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The Greatest Show on Earth started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers had purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919.

After 1957, the circus no longer exhibited under its own portable "big top" tents, instead using permanent venues such as sports stadiums and arenas. In 1967, Irvin Feld and his brother Israel, along with Houston Judge Roy Hofheinz, bought the circus from the Ringling family. In 1971, the Felds and Hofheinz sold the circus to Mattel, buying it back from the toy company in 1981. Since the death of Irvin Feld in 1984, the circus had been a part of Feld Entertainment, an international entertainment firm headed by his son Kenneth Feld, with its headquarters in Ellenton, Florida.

With weakening attendance, many animal rights protests, and high operating costs, the circus performed its final show on May 21, 2017, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and closed after 146 years

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Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, known for many years as just Nassau Coliseum, was home to the New York Islanders NHL hockey franchise. Five Stanley Cup finals have been played there with the Islanders record being 11-1. The only Stanley Cup final loss was Game 1 of the 1984 finals when they lost 1-0 to the Edmonton Oilers.

The New York Islanders  founded in 1972 as part of the NHL's maneuvers to keep a team from rival league World Hockey Association (WHA) out of the newly built Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in suburban Uniondale, New York. After two years of building up the team's roster, they found almost instant success by securing fourteen straight playoff berths starting with their third season. The Islanders won four consecutive Stanley Cup championships between 1980 and 1983, the seventh of eight dynasties recognized by the NHL in its history. Their 19 consecutive playoff series wins between 1980 and 1984 is a feat that remains unparalleled in the history of professional sports. They are the last team in any major professional North American sport to win four consecutive championships

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The New York Islanders were denied a fifth straight Stanley Cup win in 1984, when the whining Edmonton Oilers cheated them out it.

The Stanley Cup (French: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff winner. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to Montreal Hockey Club, and winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the two main professional ice hockey organizations, reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. It was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.

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The Montreal Canadiens ( Canadiens de Montreal ) NHL franchise has won the Stanley Cup a total of 24 times over the course of the team's history. It is the most Cups any NHL team has won. The last time Montreal won a Stanley Cup was 1993. That was 28 years ago, making it the longest period in the team's history without winning a Stanley Cup.

The record for the longest drought ever goes to the New York Rangers who went 54 years (1940 to 1994). Although the Toronto Maple Leafs are catching up, currently sitting at 53 years since their Cup win in 1967.

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Well, as of today, May 2, 2021, the Maple Leafs have tied that record!    It was on this day in 1967, that a Toronto Maple Leaf player last hoisted the Stanley Cup.

May 2nd. 1670- King Charles II gives royal charter to the Hudson's Bay Company

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The Hudson's Bay Company held great power as it functioned as the de facto government in parts of North America for nearly 200 years until the HBC sold the land it owned (the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin, known as Rupert's Land) to Canada in 1869 as part of the Deed of Surrender,[9][10] authorized by the Rupert's Land Act 1868.

In 2008, Hudson Bay Company was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners, which also owned the upmarket American department store Lord & Taylor. From 2008 to 2012, the HBC was run through a holding company of NRDC, Hudson's Bay Trading Company, which was dissolved in early 2012. HBC's head office is currently located in Brampton, Ontario. Until March 2020 the company was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "HBC.TO".

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During the 1820s and 1830s, HBC trappers were deeply involved in the early exploration and development of Northern California.Company trapping brigades were sent south from Fort Vancouver, along what became known as the Siskiyou Trail, into Northern California as far south as the San Francisco Bay Area, where the company operated a trading post at Yerba Buena (San Francisco). These trapping brigades in Northern California faced serious risks, and were often the first to explore relatively uncharted territory.

Vancouver was originally named Gastown and began as a settlement which grew around the site of a makeshift tavern on the western edges of Hastings Mill that was built on July 1, 1867 and owned by proprietor Gassy Jack. The original site is marked by the Gastown steam clock. Gastown then formally registered as a townsite dubbed Granville, Burrard Inlet. The city was renamed "Vancouver" in 1886, through a deal with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway was extended to the city by 1887. The city's large natural seaport on the Pacific Ocean became a vital link in the trade between Asia-Pacific, East Asia, Europe, and Eastern Canada.

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May 2 marked the 35th anniversary of Vancouver, BC hosting a World's Fair.  The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, popularly known as Expo '86, was held from May 2 to October 13, 1986. It was only the second time in the history of World's Fairs, that a Canadian city hosted one ( the first being Expo 67 in Montreal ) and so far has been the last World's Fair hosted by a North American city.