On May 2nd...

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1519 Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci died.

1536 Anne Boleyn was arrested.

1598 France and Spain signed the Peace of Vervins.

1668 The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, ending the War of Devolution.

1670 King Charles II of England gave a royal charter to the Hudson's Bay Company.

1729 Catherine the Great, Czaress of Russia, was born.

1750 John André, the British officer who accepted Benedict Arnold's offer to surrender West Point, was born.

1776 France and Spain agreed to support the American independence effort by providing weapons.

1803 The United States agreed to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France for about $15 million.

1844 Inventor Elijah McCoy was born.

1863 General Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot by his own men.

1866 Peruvian defenders fought off a Spanish fleet at the Batlle of Callao.

1876 Ross Barnes hit the first home run in the National League.

1885 Congo Free State was formed by King Leopold II of Belgium.
1885 The first edition of Good Housekeeping was published.
1885 Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper was born.

1887 Hannibal W. Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film.

1890 The Territory of Oklahoma was created.

1892 Manfred von Richtofen, aka the "Red Baron," was born.

1903 Hal Brooker rode Judge Himes to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
1903 Pediatrician Benjamin Spock was born.

1904 Shorty Prior rode Elwood to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1906 Roscoe Troxler rode Sir Huon to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1907 Actress Pinky Lee was born.

1908 "Take me out to the Ball Game" was registered for copyright.
1908 Actor William Bakewell was born.

1909 Honus Wagner stole his way around the bases in the first inning against the Chicago Cubs.

1911 French troops occupied Fès El Bali, Morocco.

1916 U. S. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Harrison Drug Act.

1918 General Motors acquired the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.

1920 The first game of the Negro Baseball League was played in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1927 The U. S. Supreme Court ruled as constitutional forced sterilizations of "unfit individuals."

1931 Actor Phil Bruns was born.

1936 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and his family fled Abyssinia.
1936 Bold Venture, ridden by Ira Hanford, won the Kentucky Derby.
1936 Singer Engelbert Humperdinck was born.

1940 Actress Jo Ann Pflug was born.

1941 Film and television producer Stephen J. Cannell was born.

1942 Japanese troops occupied Mandalay, Burma.
1942 Shut Out, ridden by Wayne D. Wright, won the Kentucky Derby.

1945 German troops in Italy and Austria surrendered.
1945 Berlin surrendered to Russian troops.

1946 Inmates at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary rioted.
1946 Singer Lesley Gore was born.

1947 Inventor James Dyson was born.

1948 Singer Larry Gatlin was born.

1953 Hank Moreno rode Dark Star to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1954 Stan Musial hit 5 home runs in a doubleheader.

1956 The U. S. Methodist Church disallowed racial separation.
1956 Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was crowned King of Nepal.

1957 "Sugar Ray" Robinson reclaimed his World Middleweight Championship from Gene Fulmer.
1957 U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy died.

1959 Tomy Lee, ridden by Willie Shoemaker, won the Kentucky Derby.

1962 The explosion of a booby-trapped automobile on the Algiers, Algeria, waterfront killed 62 persons and wounded more than 100.

1964 Bill Hartack rode Northern Dancer to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
1964 Nancy Langhorne Astor, the first woman to serve in the British House of Commons, died.

1967 The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup.

1968 The Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA Championship.

1969 The Queen Elizabeth II began its maiden voyage.

1970 Mike Manganello rode Dust Commander to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1972 An electrical fire in the Sunshine Silver Mine in Kellogg, Idaho, killed 126 persons.
1972 F. B. I. Director J. Edgar Hoover died.

1975 Soccer player David Beckham was born.

1981 Pleasant Colony, ridden by Jorge Velasquez, won the Kentucky Derby.

1982 More than 350 men were killed when the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British submarine Conqueror.

1983 A magnitude 6.7 earthquake injured 487 persons in Coalinga, California.

1985 Milton Eisenhower, government official and university president, died.

1987 Alysheba, ridden by Chris McCarron, won the Kentucky Derby.

1992 Pat Day rode Lil E Tee to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1994 A bus crashed into a tree at Gdansk, Poland, killing 32 persons.

1998 Kent Desormeaux rode Real Quiet to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1999 Mireya Moscoso became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.

2004 More than 630 Muslim nomads were killed by Christians in Yelwa, Nigeria.

2008 Cyclone Nargis struck myanmar, killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions homeless.

2009 Calvin Borel rode Mine That Bird to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
2009American politician Jack Kemp died.

2010 Actress Lynn Redgrave died.

2011 Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by U. S. Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

2013 A gold mine collapse in Jebel Amir, Sudan, killed 60 miners.
2013 Rhode Island legalized same-sex marriage.

2015 American Pharoah, ridden by Victor Espinoza, won the Kentucky Derby.
2015 Floyd Mayweather, Jr., defeated Manny Pacquiao in 12 rounds for the welterweight boxing title.

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This page was last updated on June 25, 2018.