Sunday 1st of May 1555

222nd Pope Marcellus II dies of a stroke at the age of 54 in Vatican City, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Monday 1st of May 1572

225th Pope Pius V dies of cancer at the age of 65 in Vatican City, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Pope Pius V was beatified by Pope Clemens X in the year 1672 and was later canonized by Pope Clemens XI on 22 May 1712.

Sunday 1st of May 1853

Frontierswoman and professional scout Martha Jane Canary aka Calamity Jane is born in Princeton, Missouri, United States.

Thursday 1st of May 1873

Explorer and pioneer medical missionary David Livingstone dies of malaria and internal bleeding caused by dysentery at the age of 60 in Chief Chitambo's Village, Ilala, Zambia.

Livingstone's heart was buried under a Mvula tree near the spot where he died, now the site of the Livingstone Memorial.

Saturday 1st of May 1897

52-year-old Murderer and cannibal Adolph Louis Luetgert aka The Sausage King kills his 40-year-old wife Louisa Bicknese in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Luetgert probably mixed Louisa's remains in the meat at his sausage company. Metatarsal bones, a toe phalanx, rib and head were found in the furnace.

Tuesday 1st of May 1900

246 die in coal mine dust explosion in Winter Quarters, Scofield, Utah, United States.

Sunday 1st of May 1904

Composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák dies of attack of influenza at the age of 63 in Praha, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia.

Saturday 1st of May 1915

Vorsitzender des Bundesverbandes der Deutschen Industrie Hanns Martin Schleyer is born in Offenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Tuesday 1st of May 1923

Writer and playwright Joseph Heller known for his novel ‘Catch-22’ is born in New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Friday 1st of May 1931

The Empire State Building is officially opened by 57-year-old 31st President of the United States Herbert Clark Hoover in Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Avenue, New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.

Actually President Herbert Hoover turned on the building's lights with the push of a button from Washington, D.C.

Friday 1st of May 1942

Multiple murderer Raymond Lisenba aka Rattlesnake James is executed by hanging at the age of 48 in San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, California, United States.

Lisenba killed his wife Mary Busch by sticking her leg in a box with two rattlesnakes. Busch didn't die from the poison so Lisenba drowned her. Lisenba was the last man to be executed by hanging in San Quentin. The rope was the wrong length and it took over ten minutes for Rattlesnake James to die.

Tuesday 1st of May 1945

Nazi leader and Reichspropagandaleiter Joseph Paul Goebbels commits suicide by cyanide poisoning and a shot through the head at the age of 48 in Führerbunker, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

At 20.00hrs Goebbels arranged for SS dentist Helmut Kunz to inject his six children with morphine. When they were unconscious, Magda Goebbels and Ludwig Stumpfegger, Hitler's personal doctor who then crushed cyanide capsules in their mouths. Shortly afterwards Goebbels and his wife went up to the garden of the bunker where they killed themselves.

Tuesday 1st of May 1945

Wife of Joseph Goebbels Magda Johanna Maria Magdalena Ritschel aka Engelchen commits suicide cyanide poisoning and a shot through the head at the age of 44 in Führerbunker, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Sunday 1st of May 1960

A Lockheed U-2 spy aircraft with 31-year-old United States Air Force pilot Francis Gary Powers known from the 1960 U-2 incident on board is shot down by the first of three SA-2 Guideline (S-75 Dvina) surface-to-air missiles fired by a battery commanded by Mikhail Voronov in Aramil, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.

Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years imprisonment and seven years hard labor but would be released two years later on 10 February 1962 during a prisoner exchange for Soviet officer Rudolf Abel.

Sunday 1st of May 1966

17-year-old Marysa Galazka is stabbed to death, raped and mutilated by serial killer Łucjan Staniak aka The Red Spider of Katowice in Warszawa, Żoliborz, Województwo Mazowieckie, Poland.

Tuesday 1st of May 1973

27-year-old Performance and installation artist Chris Christopher Burden performs 'Movie on the Way Down' in Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, United States.

Tuesday 1st of May 1973

15-year-old Kathy Sue Miller is assaulted and hammered to death by serial killer Harvey Carignan aka The Want-Ad Killer aka Harv the Hammer in Everett, Washington, United States.

Wednesday 1st of May 1974

Murder gang The Black Zebra Killers aka The Death Angels JC Simon, Manuel Moore and Larry Green are arrested in San Francisco, California, United States.

Saturday 1st of May 1982

36-year-old Mass murderer Freddy André Horion aka De Zonnebril escapes with cellmate Albertus Hartman from prison in Centrale Gevangenis, Geldenaakse Vest, Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium.

Horion was captured in Haarlem, Netherlands on 9 June.

Wednesday 1st of May 1985

Fourteenth bomb attack by Terrorist organisation Les Cellules Communistes Combattantes aka CCC in Fédération des Entreprises de Belgique, Stuiversstraat, Brussel, Brabant, Belgium.

Despite warnings two fire-fighters are killed near the bomb car.

Friday 1st of May 1998

Minister of Information of the Black Panthers Eldridge Leroy Cleaver known for Soul on Ice dies of diabetes and prostate cancer at the age of 63 in Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, Pomona, California, United States.

Wednesday 1st of May 2002

43-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Six Pack' in Le Petit Théâtre Mercelis, 13 Rue Mercelis, Brussel, Ixelles, Brabant, Belgium.

I was pulled up by my feet with a rope. A filmloop of a car ride at night was projected onto me. While I was hanging upside down I cut the knot that fastened the rope with an axe so I fell down on the floor.

Sunday 1st of May 2005

Cossacks waiting for an orthodox service to begin in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia.