On May 1, 1960, a U-2 flight piloted by Francis Gary Powers
disappeared while on a flight over Russia. 

With no small degree of pleasure, Khrushchev pulled off one
of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War by producing
not only the mostly-intact wreckage of the U-2, but also the
captured pilot-very much alive.

Francis Gary Powers (center) sits accused in Moscow’s Hall
of Columns, during the opening of his espionage trial, 17
August 1960. (AP)

Francis Gary Powers (1929 – 1977)

Citizen Kane, now revered as one of the greatest movies in
history, made its debut at the RKO Palace Theater on May
1, 1941.

It had originally been intended to open at Manhattan’s Radio
City Music Hall. But months before its release, Orson Welles’
landmark film began generating such controversy that the
venue eventually refused to show it.

On April 30, 1803, representatives of the United States and
Napoleonic France completed negotiations for the Louisiana
Purchase, a massive land sale that doubles the size of the
young American republic.

On April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn in as the first
American president and delivered the first inaugural speech at
Federal Hall in New York City. Elements of the ceremony set
tradition; presidential inaugurations have deviated little in the
two centuries since Washington’s inauguration.

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (69).

On April 30, 1993, four years after publishing a proposal for
“an idea of linked information systems,” computer scientist
Tim Berners-Lee released the source code for the world’s
first web browser and editor. 

The browser, originally called Mesh, that he dubbed World
Wide Web became the first royalty-free, easy-to-use means
of browsing the emerging information network that soon
developed into the internet as we know it today.

The average American now spends 24 hours a week online.

2024

This NeXT Computer was used by Berners-Lee at CERN and became the world’s first web server.