2003: Invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".
2002: OpenOffice.org released version 1.0, the first stable version of the software.
2001: Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares the existence of "a state of rebellion", hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion.
1971: Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.
1970: Protests erupt following the announcement by Richard Nixon that American and South Vietnamese forces would attack Vietnamese communists in a Cambodian Campaign.
1965: Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC, takes place.
1961: The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
1945: World War II: Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide in the Reich Garden outside the Führerbunker. Their children are also killed by having cyanide pills inserted into their mouths by their mother, Magda.
1945: World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.
1944: World War II: Two hundred Communist prisoners are shot by the Germans at Kaisariani, Athens in reprisal for the killing of General Franz Krech by partisans at Molaoi.
1929: The 7.2 Mw Kopet Dag earthquake shakes the Iran-Turkmenistan border region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing up to 3,800 and injuring 1,121.
1915: The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her 202nd, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.
1900: The Scofield Mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.
1886: Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day in many countries.
1846: The few remaining Mormons left in Nauvoo, Illinois, formally dedicate the Nauvoo Temple.
1844: Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second modern police force and Asia's first, is established.
1840: The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.
1820: Execution of the Cato Street Conspirators
1794: War of the Pyrenees: The Battle of Boulou ends, in which French forces defeat the Spanish and regain nearly all the land they lost to Spain in 1793.