Roekiah (1917–1945) was a kroncong singer and film actress from the Dutch East Indies. Born to two actors, she began her career at the age of seven, and by 1932 had become well-known in Batavia. Around this time she met her husband Kartolo. The two acted in the 1937 hit Terang Boelan, with Roekiah starring alongside Rd Mochtar; after the film's commercial success, Roekiah, Kartolo, and most of the cast and crew of Terang Boelan were signed to Tan's Film. They appeared in three films for the company, beginning with Fatima in 1938, before Mochtar left in 1940; his departure ended a partnership which had spawned numerous imitators. Mochtar's replacement, Djoemala, acted with Roekiah in four films, beginning with Sorga Ka Toedjoe, although these were less successful. During the peak of her career, Roekiah was a fashion and beauty icon, featuring in advertisements and drawing comparisons to Dorothy Lamour and Janet Gaynor. After the Japanese invaded the Indies in 1942, Roekiah took only one more film role before her death. Of her five children with Kartolo, one – Rachmat Kartolo – entered acting. Roekiah has often been cited as one of Indonesia's film pioneers. ( Full article...)

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• ... that Arkwright House, Preston (pictured), has been called one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution?
• ... that Tharanga Goonetilleke is the first Sri Lankan woman to attend the Juilliard School, one of the world's leading music schools?
• ... that Genetics and the Origin of Species by Theodosius Dobzhansky united genetics with Darwin's theory of evolution?
• ... that in 1965 Yvette Vaucher became the first woman to climb the Matterhorn's north face?
• ... that the spiralling whitefly, a major agricultural pest, has spread rapidly in tropical and subtropical regions since the mid-20th century?
• ... that German art photographer Michael Wesely recorded the reconstruction of Berlin's Potsdamer Platz and New York's MoMA using exposures of up to three years?

• Lyricist Gulzar (pictured) receives the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in Indian cinema.
• In horse racing, California Chrome, ridden by Victor Espinoza, wins the Kentucky Derby.
• The first-ever outbreak of chikungunya in the Caribbean reaches epidemic levels.
• The Ukrainian government launches an offensive on pro-Russian rebels in Sloviansk, while clashes in Odesa lead to more than 40 deaths.
• Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, kill at least 350 people.
• More than 50 royal mummies are discovered in Egypt's KV40 tomb.

Ongoing: MV Sewol – Chibok kidnapping

May 5: Yom Hazikaron in Israel (2014); Feast of Saint George ( Palestinians); Liberation Day in Denmark, Ethiopia, and the Netherlands; Children's Day in Japan and South Korea; Cinco de Mayo in Mexico and the United States

• 1864 – American Civil War: Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in Virginia began with the Battle of the Wilderness (centennial stamp pictured) in Spotsylvania County.
• 1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops captured Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unopposed.
• 1981 – After a sixty-six day hunger strike, Irish republican Bobby Sands died of starvation in HM Prison Maze.
• 1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism, a punishment that the United States deemed to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime.
• 2010 – A series of demonstrations in Athens and general strikes across Greece began in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the debt crisis.

More anniversaries: May 4 – May 5 – May 6

The history of tuberous sclerosis (TSC) research spans less than 200 years. Originally regarded as a rare pathological curiosity, TSC is now an important focus of research into tumour formation and suppression. The history of TSC research is commonly divided into four periods. In the late 19th century, notable physicians working in European teaching hospitals first described the cortical and dermatological manifestations (example pictured). At the start of the 20th century, these symptoms were recognised as belonging to a single medical condition. Further organ involvement was discovered, along with a realisation that the condition was highly variable in its severity. The late 20th century saw great improvements in cranial imaging techniques and the discovery of the two genes that cause TSC when mutations form on them: TSC1 and TSC2, which encode for the proteins hamartin and tuberin respectively. Finally, the start of the 21st century saw the beginning of a molecular understanding of the illness, along with possible non-surgical therapeutic treatments. ( Full list...)