May 2, 1885
The magazine '
Good Housekeeping' goes on sale for the first time.
1918
General Motors acquires the
Chevrolet Motor Company.
1952
The
De Havilland Comet, the world's first jet airliner, makes its maiden flight.
1955
Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
1969
The
Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
1982
Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine
HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser
ARA General Belgrano.
1986
The city of
Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the
nuclear power plant there explodes and burns.
2000
President Bill Clinton announces that accurate
GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.
2011
Osama bin Laden is killed by U.S. Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Births
1729 – Catherine the Great; 1859 – Jerome K. Jerome; 1892 – Manfred von Richthofen 'The Red Baron'; 1903 – Dr. Benjamin Spock; 1907 – Pinky Lee; 1922 – Roscoe Lee Browne; 1929 – Link Wray; 1936 – Engelbert Humperdinck; 1945 – Judge Dread (
No, really); 1945 – Bianca Jagger; 1946 – Lesley Gore, David Suchet; 1947-James Dyson; 1948 – Larry Gatlin; 1950 – Lou Gramm; 1951 – John Glascock; 1955 – Donatella Versace; 1962 – Big Boss Man; 1967 – Mika Brzezinski; 1972 – Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson; 1975 – David Beckham; 1985 – Lily Allen, Kyle Busch
Deaths
1519 – Leonardo da Vinci; 1880 – Eberhard Anheuser; 1957 – Joseph McCarthy; 1972 – J. Edgar Hoover; 1984 – Jack Barry; 1990 – David Rappaport; 1999 – Oliver Reed; 2006 – Louis Rukeyser; 2009 – Jack Kemp; 2010 – Lynn Redgrave; 2011 – Osama bin Laden; 2012 – Junior Seau; 2014 – Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.; 2015 – Ruth Rendell