2021-05-01

The evacuation of nearly 88,000 people began when a wildfire swept through Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, and burned for another 14 months, becoming the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

In Major League Baseball, Rickey Henderson broke the record for stolen bases on the same night that Nolan Ryan broke his own record for no-hitters.

Argentine president Juan Perón expelled Montoneros from a demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, forcing the group to become a clandestine organization.

Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Sicilian separatist Salvatore Giuliano and his gang fired into a crowd of May Day marchers near Piana degli Albanesi, Sicily, killing 11 and wounding 33.

Second World War: British and Indian forces conducted a successful airborne assault on a Japanese artillery battery during the advance to liberate Rangoon, Burma.

Citizen Kane, a widely acclaimed film by actor and director Orson Welles, premiered.

New York City's Empire State Building (pictured), at the time the tallest building in the world, opened.

A dust explosion at a coal mine near Scofield, Utah, U.S., killed at least 200 miners.

The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opened for business.