What happened on 1 May?

24 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1707 Acts of Union 1707 Parliaments of England and Scotland merge to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
2. 1851 Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace Showcase of industry and empire in Hyde Park; symbol of the Victorian high tide.
3. 1786 Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro premieres Comic opera based on Beaumarchais's play that the censors had banned.
4. 1781 Kant's Critique of Pure Reason Kant's revolution in epistemology - synthetic a priori judgments - foundational to modern philosophy.
5. 1941 Citizen Kane Orson Welles's debut feature, regularly named the greatest film ever made.
6. 1931 Empire State Building New York skyscraper that defined the Manhattan skyline for forty years.
7. 1849 Thoreau's Civil Disobedience Essay arguing the duty to disobey unjust government.
8. 2004 EU eastern enlargement Ten states — eight of them former communist — join the European Union in its biggest single expansion; Romania and Bulgaria follow in 2007, Croatia in 2013.
9. 1876 Victoria becomes Empress of India Royal Titles Act adds 'Empress of India' to Victoria's titles; Disraeli's flourish marks high tide of imperial monarchy.
10. 2004 EU eastward enlargement Ten mostly former-Communist countries join the European Union.
11. 1997 1997 UK general election Blair's New Labour wins 418 seats and a 179-seat majority, ending eighteen years of Conservative government in the party's greatest landslide.
12. 1756 The Diplomatic Revolution Europe's alliances flip overnight: Austria, hunting revenge for Silesia, allies with its ancient enemy France, and Britain signs with Prussia — the reversal sealed by the Treaty of
13. 1888 Tesla patents the AC induction motor Tesla's polyphase alternating-current motor, quickly licensed by George Westinghouse, becomes the basis of the modern electrical grid.
14. 1956 Hundred Flowers Campaign Brief CCP encouragement of criticism, soon reversed into the Anti-Rightist purge.
15. 1845 Douglass's Narrative published The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass names names and places, demolishing the claim that no former slave could have written it.
16. 1464 Edward IV secretly marries Elizabeth Woodville The young king secretly weds a Lancastrian knight's widow, wrecking Warwick the Kingmaker's French marriage plans and raising her large family to power — the breach that would turn
17. 1761 Haydn enters the service of the Esterházy princes Haydn becomes vice-Kapellmeister to Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, beginning nearly thirty years of isolation at Eszterháza in which, he said, he was 'forced to become original'.
18. 305 Diocletian abdicates Unique abdication of a Roman emperor; Diocletian retires to his palace at Spalatum (Split) to grow cabbages.
19. 1897 Ramakrishna Mission founded Back from the West, Vivekananda founds an order in his guru Ramakrishna's name to combine monastic Vedanta with schools, hospitals and famine relief.
20. 1862 Parkesine — first man-made plastic Alexander Parkes exhibits Parkesine (nitrocellulose-based) at the Great London Exposition; first plastic material, ancestor of celluloid.
21. 1873 Death of David Livingstone Livingstone dies kneeling by his bed at Chitambo's village while searching for the Nile's source; his servants Chuma and Susi bury his heart under a tree and carry his body a thous
22. 1903 Edward VII's state visit to Paris Greeted with jeers over the Boer War, the francophile king charms Paris in four days of speeches and theatre visits, clearing the way for the Entente Cordiale a year later.
23. 1918 Russell jailed for opposing the war Already sacked from Trinity for pacifism, Russell is sentenced to six months in Brixton for a pamphlet insulting the US Army; he writes a book on mathematical philosophy in his cel
24. 2008 Boris Johnson elected Mayor of London The tousled Tory journalist unseats Ken Livingstone to win City Hall, the platform that turns him into a national political celebrity.