Today in History, May 1st
On May 1, 1960, the Soviets shot down Francis Gary Powers's U-2 spy plane. Plus the Empire State Building, Manila Bay and Citizen Kane.
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May 1 is best known for 1960, when the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. The same date saw the Empire State Building dedicated in 1931 and George Dewey’s fleet destroy Spain’s Pacific squadron at Manila Bay in 1898.
The big story: A U-2 spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union (1960)
The U-2 was built to fly where nothing could touch it, as high as 70,000 feet. On May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers was flying one deep over the Soviet Union on a spying mission when the Soviets brought it down. Washington reached for a cover story: a weather plane had wandered off course and crashed. Officials felt safe saying so because the CIA had promised the plane would self-destruct and the pilot would not be taken alive. Neither promise held. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev produced the mostly intact wreckage and then the pilot himself, very much alive. President Dwight Eisenhower had to admit the truth. The timing was terrible. A summit of the U.S., Soviet, British and French leaders opened in Paris on May 16, meant to tackle Berlin and nuclear arms. Khrushchev attacked Eisenhower at the first session, walked out, and the meeting collapsed. Powers was traded for a captured Soviet spy in 1962.
More events on May 1
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1786 | Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, his first work with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna. |
| 1851 | The Great Exhibition, Prince Albert’s showcase of industry from around the world, opened in London’s Crystal Palace. About 6 million people visited before it closed in October. |
| 1898 | In the first battle of the Spanish-American War, Commodore George Dewey’s squadron destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines. Six Americans were wounded. |
| 1926 | Ford Motor Company moved its factory workers to a five-day, 40-hour week, one of the first American companies to do so. |
| 1931 | President Herbert Hoover pressed a button in Washington to dedicate the Empire State Building in New York, then the world’s tallest skyscraper. It had gone up in just over a year. |
| 1941 | Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane premiered at the RKO Palace Theater in New York after Radio City Music Hall refused to show it. William Randolph Hearst, the publisher who inspired the character, had campaigned against the film. |
| 1967 | Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in a short ceremony in a suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. |
| 1997 | British voters gave Tony Blair’s Labour Party a landslide win in a general election, ending 18 years of Conservative government. |
| 2004 | Ten countries joined the European Union, including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the three Baltic states. The EU has described the moment as finally ending the division of Europe. |
Born on May 1
- 1909: Kate Smith, singer known as “the first lady of radio,” who introduced “God Bless America,” born in Greenville, Virginia.
- 1916: Glenn Ford, film actor, born in Sainte-Christine, Quebec.
- 1969: Wes Anderson, film director and screenwriter, born in Houston.
Sources
- American U-2 spy plane shot down, History.com
- This Day in History: May 1, History.com
- Great Exhibition opens, History.com
- The Battle of Manila Bay, History.com
- Empire State Building dedicated, History.com
- Citizen Kane released, History.com
- History of the European Union, 2000–09, European Union
- Kate Smith, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Glenn Ford, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Wes Anderson, Biography.com
