#TodayInHistory – May 1

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May 1 – Some important events on this day

1006 👉🏼 Supernova observed by Chinese and Egyptians in constellation Lupus
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
1707 👉🏼 Acts of Union comes into force, uniting England and Scotland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain

1753 👉🏼 Publication of Species Plantarum by Carolus Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Carolus Linnaeus is the father of modern taxonomy. He defined the principles for grouping, ranking and naming organisms into genera and species(binomial nomenclature).

1786 👉🏼 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “Marriage of Figaro” premieres in Vienna with Mozart himself directing.
1795 👉🏼 Kamehameha, King of Hawaiʻi defeats Kalanikupule and conquors island of Oʻahu at Battle of Nuʻuanu (approximative date).

1840 👉🏼 “Penny Black”, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp issued by Great Britain.
The Penny Black was the world’s first adhesive postal stamp used by a public postal system. The stamp features a profile of a young Queen Victoria.
In 1837 it was normal for the recipient to pay postage on delivery, charged by the sheet and on distance traveled making posting and receiving a simple letter a complex affair.
To simplify things, Rowland Hill proposed an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage. The Penny Black and later other stamps, allowed letters of up to 1⁄2 ounce (14 grams) to be delivered, regardless of distance at a flat rate of one penny.
The total print run was 286,700 sheets, a total of 68,808,000 stamps, each now worth around £500.

1841 👉🏼 First emigrant wagon train leaves Independence, Missouri, for California
1852 👉🏼 Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm publish the first part of their German Dictionary (fully completed 1961)
1853 👉🏼 Argentina adopts its constitution 🇦🇷
1854 👉🏼 Amsterdam begins transferring drinking water out of the dunes
1886 👉🏼 US general strike for 8-hour working day begins
1898 👉🏼 US Admiral George Dewey commands “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley” as US route Spanish fleet at Manila
1909 👉🏼 Netherlands begins unity with Belgium
1931 👉🏼 Empire State Building opens in New York City

1939 👉🏼 Batman first appears in Detective Comics #27.
One of the most famous comic book characters of them all, Batman, was the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger and soon became popular enough after his debut in 1939 that he gained his own comic book in 1940.
Since then he has been portrayed by all manner of people, whether it be Adam West, George Clooney, Christian Bale or Ben Affleck. The popularity of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy of films helped reinvigorate his popularity with a newer generation in the 21st century.

1952 👉🏼 Mr Potato Head introduced 🥔

1955 👉🏼 Showgirl Linda Lawson is crowned “Miss-Cue” in the Atomic Pageant, after the Operation Cue test is repeatedly delayed by high winds.
The 1950s atomic era was a period of paranoia, communist scares, McCarthyism and… beauty pageants. Nuclear themed beauty pageants, of course!
In 1955, Linda Lawson was declared the winner of the Atomic Pageant. Her victory coincided with the Operation Cue atomic tests, which were long delayed by high winds and weather, so she became known as “Miss-Cue”.
There were four winners, with the last crowned in 1957. They took place in Las Vegas to celebrate the city’s two main attractions: nuclear bombs and showgirls.