1519 In his twilight years, Leonardo Da Vinci became increasingly devoutly religious and was tormented by an unnamed terrible sin. On his deathbed he confessed towards how greatly he had offended God by not working on his God given artistic talent more. Leonardo died at his Château du Clos Lucé home in France on May 2, 1519, According to his wish, 60 beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise.
1536 Anne Boleyn was watching a game of real tennis on May 2, 1536 when she was arrested for incest with her half brother, infidelity with four others, treason and witchcraft. When told of the charge Anne said "Oh, Lord help me as I am guiltless of that where I am charged." She was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
1559 When Queen Mary I of England died and was succeeded by the more Protestant-leaning Elizabeth Tudor, the Protestant preacher John Knox decided it was safe to return from exile in Geneva. He arrived in Scotland on May 2, 1559. Convinced he was personally directed by God, Knox's powerful preaching and writing was to be a significant influence on the austere, moral Protestant movement in Scotland.
1568 In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary Queen of Scots and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle on an island in the middle of Loch Leven. Mary escaped on May 2, 1568 disguised in borrowed clothing with her hair shorn. Managing to raise an army of 6,000 men, she met Moray's forces at the Battle of Langside. Defeated, she fled to England seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England, who placed her under house arrest.
1611 In 1604 The newly crowned King James I of England convened the Hampton Court Conference, which proposed a new English version of The Bible in response to the perceived problems of earlier translations as detected by the Puritan faction of the Church of England. The King James Bible was published for the first time in London, on May 2, 1611 by the King's printer Robert Barker.
1611 In the years following the May 2, 1611 publication of The King James Bible, the Geneva Bible remained by far the most popular English Bible. It was the Geneva translation, not the King James, that was used by William Shakespeare and the early American Puritans.
1709 English poet Alexander Pope's first major work, Pastorals was published in the sixth part of Tonson's Poetical Miscellanies on May 2, 1709. Pope originally wrote the Pastorals at the age of 16 and Tonson had written to the teenager asking to publish back in 1706. It seems that Pope held out for publication on his own conditions.
1729 Catherine the Great was born on May 2, 1729 in Stettin in the Prussian province of Pomerania (now Szczecin), Poland) to Christian von Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German prince, and Elizabeth of Holstein. She was christened Princess Sophie Auguste Von Anhalt-Zerbst. In 1744, the Russian Tsarina Elizabeth selected Sophie as the wife for her nephew, Peter, her chosen successor. Sophie changed her name to "Catherine" when she accepted the Russian Orthodox faith.
1762 Enslaved at birth in Philadelphia on May 2, 1762, African American James Derham worked as an assistant under several doctors who owned him. He learned about medicine from them which lead him to open his own practice after he was freed and by 1789, he is reported to have made about $3,000 annually. Derham was the first African-American to formally practice medicine in the U.S, though he never received an M.D. degree.
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| Francis I of France receiving the last breath of Leonardo da Vinci, by Ingres, 1818 |
1536 Anne Boleyn was watching a game of real tennis on May 2, 1536 when she was arrested for incest with her half brother, infidelity with four others, treason and witchcraft. When told of the charge Anne said "Oh, Lord help me as I am guiltless of that where I am charged." She was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
1559 When Queen Mary I of England died and was succeeded by the more Protestant-leaning Elizabeth Tudor, the Protestant preacher John Knox decided it was safe to return from exile in Geneva. He arrived in Scotland on May 2, 1559. Convinced he was personally directed by God, Knox's powerful preaching and writing was to be a significant influence on the austere, moral Protestant movement in Scotland.
1568 In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary Queen of Scots and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle on an island in the middle of Loch Leven. Mary escaped on May 2, 1568 disguised in borrowed clothing with her hair shorn. Managing to raise an army of 6,000 men, she met Moray's forces at the Battle of Langside. Defeated, she fled to England seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England, who placed her under house arrest.
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| Mary, Queen of Scots Escaping from Loch Leven Castle (1805) by William Craig Shirreff |
1611 In 1604 The newly crowned King James I of England convened the Hampton Court Conference, which proposed a new English version of The Bible in response to the perceived problems of earlier translations as detected by the Puritan faction of the Church of England. The King James Bible was published for the first time in London, on May 2, 1611 by the King's printer Robert Barker.
1611 In the years following the May 2, 1611 publication of The King James Bible, the Geneva Bible remained by far the most popular English Bible. It was the Geneva translation, not the King James, that was used by William Shakespeare and the early American Puritans.
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| The title page to the 1611 first edition of the Authorized Version Bible |
1709 English poet Alexander Pope's first major work, Pastorals was published in the sixth part of Tonson's Poetical Miscellanies on May 2, 1709. Pope originally wrote the Pastorals at the age of 16 and Tonson had written to the teenager asking to publish back in 1706. It seems that Pope held out for publication on his own conditions.
