Today in History – May 1

1994 – Three-time Formula One champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix.
1999 – The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.
2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the “Mission Accomplished” speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended”.
2004 – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
2009 – Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.
2010 – Faisal Shahzad attempts to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, but the bomb fails to go off.
2011 – Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.
2018 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) resumes the Deir ez-Zor campaign in order to clear the remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border.
2019 – Naxalite attack in Gadchiroli district of India: Sixteen army soldiers, including a driver, killed in an IED blast. Naxals targeted an anti-Naxal operations team.
2019 – Naruhito ascends to the throne of Japan succeeding his father Akihito, beginning the Reiwa period.
2023 – A Cessna 206 crashes near Solano, Caquetá, Colombia, killing three people.