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ON THIS DAY

On This Day: May 1

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On May 1, 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
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On May 1, 1907, Kate Smith, the American singer who was considered the "first lady of radio," was born. Following her death on June 17, 1986, her obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

1707	The Kingdom of Great Britain was created as a treaty merging England and Scotland took effect.
1786	Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" premiered in Vienna.
1941	The Orson Welles film "Citizen Kane" premiered in New York.
1948	The People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed.
1960	The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
1967	Anastasio Somoza Debayle became president of Nicaragua.
1967	Singer Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.
1971	Amtrak went into service, combining and streamlining the operations of 18 intercity passenger railroads.
1992	On the third day of the Los Angeles riots, Rodney King appeared in public to appeal for calm, asking "Can we all get along?"
1999	The Mercury space capsule Liberty Bell 7 that Gus Grissom flew in 1961 was found in the Atlantic Ocean 300 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
2001	Thomas E. Blanton Jr. became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that claimed the lives of four black girls. (He was later sentenced to life in prison.)
2003	President George W. Bush landed in a jet on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast and, in a speech to the nation, declared major combat in Iraq over.
2009	Supreme Court Justice David Souter announced his retirement effective at the end of the court's term in June. (He was replaced by Sonia Sotomayor.)

Current Birthdays

Country singer Tim McGraw turns 44 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

Director Wes Anderson turns 42 years old today.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

1925	Chuck Bednarik, Football Hall of Famer, turns 86
1925	Scott Carpenter, Former astronaut, turns 86
1939	Judy Collins, Folk singer, turns 72
1945	Rita Coolidge, Singer, turns 66
1951	Dann Florek, Actor ("Law and Order: SVU"), turns 60
1954	Ray Parker Jr., R&B singer, turns 57
1972	Julie Benz, Actress ("Dexter," "Angel"), turns 39
1973	Curtis Martin, Football player, turns 38

Historic Birthdays

Kate Smith5/1/1907 - 6/17/1986American radio and television singer.Go to obituary »

47	Joseph Addison 5/1/1672 - 6/17/1719 English essayist, poet and dramatist
56	Benjamin Latrobe 5/1/1764 - 9/3/1820 British-born American architect and civil engineer
83	Arthur Wellesley 5/1/1769 - 9/14/1852 English general; defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (1815)
48	Jose Alencar 5/1/1829 - 12/12/1877 Brazilian journalist, novelist and playwright
100	Mary Harris Jones 5/1/1830 - 11/30/1930 American labor organizer known as "Mother Jones"
87	Cecilia Beaux 5/1/1855 - 9/17/1942 American portrait painter
73	Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 5/1/1881 - 4/10/1955 French philosopher and paleontologist
87	Mark Clark 5/1/1896 - 4/17/1984 American army general during World War II and the Korean War
93	Eugene Black 5/1/1898 - 2/20/1992 American financier; president of the World Bank (1949-62)
60	Winthrop Rockefeller 5/1/1912 - 2/22/1973 American philanthropist and governor of Arkansas (1967-71)
71	Terry Southern 5/1/1924 - 10/29/1995 American novelist and screenwriter