1973

At Kent State University a demonstration with about 500 students was held
on Friday, May 1 on the Commons, a grassy knoll in the center of campus. As
the crowd dispersed without incident to attend classes by 1 pm that afternoon,
another rally was planned for Monday, May 4 to continue the protest of president
Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia.

The campus of Kent State University in Ohio

Elvis Presley and Priscilla Ann Beaulieu were married in a suite at the Aladdin Hotel
in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their civil 8-minute civil ceremony was performed in the
morning by a Nevada Supreme Court Justice. The ceremony was attended by
a small number of family and friends and was followed by a press conference
and a reception for 100 guests where the newlyweds reportedly danced to
"Love Me Tender".

Dancing around the Maypole in Great Britain

May Day is an ancient spring festival with celebrations first appearing in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis
Night celebrations of the Germanic countries.  May 1 is also recognized in the U.S.
as Law Day.

May Day festivities at National Park Seminary in Maryland, 1907.

 
Francis Gary Powers by his Lockheed U-2 Spy Plane  

  
U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, center, in Moscow’s Hall of Columns during
the opening of his espionage trial.

The U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War presidency of Dwight Eisenhower
and the leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States
U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers (above) was shot down over the
airspace of the Soviet Union.

The U.S.government at first denied the plane’s purpose and mission, but then
was forced to admit its role as a covert surveillance aircraft when the Soviet
government produced the remains of the downed aircraft and it’s surviving
pilot along with photos of Russian military bases taken by Powers.

On August 17, 1960, Powers was convicted of espionage against the Soviet
Union and was sentenced to a total of 10 years, three years in imprisonment
followed by seven years of hard labor. On February 10, 1962, Powers was
exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a spy swap for
Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher.

U-2 wreckage captured in the Soviet Union