What Happened on May 2

Historical Events

1703 – Portugal signs treaty with England to become a Great Covenant
1863 – South defeats North in Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia
1936 – Sergei Prokofiev’s musical “Peter and the Wolf” premieres in Moscow
1962 – OAS strikes in Algeria
1972 – 126 killed in an electrical fire in Sunshine Silver mine, Kellogg, Idaho
1975 – Apple records closes down

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Famous Birthdays

1360 – Yongle, Emperor of the Ming Empire (1402-24), born in Yingtian, Yuan Empire, China (d. 1424)
1855 – Theodore Moses Tobani, German composer, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1933)
1920 – Otto Buchsbaum, Austrian writer and ecological activist, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 2000)
1938 – Moshoeshoe II, King of Lesotho (1966-90), born in Morija, Lesotho (d. 1996)
1947 – James Dyson, British inventor, industrial designer, and entrepreneur (bagless vacuum cleaner; bladeless fan), born in Cromer, Norfolk, England
1966 – Belinda Stronach, Canadian businesswoman and politician, born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

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Famous Deaths

1963 – Van Wyck Brooks, American literary historian and writer (Ordeal of Mark Twain), dies at 77
2003 – George Wyle [Bernard Weissman], American composer (“The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island”; “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”), and orchestra leader (The Flip Wilson Show), dies at 87
2004 – John MacKenzie, Scottish-Canadian bagpiper and pipe-major, dies at 83
2018 – Cliff Watson, English rugby league front rower (30 Tests GB, 4 England; St Helens 373 games, Cronulla-Sutherland), dies of cancer at 78
2021 – Bobby Unser, American auto racer (Indianapolis 500 1968, 1975, 1981; USAC C’ship 1968, 1974), dies at 87
2022 – Yuri Vasenin, Russian soccer midfielder (9 caps USSR; FC Zorya Voroshylovhrad), dies at 73

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