Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). There are 243 days remaining. Table of contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter 1568 - Mary I of Scotland escapes from Loch Leven. 1670 - The Hudson's Bay Company is formed in England 1672 - John Maitland becomes duke of Lauderdale and earl of March 1808 - Peninsular War: Citizens of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation 1816 - Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Charlotte Augusta are wed 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends, with a defeat of the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker by Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson 1885 - Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time 1885 - The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium 1889 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, which gives Ethiopia control over Eritrea 1900 - Oscar II of Sweden declares support of Great Britain at the time of the Boer War 1920 - The first game of the National Negro Baseball League is played in Indianapolis, Indiana 1933 - The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness monster is reported. 1933 - Adolf Hitler bans trade unions 1939 - Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record will stand for 57 years before Cal Ripken, Jr breaks it. 1940 - The British passenger liner City of Exeter encounters the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, but without incident. 1945 - The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. Soviet soldiers hoist the red flag over the Reichstag building. German forces surrender in Italy. 1945 - The last postage stamp utilized by Manzhouguo is issued 1952 - The first commercial jet plane, the BOAC Comet, is put into service 1953 - Hussein of Jordan is throned 1955 - Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1966 - Upper Hutt in New Zealand is proclaimed a city. 1969 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City 1970 - The Ohio National Guard arrives at Kent State University in response to arson on an ROTC building 1982 - HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War 1984 - Sunday in the Park with George opens on Broadway 1986 - The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada opens. 1988 - The last B-1 Lancer is delivered 1997 - The Labour Party's Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule. At 44, he is the youngest prime minister in 185 years. 1999 - Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered in their Weimar, Texas parsonage by Angel Maturino Resendiz. The couple are his fourth and fifth victims in his fourth incident. 2000 - Bill Clinton announces that GPS access equivalent to the U.S military would be available for regular citizens Births 1660 - Alessandro Scarlatti, composer († 1725) 1729 - Empress Catherine II of Russia († 1796) 1740 - Elias Boudinot, the fourth President of the United States in Congress assembled under the Articles of Confederation († 1821) 1772 - Novalis, poet († 1801) 1860 - Theodor Herzl, Zionist leader († 1904) 1881 - Alexander Karensky, Russian politician († 1970) 1884 - Elijah McCoy, inventor 1885 - Hedda Hopper, gossip columnist, journalist († 1966) 1886 - Gottfried Benn, lyricist, dramatist, narrator and essayist († 1956) 1887 - Vernon Castle, dancer († 1918) 1890 - E. E. Smith, science fiction writer († (1965) 1892 - Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Baron pilot († 1918) 1895 - Lorenz Hart, lyricist († 1943) 1903 - Dr. Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, Olympic Games gold medalist in rowing, author († 1998) 1904 - Bing Crosby, actor and singer († 1977) 1907 - Pinky Lee, vaudeville performer, children's television host († 1993) 1912 - Axel Cäsar Springer, publisher († 1985) 1913 - Nigel Patrick, actor († 1981) 1915 - Doris Fisher, songwriter († 2003) 1921 - Satyajit Ray, Indian director († 1992) 1924 - James Baldwin, American author († 1987) 1924 - Theodore Bikel, actor, singer 1925 - Roscoe Lee Browne, actor 1927 - Carmen Basilio, boxer 1927 - Link Wray, guitarist 1935 - King Faisal II of Iraq († 1958) 1937 - Lorenzo Music, writer, producer 1936 - Engelbert Humperdinck, singer 1941 - Stephen J. Cannell, producer 1946 - David Suchet, actor 1946 - Lesley Gore, singer 1949 - Alan Titchmarsh, gardener, TV presenter, writer 1955 - Donatella Versace, fashion designer 1972 - The Rock, WWE professional wrestler turned actor 1975 - David Beckham, English footballerer 1983 - Rose Falcon, actress, singer 1985 - Sarah Hughes, figure skating champion Deaths 373 - Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria 1230 - William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny 1519 - Leonardo da Vinci, inventor, painter 1857 - Alfred de Musset, French dramatist, poet, and novelist 1864 - Giacomo Meyerbeer, composer 1934 - Paul von Hindenburg, German chancellor 1957 - Senator Joseph McCarthy 1960 - Caryl Chessman, convicted sex offender (executed) 1972 - J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI 1980 - George Pal, director, producer 1989 - Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, a senior cardinal 1983 - Norm Van Brocklin, American football star 1995 - Michael Hordern, actor 1997 - John Carew Eccles, Nobel Prize winner 1999 - Oliver Reed, actor 1999 - Norman J. Sirnic, Minister 1999 - Karen Sirnic - Norman J. Sirnic's wife 2002 - W. T. Tutte, codebreaker and mathematician Holidays and observances Bahá'í Faith: Last day of the Festival of Ridván See Also: May 1 - May 3 - April 2 - June 2 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.