Births: Joseph Addison, diarist and essayist, 1672; Arthur Wellesley (Wesley), first Duke of Wellington, field marshal and politician, 1769; Marie Corelli, novelist, 1855. Deaths: John Dryden, poet, 1700; David Livingstone, missionary and explorer, 1873; Joseph Goebbels, Nazi leader, committed suicide 1945. 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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