Today in history—May 1

1707: The Act of Union joins England and Scotland in the new Kingdom of Great Britain.

1776: A canon law professor at Ingolstadt, Adam Weishaupt, founds a group who call themselves the Perfectibilists.  Known as the “Bavarian Illuminati,” they will be credited by some as the origin of Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, the Trilateral Commission, and the New World Order.

1786: Mozart’s sequel to the Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, opens in Vienna.

1830: Mary Harris “Mother” Jones is born at Cork, Ireland.

1834: Slavery is abolished in all British colonies.

1851: Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations opens in London in a new building known as the Crystal Palace. The exhibition will turn a handy £186,000 profit.

1881: Philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is born at Orcines, France.

1883: William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody, a former hunter, Army Scout, Pony Express rider, Medal of Honor winner, and hotel manager, premieres his new Wild West Show, at Omaha, Nebraska.

1891: Katie Scothorn’s grandfather signs a $5,000 promissory note in her favor.

1931: After 14 months of construction, the Empire State Building opens in New York City. The building is the brainchild of a group led by John Raskob of General Motors, Coleman and Pierre du Pont, Louis G. Kaufman and Ellis P. Earl.

1941: RKO Pictures’ $686,000 Citizen Kane premieres.  It flops badly.  But after it gets rediscovered in the 1950s, it will make many lists as the greatest film ever made.

1941: General Mills introduces a new breakfast cereal it calls CheeriOats. The name will later be shortened.

1971: The National Railroad Passenger Corp. (“Amtrak”) is created to nationalize passenger rail service in the United States. Today it gets about $1 billion a year, or about $47,000 per employee, in Federal subsidies.

2004: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union.