On This Day: May 1st

After a ransomware attack by the group ShinyHunters, the education platform Canvas operated by private company Instructure, goes offline, affecting thousands of educational institutions.

The 2024 Loblaw boycott, a Canadian boycott against retail corporation and grocer Loblaw Companies, begins.

Naxalite attack in Gadchiroli district of India: Sixteen army soldiers, including a driver, killed in an IED blast. Naxals targeted an anti-Naxal operations team.

Naruhito ascends to the throne of Japan succeeding his father Akihito, beginning the Reiwa period.

Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) resumes the Deir ez-Zor campaign in order to clear the remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border.

Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

Faisal Shahzad attempts to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, but the bomb fails to go off.

Same-sex marriage in Sweden is legalized.

Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.

Invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".