On this day

1296 - An English army, led by Edward I, defeated the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar.

1972 - Apollo 16 returned to Earth after a manned voyage to the moon.

1992 - The House of Commons elected a woman to the post of Speaker for the first time. She was Betty Boothroyd, the 62-year-old Labour MP for West Bromwich.

2006 - Construction began on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.

1901 - 1st soccer/football game between Belgium (8) & Netherlands (0)

1937 - 1st commercial flight across the Pacific, Pan Am (Pan American World Airways)

1952 - WW II Pacific peace treaty takes effect

2001 - Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.

1772 - The world's most travelled goat died in London. She had circumnavigated the world twice, first on Dolphin under Captain Wallis, then on Cook's Endeavour. The Lord of the Admiralty signed a document acknowledging her age and adventures, but she died soon after. Okay then! lol.

1789 - The crew of the Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied against the harsh life at sea under Captain Bligh. They were on the return journey from Tahiti where they had spent six months gathering breadfruit trees. Bligh and 17 others were cast adrift in a small boat without a chart. While the mutineers eventually colonized Pitcairn Island, Bligh managed to sail the small craft 3,618 miles to Timor, near Java, arriving there on 14th June.

1429 - Joan of Arc arrived at the besieged city of Orleans to eventually lead her French forces to victory (on May 6th) over the English.

1935 - Just one year after their invention by Percy Shaw of Yorkshire, "cats' eyes" were being inserted into British roads.

1980 - Alfred Hitchcock, English film director died.

1990 - Scottish snooker player Stephen Hendry beat Jimmy White 18 frames to 12 to become the youngest ever world champion at the age of 21 years and 106 days.

1974 - Red Rum won the Grand National at Aintree for second year running.

1987 - The picture 'Sunflowers', painted by Vincent van Gogh was sold at auction by Christie's for £24,750,000.

2002 - Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, (born August 4th 1900), died peacefully in her sleep, aged 101.

1st of May.

1873 - The 1st US postal card issued.

1883 William F. Cody, better known as 'Buffalo Bill' Cody puts on his first Wild West Show.

1883 - 1931 - Empire State Building opens in New York City.

1997 - Toni Blair is elected Prime Minister of the UK

May Day - originally a Roman festival which began on 28th April and lasted several days to mark the commencement of summer. In England, middle and lower classes would gather flowers - ‘go a maying’ - and the prettiest village maid was crowned Queen of the May, celebrated with dancing around the maypole.

1707 - The Union of England and Scotland was proclaimed.

1519 - Leonardo da Vinci died.

1945 - Russians took Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting. The Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.

1982 - The British submarine HMS Conqueror sank Argentina's only cruiser, the General Belgrano during the Falkland Islands War. More than 350 people died.

1994 - Nelson Mandela claimed victory after South Africa's first democratic elections

Birthdays

1903 Bing Crosby
1975 David Beckham

1765 - The 1st US medical college opens in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

1830 - The 1st regular steam train passenger service starts.

1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of Great Britain.

2007 - British girl Madeleine McCann disappears from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

1934 - Science fiction writer H.G.Wells predicted there would be a world war before 1940.

1956 - Granada TV broadcast for the first time at 7.30 p.m. With the ending of the BBC's monopoly on broadcasting, viewers saw their first television advertising and four days later Granada did the first sports outside broadcast.

1968 - The first heart transplant in Britain was carried out at the National Heart Hospital in Marylebone, London. It was undertaken on an unnamed 45-year-old man.

1999 - The body of missing English climber George Mallory was found near the summit of Mount Everest. He had gone missing more than 60 years earlier.