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May 2, 2014 – Segment 1
Marc shares some of the events that happened on this day in history, including the deaths of J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy, the birth of guitar legend Link Wray, and the evacuation of the city of Chernobyl six days after the disaster.
EVENTS
1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.
1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Loch Leven Castle.
1611 – The King James Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.
1670 – King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
1808 – Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.
1867 – Chicago’s first Trades Assembly, formed three years earlier, sponsors a general strike by thousands of workers to enforce the state’s new 8-hour-day law. The one-week strike was unsuccessful
1876 – The April Uprising breaks out in Bulgaria.
1879 – The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party is founded in Casa Labra Pub (city of Madrid) by the historical Spanish workers’ leader Pablo Iglesias.
1885 – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Léopold II of Belgium.
1911 – First Workers’ Compensation law in U.S. enacted, in Wisconsin
1920 – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis.
1933 – Nazi forces occupy the headquarters, seize the funds, and imprison the leaders of two of Germany’s largest trade union federations, comprised of 41 unions representing about 4.5 million workers. Independent trade unions were abolished
1945 – World War II: Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building.
1946 – The “Battle of Alcatraz” takes place; two guards and three inmates are killed.
1955 – Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
1964 – Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the USS Card while it is docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship. She is raised and returned to service less than seven months later.
1980 – Joy Division played what would be their last gig with singer Ian Curtis when they appeared at Birmingham University, England. Curtis committed suicide two weeks later.
1986 – The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster
1989 – Hungary begins dismantling its border fence with Austria, which allows a number of East Germans to defect.
1991 – The video for the R.E.M. song ‘Losing My Religion’, was banned in Ireland because its religious imagery was seen as unfit for broadcast.
1992 – Los Angeles begins clean up and rebuilding after the Rodney King riots (58 deaths, 600 fires, 1 billion dollars of property damage)
1995 – During the Croatian War of Independence, Serb forces fire cluster bombs at Zagreb, killing seven and wounding over 175 civilians.
1999 – Panamanian election, 1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
2000 – President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.
2004 – Yelwa massacre ended. It began on 4 February 2004 when armed Muslims attacked the Christians of Yelwa killing more than 78 Christians including at least 48 who were worshipping inside a church compound. More than 630 nomad Muslims were killed by Christians in Nigeria.
2008 – Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.
2011 – Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI’s most wanted man is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
BIRTHS
1729 – Catherine the Great, Russian wife of Peter III of Russia (d. 1796)
1830 – Richard Trevellick, a ship carpenter, founder of American National Labor Union and later head of the National Labor Congress, America’s first national labor organization
1860 – Theodor Herzl, Austrian journalist. Zionist and author (d. 1904)
1903 – Benjamin Spock, American rower, pediatrician, author, and one of the Boston 5 (along with Marcus Raskin, father of Jamie Raskin) (d. 1998)
1904 – Bing Crosby, US singer who recorded an estimated 2,600 songs in his lifetime including ‘White Christmas’, which was written by Irving Berlin. Crosby had 317 other hits in the USA. Died of a heart attack on a golf course in Madrid, Spain, on October 14, 1977.
1929 – Link Wray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Wray was credited with inventing ‘fuzz’ guitar after punching a hole in a speaker while recording “Rumble,” giving him a distorted sound. (d. 2005)
1936 – Engelbert Humperdinck, Indian-English singer
1945 – Bianca Jagger, Nicaraguan-English actress, model, and activist
1946 – Lesley Gore, American singer 1955 – Donatella Versace, Italian fashion designer
DEATHS
1519 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, and architect (b. 1452)
1957 – Joseph McCarthy, American politician (b. 1908)
1972 – J. Edgar Hoover, American 1st director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (b. 1895)
1997 – Paulo Freire, Brazilian philosopher and educator (b. 1921)
2010 – Lynn Redgrave, English-American actress (b. 1943)
2011 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi Arabian terrorist, founded Al-Qaeda (b. 1957)
