01-MAY-1872 :- BIRTH OF Sidónio Pais ,4th President of Portugal.

Sidónio Bernardino Cardoso da Silva Pais 
( 1 May 1872  – 14 December 1918 ) was a Portuguese military leader politician and diplomat, the fourth President in 1918. He was known as the President-King. On 5 December 1917, he led an uprising against Afonso Costa's Democratic Party government, and established an authoritarian regime and was elected President on 28 April 1918. He was murdered in central Lisbon, 11 days before Christmas 1918.

01-MAY-1852 :- BIRTH OF Santiago Ramón y Cajal , Nobel Prize Winner .

Santiago Ramón y Cajal
(1 May 1852 – 18 October 1934) was a Spanish pathologist,histologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel laureate. His original pioneering investigations of the microscopic structure of the brain have led his being designated by many, as the father of modern neuroscience. His medical artistry was legendary, and hundreds of his drawings illustrating the delicate arborizations of brain cells are still in use for educational and training purposes.

01-MAY-1993 :- Dingiri Banda Wijetunga Become President of Sri Lanka.

Dingiri Banda Wijetunga
(15 February 1916 – 21 September 2008) was the President of Sri Lanka from 1 May 1993 to 12 November 1994, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 3 March 1989 to 7 May 1993 and the Governor of North Western province, Sri Lanka from 1988 to 1989.

As president, Wijetunga set about his work in his own simplistic, inimitable fashion. After the authoritarian Premadasa, Wijetunga ushered in a more political free era.

His rule also coincided with the rise of Chandrika Kumaratunga within the ranks of the SLFP. For some of the elite the daughter of two Prime Ministers was a refreshing contrast to the humble village peasant in President Wijetunga.

He did not believe that peace could be achieved by negotiating with the LTTE. His rather hawkish approach to the ethnic conflict also made him unpopular especially among the minorities who traditionally backed his party. The Eastern Province was liberated from the LTTE during his tenure except Thoppigala.

After a decisive defeat in the Southern Provincial Council Election in 1994, he dissolved parliament prematurely in June that year, in a desperate bid to stem the rising wave of popularity of Chandrika Kumaratunga.

However his party was defeated in the 1994 general election and Wijetunga graciously appointed Kumaratunga as Prime Minister. Even though under the constitution, Wijetunga was bestowed with wide powers, he wisely chose not to exercise much authority, letting the Prime Minister manage the affairs of the country.

He decided not to contest the presidential election and he appointed Lucky Jayawardena as the organizer for his electorate udunuwara. He relinquished office in November 1994 after Kumaratunga was elected President by an unprecedented majority. His political career was Succeeded by Lucky Jayawardena(MP).

01-MAY-1982 :- Knoxville International Energy Exposition Opens.

1982 World's Fair

Knoxville International Energy Exposition, was held in Knoxville, Tennessee,United States. The theme of the exposition was "Energy Turns the World."

It opened on May 1, 1982, and closed on October 31, 1982 after receiving over 11 million visitors. Participating nations included Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany.

The fair was constructed on a 70-acre site between downtown Knoxville and the University of Tennessee. The core of the site primarily consisted of a deteriorating Louisville and Nashville Railroad yard and depot. The railroad yard was demolished, with the exception of a single rail line, and the depot was renovated into a restaurant. The Sunsphere, a 266-foot (81 m) steel tower topped with a five-story gold globe, was built for the 1982 World's Fair. It still stands and remains a symbol for the city of Knoxville.

In 2007, the East Tennessee Historical Society opened an exhibit commemorating the 25th anniversary of the World's Fair.

01-MAY-1893 :- World's Columbian Exposition Opens .

The World's Columbian Exposition ( World's Fair: Columbian Exposition,also known as The Chicago World's Fair) was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492.The iconic centerpiece of the Fair, the large water pool, represented the long voyage Columbus took to the New World. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis for the honor of hosting the fair. The Exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on architecture, sanitation, the arts, Chicago's self-image, and American industrial optimism. The Chicago Columbian Exposition was, in large part, designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux Arts principles of design, namely French neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor.

The exposition covered more than 600 acres , featuring nearly 200 new buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from 46 countries.More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world's fairs, and it became a symbol of the emerging American Exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom.

Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World by Europeans, the fair also served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871.On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 751,026 people to the fair. With such great attendance, the debt for the fair was paid off with a check for 1.5 million dollars.Chicago has commemorated the fair with one of the stars on its municipal flag.

01-MAY-1851 :- The Great Exhibition In Landon Begins.

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations or The Great Exhibition, sometimes referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 11 October 1851. It was the first in a series of World's Fair exhibitions of culture and industry that were to become a popular 19th-century feature. The Great Exhibition was organized by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, husband of the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. It was attended by numerous notable figures of the time, including Charles Darwin, Samuel Colt, members of the Orléanist Royal Family and the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot and Alfred Tennyson. Music for the opening was under the direction of Sir George Thomas Smart and the continuous music from the exhibited organs for the Queen's procession was "under the superintendence of William Sterndale Bennett".

01-MAY-1840 :- First Postal Stamp Of United Kingdom issued.

Penny Black

The world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year and features a profile of Queen Victoria.

All London post offices received official issues of the new stamps but other offices throughout the United Kingdom did not, continuing to accept postage payments in cash only for a period. Post offices such as those in Bath began offering the stamp unofficially after 2 May 1840.

The idea of an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage was part of Sir Rowland Hill's 1837 proposals to reform the British postal system; it was normal then for the recipient to pay postage on delivery. A companion idea, which Hill disclosed on 13 February 1837 at a government enquiry, was that of a separate sheet that folded to form an enclosure or envelope for carrying letters. At that time postage was charged by the sheet and on the distance traveled.

Postal delivery systems using what may have been adhesive stamps existed before the Penny Black. Apparently the idea had at least been suggested earlier in Austria, Sweden, and possibly Greece.