History of the Day for:
May 2
- 1519: Artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France.
- 1670: King Charles II chartered the Hudson Bay Company.
- 1863: In the Civil War, Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men. He died eight days later.
- 1885: Clark W. Bryan published the first issue of "Good Housekeeping" magazine.
- 1887: Hannibal W. Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film.
- 1890: The Oklahoma Territory was organized.
- 1904: Bing Crosby was born in Tacoma, Wash.
- 1932: Jack Benny began working for NBC Radio.
- 1936: "Peter and the Wolf" made its world premiere in Moscow.
- 1939: Lou Gehrig played his 2,130th game; his record was not broken until 57 years later when Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles shattered it in 1996.
- 1941: The Federal Communications Commission approved regular scheduling of TV broadcasts by commercial stations to begin July 1.
- 1945: The Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and Austria.
- 1957: U.S. Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, the controversial Republican from Wisconsin, died.
- 1972: After serving 48 years as head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77.
- 1974: Filming got underway for the motion picture "Jaws" in Martha's Vineyard.
- 1994: Dr. Jack Kevorkian was acquitted on charges he violated Michigan laws prohibiting assisted suicide; Nelson Mandela was elected president in South Africa's first democratic election.
- 1997: A national memorial honoring President Franklin D. Roosevelt was officially opened in Washington D.C.; Tony Blair, age 44, became Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years.
- 1998: The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.
- 1999: Panamanian election, 1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
- 2000: President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.
- 2000: Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveils the Man With Two Hats monument in Apeldoorn and the other in Ottawa on May 11, 2000. Symbolically linking both Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout World War II.
- 2002: Marad massacre of eight Hindus near Palakkad in Kerala.
- 2004: Yelwa massacre of more than 630 nomad Muslims by Christians in Nigeria.
- 2008: Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.