuja, calling for the release of schoolgirls abducted by Islamic militants, Boko Haram, who oppose Western education. 2018 Liverpool’s Egyptian soccer forward Mohamed Salah becomes the first African to be named England Footballer of the Year. 2018 Violent May Day protests in Paris by far-left Black Blocs group result in 200 arrests. 2019 Naruhito officially succeeds his father Akihito as the Emperor of Japan after the latter abdicates due to ill health.

2019 Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya loses an appeal against proposed rules to limit her testosterone levels; medically reducing levels is the only way to continue competition.

2020 Tweets by Elon Musk, saying that Tesla’s share price is too high, wipe $14 billion off the carmaker’s value. He owns Tesla. | THE HISTORIAN