1729 Catherine the Great was born on May 2, 1729 in Stettin in the Prussian province of Pomerania (now Szczecin), Poland) to Christian von Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German prince, and Elizabeth of Holstein. She was christened Princess Sophie Auguste Von Anhalt-Zerbst. In 1744, the Russian Tsarina Elizabeth selected Sophie as the wife for her nephew, Peter, her chosen successor. Sophie changed her name to "Catherine" when she accepted the Russian Orthodox faith.
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| Young Catherine soon after her arrival in Russia, by Louis Caravaque |
1762 Enslaved at birth in Philadelphia on May 2, 1762, African American James Derham worked as an assistant under several doctors who owned him. He learned about medicine from them which lead him to open his own practice after he was freed and by 1789, he is reported to have made about $3,000 annually. Derham was the first African-American to formally practice medicine in the U.S, though he never received an M.D. degree.
1838 English physician John Snow was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on May 2, 1838. He became a leader in the adoption of anesthesia and medical hygiene.
Only a year after the anesthetic ether was introduced to Britain, in 1847, Snow published a short work titled, On the Inhalation of the Vapor of Ether, which served as a guide for its use. It remained a standard reference until well into the 20th century.
1885 Good Housekeeping magazine went on sale for the first time on May 2, 1885. It was founded by Clark W. Bryan in Holyoke, Massachusetts. By 1911. the magazine had achieved a circulation of 300,000, at which time it was bought by the Hearst Corporation. Famous writers who have contributed to the magazine include Somerset Maugham , A. J. Cronin, Virginia Woolf, and Evelyn Waugh.
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| Cover from August 1908 |
1887 The Reverend Goodwin was an Episcopal priest at the House of Prayer in Newark, New Jersey. He was motivated to search for a non-breakable, and clear substance on which he could place the images he utilized in his Biblical teachings. On May 2, 1887, Goodwin filed his patent for a method of making transparent, flexible roll film out of nitrocellulose film base. Goodwin's transparent, flexible roll film was used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, an early machine for viewing animation.
1909 John Moore-Brabazon learned to fly in 1908 in France in a Voisin biplane. He became the first resident Englishman to make an officially recognized airplane flight in England on May 2, 1909, at Shellbeach on the Isle of Sheppey with flights of 450 ft, 600 ft, and 1500 ft. Ten months later, Moore-Brabazon became the first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom and was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1; his car also bore the number-plate FLY 1.
1918 When Louis Chevrolet ousted General Motors founder William C. Durant, he started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company of Delaware in November 1911. Durant used the Chevrolet Motor Car Company to acquire a controlling stake in General Motors with a reverse merger on May 2, 1918, which propelled him back to the GM presidency.
1933 The legend of the Loch Ness monster began on May 2, 1933 when the Inverness Courier published an article, by local reporter and Loch Ness water bailiff Alex Campbell, about a sighting of "a beast" in Loch Ness by unnamed locals a fortnight earlier. Over the years, there have been many reported sightings of the Loch Ness monster, and it has become one of the most famous and enduring legends in Scotland.
1945 Two days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the German troops in Berlin, surrendered the city to Soviet forces led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov on May 2, 1945. This ended the Battle of Berlin, one of the final major battles of World War II in Europe. The surrender of Berlin signaled the collapse of Nazi Germany and the end of the war in Europe.
1952 BOAC operated the first commercial jet aircraft service with the de Havilland Comet jetliner. It made its maiden flight with fare-paying passengers and inaugurated scheduled service from London to Johannesburg on May 2, 1952. The Comet was a hit with passengers as flights were about 50 percent faster than on advanced piston-engined aircraft such as the Douglas DC-6 (490 mph for the Comet compared to the DC-6's 315 mph), and a faster rate of climb further cut flight times.
1962 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first met musician Brian Jones when he was playing Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" with Alexis Korner's band at the Ealing Jazz Club. Both joined Jones' band, after he'd placed an advertisement in Jazz News on May 2, 1962, inviting musicians to audition for a new R&B group at the Bricklayer's Arms pub. Jagger and Richards shared an admiration of Muddy Waters and the band was named after the American bluesman's 1950 song "Rollin' Stone Blues."
1980 In early 1980 South African school children, fed up with the inferior apartheid-era education system, started chanting the lyrics of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)." The song, with a memorable line stating "We don't need no education," had held the top spot on the local charts for almost three months. By May 2, 1980, the South African government had censored "Another Brick in the Wall," and the ban created international headlines.
2011 President Barack Obama announced on May 1, 2011 that international terrorist leader Osama bin Laden had been killed by United States Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Due to the time difference between the United States and Pakistan, Bin Laden was actually killed on May 2. Of the 38 full-length English language books Osama Bin Laden had in his possession when he died, half of them were conspiracy theory books.
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