Today in History - May 2
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1250 May 2, Toeransa, sultan of Egypt, was murdered.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1459 May 2, Pierozzi Antoninus, Italian archbishop of Florence, saint, died.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1497 May 2, John Cabot departed for North America. [see Jun 24]
(MC, 5/2/02)
1519 May 2, Artist Leonardo da Vinci (67) died at the Chateau du Clos-Luce, France, where he had lived since 1516. In 1994 A. Richard Turner wrote "Inventing Leonardo," a history of Leonardo legends. In 2004 Bulent Atalay authored “Math and the Mona Lisa: The Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci." In 2004 Charles Nicholl authored “Leonard da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind."
(AP, 5/2/97)(NH, 5/97, p.58)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.80)(Econ, 12/11/04, p.81)(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.C6)
1536 May 2, King Henry VIII accused Anna Boleyn of adultery, incest, and treason. [see May 15, May 19]
(MC, 5/2/02)
1551 May 2, William Camden, English historian (Brittania, Annales), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1598 May 2, Henry IV signed the Treaty of Vervins, ending Spain's interference in France.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1601 May 2, Athanasius Kircher, German Jesuit, inventor (magic lantern), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1668 May 2, Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the War of Devolution in France.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1670 May 2, The Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson Bay (the Hudson Bay Co.) was chartered by England's King Charles II to exploit the resources of the Hudson Bay area. By 2006 it had mutated into Canada’s largest non-food retailer.
(AP, 5/2/97)(HN, 5/2/98)(AH, 4/01, p.36)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.36)
1729 May 2, Catherine the Great (d.1796), (Catherine II), empress (czarina) of Russia (1762-1796), was born. She succeeded her husband Peter III to the throne in 1762. "I am one of the people who love the why of things." [see Apr 21]
(AP, 9/4/97)(HN, 5/2/99)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1776 May 2, France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1797 May 2, A mutiny in the British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1798 May 2, The black General Toussaint L'ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo. After 5 years of fighting over 60% of 20,000 British troops were buried on St. Domingue.
(HN, 5/2/99)(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.12)
1808 May 2, The citizens of Madrid rose up against Napoleon. It culminated in a fierce battle fought out in the Puerta del Sol, Madrid's central square. The Spanish were defeated, and during the night the French army lead by Grand Duke Joachim Murat slaughtered hundreds of citizens along the Prado promenade in reprisal.
(HN, 5/2/98)(MC, 5/2/02)
1813 May 2, Napoleon defeated a Russian and Prussian army at Grossgorschen. During the Napoleonic Wars a British naval officer proposed the use of saturation bombing and chemical warfare.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1833 May 2, Czar Nicholas banned the public sale of serfs.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1837 May 2, Henry Martyn Roberts, parliamentarian (Robert's Rules of Order).
(HN, 5/2/02)
1844 May 2, Elijah McCoy, black inventor, held over 50 patents, was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1856 May 22, Charles Cora, a gambler, and James Casey, a member of the SF Board of supervisors, were hanged by the SF Committee of Vigilance led by merchant Charles Doane, following a drumhead trial at “Fort Gunnybags, "the vigilante headquarters on Sacramento St. There was widespread belief that Cora and Casey were “in cahoots" with then sheriff David Scannel. Cora was in jail for recently killing US Marshal William H. Richardson, who had drunkenly insulted Cora's mistress, Belle Ryan. Cora and Ryan were married in Cora's jail cell hours before being hanged.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C1)(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C1)(SFC, 8/24/19, p.C2)
1860 May 2, William Maddock Bayliss, British physiologist, co-discoverer of hormones, was born.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1860 May 2, Theodor Herzl, journalist, founder (Zionist movement), was born in Austria.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1863 May 2, The Confederates smashed Hooker's flank and won a smashing victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia. Confederate Gen’l. Stonewall Jackson was shot by friendly fire as he returned to his lines; he died eight days later. Captain J. Keith Boswell, an officer with Jackson, was also shot and killed.
(HT, 3/97, p.48)(AP, 5/2/99)(HN, 5/2/99)
1865 May 2, President Johnson offered a $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1866 May 2, Jesse Lazear, American physician and researcher of yellow fever.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1873 May 2, Jurgis Baltrušaitis (d.1944), Lithuanian Symbolist poet and translator, was born.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurgis_Baltru%C5%A1aitis)
1876 May 2, American civil engineer James Buchanan Eads hired the luxury steamer Grand Republic for her maiden voyage to carry investors and the press from New Orleans to the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi to show off his work. The jetties were completed in 1880 and New Orleans went from being the nation’s 9th largest port to the 2nd largest.
(ON, 10/09, p.8)
1877 May 2, Vernon Castle, ballroom dancer.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1885 May 2, "Good Housekeeping" magazine was 1st published.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1885 May 2, The Congo Free State was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1886 May 2, Edouard Lockroy, French Minister of Culture, announced plans for a tower for the 1889 Paris exhibition and invited proposals for the project. The winning design was submitted by engineer Gustave Eiffel.
(ON, 7/03, p.9)
1887 May 2, Hannibal W. Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1887 May 2, The remains of composer Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), were transferred from Paris to Santa Croce, Florence.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1890 May 2, The Oklahoma Territory was organized.
