How many days and weeks until May 1st?

On May 1st 1707 the Acts of Union came into force and the kingdoms of England and Scotland became a single state, Great Britain, governed by one Parliament at Westminster. The Scottish parliament had voted itself out of existence months earlier. Daniel Defoe, in Edinburgh as an English agent, reported the mood in the streets as sullen rather than celebratory.

On May 1st 1851 the Great Exhibition opened in Hyde Park inside Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, a structure of iron and some 300,000 panes of glass raised in nine months, and built tall enough to enclose three elm trees that nobody was willing to fell. Victoria opened it and came back more than thirty times. Six million visits followed in five and a half months.

The Penny Black went on sale on May 1st 1840, the first adhesive postage stamp in the world, valid for use from the 6th. It carried Victoria’s head and no country name, a privilege no other nation’s stamps enjoy. On May 1st 1997 Labour won a Commons majority of 179, and Tony Blair went to the Palace the following morning.

May Day is older than all of it: Beltane fires, maypoles, and, since 1978, a British bank holiday on the first Monday of the month rather than the day itself. The date also belongs to the novelist Joseph Heller, who wrote Catch-22, the actress Una Stubbs, familiar from decades of British television, the folk singer Judy Collins, and the film director Wes Anderson, known for his distinctively stylised comedies.

Born on May 1st: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

Joseph Heller and Una Stubbs — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a May 1st birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — emerald for the stone, Taurus for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

May birthstone necklace

A simple pendant in the actual May birthstone colour, from a long-running UK jewellery brand.

View on Amazon

Taurus constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Taurus for a May 1st birthday.

View on Amazon

Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the May birthstone and the lily of the valley — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

View on Amazon

Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on May 1st, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Availability and links were checked on 15 August 2026 and can change.