Indian director, producer, screenwriter
English wife of Charles Darwin
English singer-songwriter
Russian wife of Peter III of Russia
English footballer, coach, model
German composer
Saudi Arabian terrorist, founded al-Qaeda
Italian painter, sculptor, architect
American 1st Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
American politician
On May 2, 1945, Soviet troops captured Berlin after intense fighting, which marked the end of World War II in Europe. German General Helmuth Weidling surrendered the city to the Soviet army, and the remaining German troops in the city also surrendered.
Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949. The play explores the disillusionment and downfall of a traveling salesman named Willy Loman and his family.
The De Havilland Comet 1 made its first scheduled flight on May 2, 1952, from London to Johannesburg, ushering in the era of commercial jet travel. However, a year later, a Comet 1 crashed due to structural problems, leading to the grounding of the entire Comet fleet.
In the Falklands War between the UK and Argentina, the British Royal Navy sank the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano on May 2, 1982, killing more than 350 men. The attack was controversial, and the British tabloid newspaper The Sun famously reported it with the headline "Gotcha."
On May 2, 1989, Hungary dismantled its border fence with Austria, allowing thousands of East Germans to escape to the West. This event marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War and the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain.
Tony Blair's Labor Party won a landslide victory in the general elections on May 2, 1997, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule in Britain. Blair's leadership, however, was later criticized for his support of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) on May 2, 2008, causing widespread devastation and leaving over 130,000 people dead. The cyclone also left millions of people homeless and caused severe damage to the country's infrastructure.
On May 2, 2011, a US special forces team raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden, the founder of the militant group al-Qaeda and the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on the US in 2001.