Births: Jules-Adolphe Aime-Louis Breton, painter, 1827; Marie Corelli (Mary Mackay), novelist, 1855. Deaths: John Dryden, poet, 1700; David Livingstone, missionary and explorer, 1873. On this day: the Union of Scotland and England was proclaimed, 1707; the London Library was officially opened, 1841; in New York, the Empire State Building was opened, 1931. Today is May Day (Labour Day) and the Feast Day of St Amator or Amatre, St Briocus or Brieuc, St Joseph the Worker, St Peregrine Laziosi, St Sigismund of Burgundy and St Theodard of Narbonne.
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