On This Day (May 1)

[MSFixR]

• 1707 – The Kingdoms of England and Scotland merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, a single kingdom encompassing the entire island of Great Britain with a single parliament and government based in Westminster.
• 1738 - King Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii born. (d. 1819) (Kamehameha conquered the Hawaiian Islands and formally established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. By developing alliances with the major Pacific colonial powers, Kamehameha preserved Hawaii's independence under his rule.)
  
  
  King Kamehameha I
  
  
• 1753 - Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
• 1840 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland first issued the Penny Black (pictured), the first official adhesive postage stamp.
  
  
  
  
• 1852 - Calamity Jane, American Wild West performer born. (d. 1903) (Martha Jane Cannary-Burke, better known as Calamity Jane (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), was a frontierswoman and professional scout best known for her claim of being a close friend of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native Americans.)
• 1869 - The Folies Bergère opens in Paris.
• 1893 – The World's Columbian Exposition, a World's Fair to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, opened in Chicago.
• 1898 – The American Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish Pacific Squadron under Admiral Patricio Montojo at the Battle of Manila Bay, the first engagement of the Spanish-American War.
• 1909 - Kate Smith, American singer born. (d. 1986) (Smith was an American singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a long career in show business, with a radio, TV and recording career that spanned five decades, reaching its most-remembered zenith in the 1940s.)
  
  
  God Bless America (Words and music by Irving Berlin)
  
  
• 1924 - Terry Southern, American screenwriter born. (d. 1995) (Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider)
• 1930 - The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
• 1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
• 1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis – Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking off a diplomatic crisis.
• 1978 - The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a DEC marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.