What Happened on May 2nd in History
30 historical events on this date
Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs the Treaty of Wuchale, giving Italy control over Eritrea.
Menelik II, baptised as Sahle Maryam, was king of Shewa from 1866 to 1889 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to his death in 1913. A member of the Solomonic dynasty, Menelik expanded the Ethiopian...
Closing ceremony of the Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece.
The 1906 Intercalated Games or 1906 Olympic Games, held from 22 April 1906 to 2 May 1906, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated in Athens, Greece. It was at the time considered...
The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis.
The first Negro National League was a major professional baseball organization that laid the foundation for Black baseball in the early twentieth century. From 1920 to 1931, during the period of...
Germany's independent labor unions are replaced by the German Labour Front.
The German Labour Front was the national labour organization of the Nazi Party, which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany during the process of Gleichschaltung or Nazification.
World War II: Following the coup d'Ă©tat against Iraq Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah earlier that year, the United Kingdom launches the Anglo-Iraqi War to restore him to power.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's...
World War II: The surrender of Caserta comes into effect, by which German troops in Italy cease fighting.
The Surrender at Caserta of 29 April 1945 was the written agreement that formalized the surrender of German and Italian Fascist forces in Italy, ending the Italian Campaign of World War II.
World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1,000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death.
Wöbbelin was a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp near the city of Ludwigslust. The SS had established Wöbbelin to house concentration camp prisoners whom the SS had evacuated from other...
World War II: A death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.
During the Holocaust, death marches were massive forced transfers of prisoners from one Nazi camp to other locations, which involved walking long distances resulting in numerous deaths of weakened...
A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg.
The de Havilland DH.106 Comet is a four-engine narrow body aircraft developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom. The world's first commercial jet airliner, the Comet 1 prototype...
Berthold Seliger launches a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres (62Â mi) near Cuxhaven. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
The Berthold Seliger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (BSFEGmbH) was a company founded by West German rocket technical designer Berthold Seliger in 1961. Seliger was a former assistant...
Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the American aircraft carrier USNS Card while it is docked at Saigon. Two Viet Cong combat swimmers had placed explosives on the ship's hull. She is raised and returned to service less than seven months later.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
First ascent of Shishapangma, the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders.
In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent, is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain peak or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers and...
The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is a retired British ocean liner. Built by John Brown & Company on the River Clyde in Scotland for the Cunard Line, the ship was operated as a transatlantic liner and cruise...
ALM Flight 980 ditches in the Caribbean Sea near Saint Croix, killing 23.
ALM Flight 980 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight that originated in John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, to Princess Juliana International Airport in St....
In the early morning hours a fire breaks out at the Sunshine Mine located between Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, killing 91 workers.
The Sunshine Mine is located between the cities of Kellogg and Wallace in northern Idaho. It has been one of the world's largest and most profitable silver mines, having produced over 360 million...
Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMSÂ Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.
The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial...
Chernobyl disaster: The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster.
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukraine, exploded. With dozens of direct casualties and thousands of health complications stemming from the...
Cold War: Hungary begins dismantling its border fence with Austria, which allows a number of East Germans to defect.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist...
During the Croatian War of Independence, the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina fires cluster bombs at Zagreb, killing seven and wounding over 175 civilians.
The Croatian War of Independence was an armed conflict fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatiaâwhich had declared independence from the Socialist...
The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of...
Panamanian general election: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
General elections were held in Panama on 2 May 1999, electing both a new President of the Republic and a new Legislative Assembly.
President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.
William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the...
The Yelwa massacre concludes. It began on 4 February 2004 when armed Muslims killed 78 Christians at Yelwa, Nigeria. In response, about 630 Muslims were killed by Christians on May 2.
The Yelwa massacre was a series of related incidents of religious violence between Muslims and Christians which took place in Yelwa, Nigeria between February and May 2004. These incidents killed...
Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.
Chaitén is a volcanic caldera 3 kilometres (2 mi) in diameter, 17 kilometres (11 mi) west of the elongated ice-capped Michinmahuida volcano and 10 kilometres (6 mi) northeast of the town of Chaitén,...
Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.
Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis was an extremely deadly and catastrophic tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar during early May 2008. The...
Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted fugitive, is killed by the United States Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. A Salafi jihadist, bin Laden worked to establish a pan-Islamist caliphate...
An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others are taken ill.
A novel strain of Escherichia coli O104:H4 bacteria caused a serious outbreak of foodborne illness focused in northern Germany in May through June 2011. The illness was characterized by bloody...
A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120Â million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for a work of art at auction.
A pastel is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The...
Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing.
On 2 May 2014, a pair of mudslides occurred in Argo District, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan. The death toll is uncertain, the number of deaths is believed to be at least 350 and no more than...