It happened today – this day in history – May 2

1194: Richard I gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.

1497: John Cabot’s expedition departs Bristol searching for new lands across the Atlantic.

1519: Death of Leonardo da Vinci aged 67.

1536: Anne Boleyn is arrested and taken to the Tower of London.

1660: Birth of Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti.

1670: Charles II gives a royal charter to the Hudson Bay Company.

1729: German Empress of Russia Catherine the Great is born in Prussia.

1780: William Herschel discovers the first binary star, Xi Ursae Majoris.

1859: Birth of writer Jerome K. Jerome in Walsall.

1863: While attacking Chancellorsville, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is wounded by his own men.

1887: Composer Gioacchino Rossini’s corpse is transferred to Santa Croce, Florence. On the same day, Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.

1890: The territory of Oklahoma is created.

1900: George Bernard Shaw’s “You Never Can Tell” premieres in London.

1906: Tsar Nicolas II of Russia dismisses his moderate Prime Minister Witte and appoints Ivan Goremykin, a conservative bureaucrat.

1929: 14-year old Eleanora Fagan (Billie Holiday) and her mother are arrested for prostitution following the raid of a brothel in Harlem.

1933: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions in Germany.

1936: Sergei Prokofiev’s musical “Peter and the Wolf” premieres in Moscow. On the same day, Emperor Haile Selassie and his family flee Abyssinia.

1945: The Battle of Berlin ends as the Soviet army takes Berlin and General Weidling surrenders.

1949: Arthur Miller wins the Pulitzer Prize for “Death of a Salesman”.

1953: Faisal II is installed as King of Iraq. On the same day, Hussein I is installed as King of Jordan.

1955: The Pulitzer prize is awarded to Tennessee Williams for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

1957: Death of communist plot Senator Joe McCarthy aged 48.

1963: More than 600 African American school children arrested for marching against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.

1965: The Early Bird satellite goes into commercial service.

1969: The liner Queen Elizabeth II leaves Southampton on its maiden voyage to New York.

1972: Death of FBI chief J Edgar Hoover aged 77.

1974: Former US Vice President Spiro Agnew is disbarred as a lawyer. On the same day, six Catholic civilians are killed and 18 wounded when the UVF explode a bomb at the Rose & Crown Bar in Belfast.

1975: Apple records closes down.

1982: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano is sunk by British submarine Conqueror, killing more than 350 men during the Falklands conflict.

1989: A security guard alerted the police after a man wearing a wig, fake moustache and false teeth walked into Zales Jewellers, California. Three squad cars arrived and police detained the man, who turned out to be Michael Jackson in disguise.

1990: South Africa and the African National Congress open talks to end apartheid.

1992: The Yugoslav Army seizes Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic.

1997: Police arrest a transsexual prostitute in a car with comedian Eddie Murphy.

1998: Footballer Justin Fashanu commits suicide.

1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama. On the same day, actor Oliver Reed dies aged 61.

2011: Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden is killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

2013: Jeff Hanneman, founding member of rock band Slayer, died of liver failure at the age of 49. The guitarist had been suffering from necrotising fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease that he is believed to have contracted from a spider bite in 2011.

2015: Floyd Mayweather Jr beats Manny Paquaio on points in 12 rounds in world welterweight unification fight. On the same day, thriller writer Ruth Rendell dies aged 85.

2016: Rank outsiders Leicester City win the Premier League title.

2018: Spanish Basque separatist group Eta announces it is formally disbanding after 50 years. On the same day, Iowa passes the US’s strictest abortion ban, based on a foetal heartbeat.

BIRTHDAYS: Bunk Gardner (John Guarnera), musician (The Mothers of Invention), 87; Englebert Humperdinck (Arnold Dorsey) singer, 84; Tony Asher, lyricist, 81; Bob Henrit, drummer (Argent) 74; David Suchet, actor, 74; Alan Titchmarsh, broadcaster/gardener, 71; Lou Gramm, singer (Foreigner), 70; Jo Callis, musician (The Human League/The Rezillos), 69; Christine Baranski, actress, 68; Donatella Versace, fashion designer, 65; David Rhodes, guitarist (Peter Gabriel), 64; Dr Robert (Bruce Howard), singer-guitarist (The Blow Monkeys), 59; Phil Vickery, TV chef, 59; Jimmy White, snooker player, 58; David McAlmont, singer, 53; Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), film star/wrestler, 48; David Beckham, former footballer, 45; Lily Allen, singer, 35; Justin Hayward-Young, singer (The Vaccines), 33; Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, 5.