This Day in History – May 2
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
1994: Nelson Mandela and the ANC claim victory in the first democratic election in South Africa.
OTHER EVENTS
1519: Artist Leonardo da Vinci dies at Cloux, France.
1526: Protestant League of Germany is formed.
1536: England’s Queen Anne Boleyn is sent to the Tower of London, where she is eventually beheaded.
1809: People of Madrid rise against invading French, beginning six-year War of Independence.
1813: Napoleon Bonaparte defeats Prussian and Russian armies at Lutzen, Germany.
1895: British South Africa Company territory south of Zambesi is organised as Rhodesia.
1920: The Negro National League (NNL), founded by Rube Foster, holds its first game; the NNL was considered the first successful professional baseball league for African Americans, and notable players included Cool Papa Bell and Satchel Paige.
1933: Adolf Hitler abolishes trade unions in Germany.
1935: The peasants of Luzon, Philippines, rise up in arms against oppressive land tenancy laws.
1939: New York Yankee great Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse” of American baseball, ends his streak of consecutive games played (2,130), setting a record that stood until 1995 when it was broken by Cal Ripken, Jr.
1945: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin and the Allies announce the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.
1946: An attempted prison escape by six inmates at Alcatraz results in two days of violent fighting which becomes known as the Battle of Alcatraz.
1952: Jet plane passenger service is launched in the United States.
1953: Jordan’s Hussein ascends the throne, by the Islamic calendar, on his 18th birthday.
1965: The first satellite television programme links nine countries and over 300 million viewers.
1967: British Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s Labour Government decides to seek membership in European Common Market.
1972: After serving 48 years as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J Edgar Hoover dies in Washington at age 77.
1974: Former US Vice-President Spiro T Agnew is disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals, effectively preventing him from practising law anywhere in the United States.
1982: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano is sunk by a British submarine, killing 368 Argentine sailors. It is the worst single death toll of the 10-week war over possession of the Falkland Islands.
1989: Hungarian authorities begin cutting through the barbed wire and electric fencing that divide the country from the West.
1990: African National Congress and South African Government open three days of negotiations in Cape Town for gradually ending white rule in South Africa.
1996: Liu Gang, a Chinese dissident who spent six years in prison for his leading role in the 1989 pro-democracy movement, receives political asylum in the United States.
1997: Tony Blair becomes Britain’s youngest prime minister in 185 years after his Labour Party crushes John Major’s long-reigning Conservatives in a landslide victory.
1999: Yugoslav authorities hand over to the Reverend Jesse Jackson three American prisoners of war who were held for a month. Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to win Panama’s presidential elections.
2000: Belgium opens an investigation into the 1961 killing of Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, following Congolese independence from Belgium. It is later found that Belgian officials and the CIA were involved in his slaying.
2002: Israeli troops and tanks depart the West Bank city of Ramallah, freeing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after more than a month of confinement on his compound.
2003: Freedom Forum’s Newseum, a Washington-based foundation dedicated to free speech and a free press, adds the names of 31 journalists killed in the line of duty the previous year to a rainbow-hued glass memorial.
2007: Responding to the massive recall of cat and dog food, the US Senate votes in favour of stricter production and labelling standards so people have more information about what they are feeding their pets.
2008: Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangirai wins 47.9 per cent of the vote in Zimbabwe’s presidential elections — not enough to avoid a run-off against President Robert Mugabe.
2010: European governments and the International Monetary Fund commit to pull Greece back from the brink of default, agreeing on euro 110 billion in emergency loans on the condition Athens makes painful budget cuts and tax increases.
2011: Osama bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, is slain in his luxury hideout in Pakistan during a firefight with US forces, ending a manhunt that spanned a frustrating decade.
2012: The UN Security Council orders all countries to freeze the assets of three North Korean State-owned companies to punish Pyongyang for its failed rocket launch the previous month.
2013: Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel says US is rethinking its opposition to arming Syrian rebels who have been locked in a civil war with the Syrian regime for more than two years, becoming the first top official to publicly acknowledge the reassessment.
2015: Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge, the second child of Prince William, duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, is born in London.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Catherine the Great, empress of Russia (1729-1796); Theodor Herzl, Hungarian journalist and founder of Zionism (1860-1904); Baron Manfred von Richthofen, World War I German fighter ace (1892-1918); Alan Marshall, Australian author (1902-1984); Bing Crosby, US actor-singer (1904-1977); Satyajit Ray, Indian film director (1921-1992); Roscoe Lee Browne, US actor (1925-2007); King Faisal II, last king of Iraq (1935-1958); Bianca Jagger, Nicaraguan actress, socialite (1945- ); Stephen Daldry, director (1960- ); Lily Allen, British pop singer (1985- ).
— AP