On this day in history

May 2

27 births · 16 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

May 68

58 years ago

Born this day

1921

Satyajit Ray

Would be 105

Oldest record

666th

Yongle Emperor

birth anniversary

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Famous births27

1360 · 666 yrs

Yongle Emperor

The Yongle Emperor (2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1402 to 1424. He was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the dynasty.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 64

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1601 · 425 yrs

Athanasius Kircher

Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1601/1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works of comparative religion, geology, and medicine.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 79

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Photo: Cornelis Bloemaert · Public domain

1660 · 366 yrs

Alessandro Scarlatti

Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti (2 May 1660 – 22 October 1725) was an Italian Baroque composer, known especially for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the most important representative of the Neapolitan School of opera.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 65

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Photo: Unidentified painter · Public domain

1772 · 254 yrs

Novalis

Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), better known by his pen name Novalis (German:), was a German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and mystic. He is regarded as an influential figure in Jena Romanticism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 28

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Photo: Franz Gareis · Public domain

1818 · 208 yrs

Božena Němcová

Božena Němcová (Czech pronunciation:; 4 February 1820 – 21 January 1862) was a Czech writer of the final phase of the Czech National Revival movement.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 43

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1859 · 167 yrs

Jerome K. Jerome

Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 68

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Photo: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress) · Public domain

1860 · 166 yrs

Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was a Hungarian Jewish journalist and lawyer who was the father of modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine, which, in the late 19th century was part of the Ottoman Empire, in an effort to form a Jewish state.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 44

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Photo: Carl Pietzner · Public domain

1886 · 140 yrs

Gottfried Benn

Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951.

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ScienceWould be 140

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Photo: Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1984-1116-500,_Gottfried_Benn-Arzt_und_Schriftsteller.jpg : o.Ang. derivative work: Алексей Скрипн · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1892 · 134 yrs

Manfred von Richthofen

Rittmeister Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (German:; 2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

AviationWould be 134

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Photo: C. J. von Dühren · Public domain

1903 · 123 yrs

Benjamin Spock

Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998), widely known as Dr. Spock, was an American pediatrician, Olympic medalist, and left-wing political activist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 123

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Photo: Bert Verhoeff for Anefo · CC0

1921 · 105 yrs

Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray (Bengali:; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential film directors in the history of cinema.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 105

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Photo: Dinu Alam Newyork · CC BY-SA 4.0

1924 · 102 yrs

Charles Aznavour

Charles Aznavour ( AZ-nə-VOOR; French:; Armenian: Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրյան; born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French and Armenian singer-songwriter, actor, and diplomat.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 102

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Photo: Mariusz Kubik · CC BY 3.0

Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths16

1519 · 507 yrs

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 67

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Photo: Attributed to Francesco Melzi · Public domain

1857 · 169 yrs

Alfred de Musset

Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (French:; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist. Along with his poetry, he is known for writing the autobiographical novel La Confession d'un enfant du siècle (The Confession of a Child of the Century).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 46

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Photo: Charles Landelle · Public domain

1864 · 162 yrs

Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, linking Mozart and Wagner. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera "decisive character".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 72

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Photo: Au Ménestrel , Paris, 1865. Uploaded, stiched and restored by JLPC · Public domain

1925 · 101 yrs

Johann Palisa

Johann Palisa (6 December 1848 – 2 May 1925) was an Austrian astronomer. He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids, discovering 122 in all, from 136 Austria in 1874 to 1073 Gellivara in 1923.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 76

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1945 · 81 yrs

Martin Bormann

Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, and private secretary to Adolf Hitler. Bormann gained immense power by using his position as Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleWould be 126

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Photo: Unknown · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1957 · 69 yrs

Joseph McCarthy

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican senator from Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 117

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Photo: United Press · Public domain

1969 · 57 yrs

Franz von Papen

Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk (German:; 29 October 1879 – 2 May 1969) was a German politician, diplomat, army officer, and Prussian nobleman.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 146

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Photo: Unknown · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1972 · 54 yrs

J. Edgar Hoover

John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 131

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Photo: Marion S. Trikosko · Public domain

1979 · 47 yrs

Giulio Natta

Giulio Natta (Italian:; 26 February 1903 – 2 May 1979) was an Italian chemical engineer and Nobel laureate. Natta's work at Politecnico di Milano led to the improvement of earlier work by Karl Ziegler and to the development of the Ziegler–Natta catalyst.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 123

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1983 · 43 yrs

Pridi Banomyong

Pridi Banomyong (Thai: ปรีดี พนมยงค์, RTGS: Pridi Phanomyong, pronounced; 11 May 1900 – 2 May 1983), also known by his noble title Luang Praditmanutham (Thai: หลวงประดิษฐ์มนูธรรม), was a Thai lawyer, professor, activist, politician, democratic socialist, and senior statesman.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 126

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1997 · 29 yrs

Paulo Freire

Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and Marxist philosopher whose work has affected global thought on education.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LawWould be 105

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Photo: Slobodan Dimitro · CC BY-SA 3.0

1997 · 29 yrs

John Carew Eccles

Sir John Carew Eccles (27 January 1903 – 2 May 1997) was an Australian neurophysiologist and philosopher who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. He shared the prize with Andrew Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 123

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Photo: Unknown author · CC BY 4.0

Showing 12 of 16

Events5

1668 · 358 yrs

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen ended the War of Devolution between France and Spain. It was signed on 2 May 1668 in Aachen (French: Aix-la-Chapelle).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1808 · 218 yrs

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1941 · 85 yrs

Anglo-Iraqi War

The Anglo-Iraqi War was a British-led Allied military campaign during the Second World War against the Kingdom of Iraq, then ruled by Rashid Ali al-Gaylani who had seized power in the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état with assistance from Germany and Italy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1968 · 58 yrs

May 68

May 68 (French: Mai 68) was a period of widespread protests, strikes, and civil unrest in France that began in May 1968 and became one of the most significant social uprisings in modern European history.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

2011 · 15 yrs

Killing of Osama bin Laden

On May 2, 2011, the United States conducted Operation Neptune Spear, in which SEAL Team Six shot and killed Osama bin Laden at his "Waziristan Haveli" in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

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