Today in History - History - May 1st

2010Canadian singer Bryan Adams is given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts

1981Tennis player Billie Jean King acknowledges a lesbian relationship with Marilyn Barnett - becoming first prominent sportswoman to come out

20032003 invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" on board the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.

1959Floyd Patterson KOs Brian London in 11 for heavyweight boxing title

1991Rickey Henderson breaks Lou Brocks record with his 939th steal

1987Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish born nun

1920Babe Ruth's 1st Yankee HR & 50th of career, out of Polo Grounds

1994"Rise & Fall of Little Voice" opens at Neil Simon NYC for 9 perfs

1984Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) files for bankruptcy

305Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.

1852Calamity Jane, Princeton Missouri, American frontierswoman (Wild Bill Hickok)

1769Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington and British Prime Minister (Tory) (1828-30)

1975Jodhi May, London, British actress (A World Apart, The Other Boleyn Girl)

1738Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii (1782-1819) (d. 1819)

1998"Reality Bites" actor Ethan Hawke (27) weds "Pulp Fiction" actress Uma Thurman (28)

1917Country singer Jimmie Rodgers (19) weds Stella Kelley

2010Actor-producer Seth Green (36) weds actress Clare Grant (30) at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Nacasio, California

1850Soldier William Tecumseh Sherman (30) weds Eleanor Boyle Ewing in Washington, D.C.

1954Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (36) weds Imelda Romualdez (24) in a Catholic church

1980Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko (49) weds Bobi Ladawa

1840Women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton (24) weds fellow abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton (34)

1982Actress Kate Jackson (33) weds business executive David Greenwald in Beverly Hills, California

1881Physiologist Ivan Pavlov (32) weds Seraphima Karchevskaya

1998Cyclist Lance Armstrong weds Kristin Richard (divorced 2003)

1945Paul Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi Minister of Propoganda, commits suicide aged 47 with his wife and arranges the death of his 6 children aged

1873David Livingstone, British physician/explorer (Africa), dies at 60