Today In History

Today is Wednesday, May 1, the 122nd day of 2024. There are 244 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden during a U.S. commando operation. (Because of the time difference, it was early May 2 in Pakistan, where the al-Qaida leader met his end.)

ON THIS DATE

› 1707: The Kingdom of Great Britain was created as a treaty merging England and Scotland took effect.

› 1866: Three days of race-related rioting erupted in Memphis, Tennessee, as white mobs targeted Black people, 46 of whom were killed, along with two whites.

› 1960: The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

› 1971: The intercity passenger rail service Amtrak went into operation.

› 1991: Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers threw his seventh no-hitter at age 44, shutting out the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0.

› 2015: Baltimore’s top prosecutor charged six police officers with felonies ranging from assault to murder in the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who’d suffered a spinal injury while riding in a police van.

› 2020: U.S. regulators allowed emergency use of remdesivir, the first drug that appeared to help some COVID-19 patients recover faster.

› 2022: A long-awaited effort to evacuate people from a sprawling steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol began. The United Nations said the operation was being carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross and in coordination with Ukrainian and Russian officials.

› 2023: Regulators seized troubled First Republic Bank in the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Singer Judy Collins is 85. Actor Stephen Macht is 82. Singer Rita Coolidge is 79. Pop singer Nick Fortuna (The Buckinghams) is 78. Actor-director Douglas Barr is

75. Actor Dann Florek is 73. Singer-songwriter Ray Parker Jr. is 70. Actor Byron Stewart is 68. Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen is 64. Actor Maia Morgenstern is 62. Actor Scott Coffey is 60. Country singer Wayne Hancock is 59. Actor Charlie Schlatter is 58. Country singer Tim McGraw is

57. Rock musician Johnny Colt is 56. Rock musician D’Arcy Wretzky is

56. Movie director Wes Anderson is 55. Actor Julie Benz is 52. Actor Bailey Chase is 52. Country singer Cory Morrow is 52. Gospel/R&B singer Tina Campbell (Mary Mary) is 50. Actor Darius McCrary is 48. Actor Jamie Dornan is 42. Actor Kerry Bishe is 40. TV personality Abby Huntsman is 38. Actor Lizzy Greene is 21.