It happened today – this day in history – May 2
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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.
