may 2

May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). There are 243 days remaining.

Events

1100-1899

1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.
1335 - Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia
1568 - Mary I of Scotland escapes from Loch Leven Castle.
1670 - King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
1672 - John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.
1808 - Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation.
1816 - Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Charlotte Augusta are wed.
1829 - After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends, with a defeat of the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker by Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson.
1885 - Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time.
1885 - The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
1889 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, which gives Ethiopia control over Eritrea.

1900-1999

1900 - Oscar II, King of Sweden, declares support for Britain at the time of the Boer War.
1918 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
1920 - The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1932 - Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
1933 - The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness monster is reported.
1933 - Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.
1939 - Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record will stand for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks it.
1940 - The British passenger liner City of Exeter encounters the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, but without incident.
1945 - World War II: Fall of Berlin - The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building. German forces surrender in Italy.
1945 - The last postage stamp utilized by Manzhouguo is issued.
1948 - Hour of Charm's last broadcast.
1952 - The first commercial jet plane, the BOAC's Comet, is put into service
1953 - Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
1955 - Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
1963 - Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a rocket with three stages with a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
1964 - Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the USS Card while docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship.
1966 - Upper Hutt in New Zealand is proclaimed a city.
1969 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
1970 - The Ohio National Guard arrives at Kent State University in response to arson on an ROTC building.
1970 - Vietnam War: Joint forces continue attack into Cambodia
1972 - Buddy Baker became the first stock car driver to finish a 500-mile race in less than three hours en route to winning the Winston Select 500 at the Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, Alabama.
1972 - Production of the movie Jaws begins.
1982 - Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.
1982 - The Weather Channel goes on the air.
1984 - Sunday in the Park with George opens on Broadway.
1986 - The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada opens.
1988 - The last B-1 Lancer is delivered.
1997 - The Labour Party's Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule. At 44, he is the youngest prime minister for 185 years.
1998 - The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the EU's monetary policy.
1999 - Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered in their Weimar, Texas parsonage by Angel Maturino Resendiz. The couple are his fourth and fifth victims in his fourth attack.