Today in History - History - May 1st

1979Elton John becomes 1st pop star to perform in Israel

1753Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.

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

1961Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

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

1951Mickey Mantle's 1st HR

1961Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba

1936FBI's J. Edgar Hoover arrests Alvin Karpis

1991Texas Ranger Nolan Ryan pitches record 7th no hitter (beats Toronto 3-0)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1881Physiologist Ivan Pavlov (32) weds Seraphima Karchevskaya

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

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

1967King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley (32) weds actress Priscilla Beaulieu (21) at Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada

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

1998Cyclist Lance Armstrong weds Kristin Richard (divorced 2003)

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

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

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