Following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 2:
1936 – Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and his family fled Addis Ababa, three days before its capture by the Italians.
1951 – The Shah of Iran signed decrees approving the nationalisation of Iran’s oil industry.
1953 – In Jordan, King Hussein was enthroned as successor to his father King Talal, who had been forced to abdicate because of ill health. In Iraq, King Faisal assumed power.
1972 – John Edgar Hoover, founder and former director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, died in Washington.
1982 – In the Falklands war, the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British submarine Conqueror; over 350 men were killed.
1994 – President F.W. de Klerk conceded victory to Nelson Mandela in South Africa’s historic first all-race elections.
2001 – World’s first tea party atop a hot-air balloon.
2003 – A Sicilian appeals court upheld the decision of a lower court that former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti was innocent of charges of complicity with the Mafia.
2006 – Television host and author Louis Rukeyser, who helped millions of Americans understand the workings of Wall Street with pun-filled stock market commentary delivered weekly for 32 years, died aged 73.
2009 – Jack Kemp, a star football quarterback who became a congressman, U.S. cabinet secretary and Republican vice-presidential nominee, died aged 73.
2014 – Afghanistan landslide leaves more than 2,500 dead or missing.
(Reuters)
