Today in History, May 2nd
On May 2, 2011, U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Plus Birmingham's Children's Crusade and the end of Lou Gehrig's streak.
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May 2 is best known for 2011, when U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in a night raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The same date saw more than 1,000 Black schoolchildren march against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 and Lou Gehrig end his streak of 2,130 straight games in 1939.
The big story: U.S. forces kill Osama bin Laden (2011)
The trail ran through a courier. In August 2010, CIA analysts followed the al-Qaeda leader’s messenger to a walled compound in Abbottabad, a military and tourist town north of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. For months the U.S. watched the house without knowing for sure who lived inside. Around 1 a.m. local time on May 2, 2011, 23 Navy SEALs arrived in two Black Hawk helicopters. One crash-landed inside the walls, though nobody aboard was hurt. The raid lasted about 40 minutes. Bin Laden and four others were killed, and no Americans were injured. Back in Washington it was still May 1, and just after 11:30 p.m. Eastern time, President Barack Obama went on television to tell the country. Within a day, bin Laden’s body was buried at sea in the Arabian Sea. The hunt for the man behind the September 11 attacks had lasted nearly a decade.
More events on May 2
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1536 | Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, was sent to the Tower of London on charges of adultery and incest. She was beheaded on May 19. |
| 1670 | King Charles II granted a charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company, giving it a trading monopoly over the huge region around Hudson Bay. |
| 1933 | Scotland’s Inverness Courier reported a local couple’s sighting of a large creature in Loch Ness. The editor called it a “monster,” and a legend was born. |
| 1939 | Lou Gehrig, weakened by illness, took himself out of the New York Yankees lineup, ending his streak of 2,130 consecutive games. The record stood until 1995. |
| 1945 | About a million German troops in Italy surrendered to the Allies, and Soviet Marshal Georgi Zhukov accepted the surrender of Berlin. |
| 1949 | Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Death of a Salesman. |
| 1963 | More than 1,000 Black students marched in Birmingham, Alabama, in the Children’s Crusade against segregation. Police arrested hundreds, and the use of fire hoses and police dogs against the marchers drew national outrage. |
| 1972 | J. Edgar Hoover, who had led the FBI and its predecessor since 1924, died at age 77. |
Born on May 2
- 1729: Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, born in Stettin, Prussia (April 21, Old Style).
- 1903: Benjamin Spock, pediatrician whose baby-care book guided millions of postwar parents, born in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1975: David Beckham, English soccer star, born in Leytonstone, East London.
Sources
- Osama bin Laden killed by U.S. forces, History.com
- This Day in History: May 2, History.com
- On This Day: May 2, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Anne Boleyn, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Loch Ness Monster sighted, History.com
- Lou Gehrig, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Children’s Crusade march in Birmingham, History.com
- End of an era at the FBI, History.com
- Catherine the Great, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Benjamin Spock, Encyclopaedia Britannica