(AP, 5/2/97) (HN, 5/2/98)
1892 May 2, Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), was born. He was a German pilot and greatest ace of world War I with 80 planes to his credit.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1895 May 2, Lorenz Milton Hart, lyricist, collaborator with Richard Rodgers.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1902 May 2, "A Trip To The Moon," the 1st science fiction, was film released. The French film "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" (Voyage to the Moon) was a 14-minute silent film directed by Georges Melies. It displayed early efforts in trick photography to show a group of scientists traveling to the moon after being shot from a giant cannon.
(WSJ, 3/19/98, p.R4)(MC, 5/2/02)
1903 May 2, Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, author and activist, was born. His book, "Common Sense of Baby and Child Care" sold 30 million copies.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1908 May 2, The original version of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," with music by Albert Von Tilzer and lyrics by Jack Norworth, was copyrighted by Von Tilzer's York Music Co. It sealed the popularity of Cracker Jacks, a popcorn candy.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AH, 10/01, p.34)(WSJ, 3/22/08, p.W16)
1912 May 2, Axel Springer, German newspaper magnate, was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1919 May 2, The first U.S. air passenger service started.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1920 May 2, 1st game of National Negro Baseball League was played in Indianapolis.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1921 May 2, Satyajit Ray, Indian film director (Aparajito, The World of Apu), was born.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1923 May 2, Lieutenants Okaley Kelly and John Macready took off from New York for the West Coast on what would become the first successful nonstop transcontinental flight.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1924 May 2, Theodore Bikel, Austrian-US folk singer, actor (Russians Are Coming), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1926 May 2, US military "intervened" in Nicaragua. [see May 3]
(MC, 5/2/02)
1928 May 2, In Emeryville, Ca., a raid on a brewery next door to the home of Police Chief Ed. J. Carey uncovered 5,000 gallons of unbottled beer and 3,000 bottles of beer. Jimmy Reese, star 2nd baseman of the Oakland Coast League and son-ibn-law of Chief Carey, emerged from a cottage in front of the warehouse and demanded to know what the raid was about. Alameda Ct. DA Earl Warren filed a federal complaint against Carey.
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.E3)
1932 May 2, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Pearl S. Buck for “The Good Earth."
(MC, 5/2/02)
1932 May 2, Walter Duranty of the NY Times won a Pulitzer Prize for his series on the Soviet Union that contained uncritical praise of Joseph Stalin. In 2003 a historian argued, without success, that the prize should be revoked due to Duranty's deliberate failure to cover the forced famine in the Ukraine that killed millions of people. In 2004 David C. Engerman authored "Modernization from the Other Shore," an American view of the Soviet experience."
(SFC, 10/23/03, p.A3)(SFC, 11/22/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 2/24/04, p.D8)
1932 May 2, Jack Benny's first radio show made its debut on the NBC Blue Network.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1933 May 2, In Germany, Adolf Hitler banned trade unions.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1934 May 2, Nazi Germany began "People's court."
(MC, 5/2/02)
1934 May 2, In Germany a Chancellery meeting took place between Adolph Hitler and executives of General Motors Corp. and its German division (Opel). Opel quickly became an essential element in German rearmament.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1936 May 2, Michael Rabin, violinist (In Memorium), was born in NYC.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1936 May 2, "Peter and the Wolf," a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1936 May 2, With the Italian invasion Ethiopia’s Emp. Haile Selassie left for French Somaliland. He went into exile for 5 years during which time he was based in Bath, England.
(http://tinyurl.com/ahqhm)
1938 May 2, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Thornton Wilder (Our Town).
(MC, 5/2/02)
1939 May 2, Baseball player Henry Louis Gehrig, “the Iron Horse," asked to be taken out of the NY Yankees starting lineup in a game where the Yanks beat Tigers 22-2. He had played 2,130 consecutive games. A few weeks later he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral schlerosis, a fatal neuromuscular disease.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, Par. p.2)(SFEC, 3/30/97, BR. p.10)(MC, 5/2/02)
1941 May 2, Martin Bormann succeeded Rudolf Hess as Hitler's deputy.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1941 May 2, Hostilities broke out between British forces in Iraq and that country's pro-German faction under PM Rashid Ali. There was a pro-Axis coup led by the army. Quickly overthrown by British troops, a pro-British regime under PM Nuri al-Said was installed, declaring war on the Axis powers in 1943.
(HN, 5/2/99)(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A10)
1942 May 2, Admiral Chester J. Nimitz, convinced that the Japanese would attack Midway Island, visited the island to review its readiness.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1942 May 2, Japanese troops occupied Mandalay Burma.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, German Army in Italy surrendered.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, The Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria. The Russians took Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting and General Weidling surrendered. Yevgeny Khaldei (d.1997 at 80), soldier-photographer, made pictures of Soviet soldiers hoisting the red flag over the Reichstag in Berlin.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AP, 5/2/97)(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A19)(HN, 5/2/98)(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, Yugoslav troops occupied Trieste.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1946 May 2-1946 May 4, A 3-day siege at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended after five people were killed. Six led by bank robber Bernard Paul Coy (46) inmates took 9 guards hostage. Inmate Joe Cretzer shot the 9 hostages but killed only one. He and 2 compeers were later shot and killed. 2 inmates were executed for their part and one served out a life sentence.
(AP, 5/4/97)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A12)(SFC, 4/12/14, p.C1)
1947 May 2, William Moulton Marston (b.1893), American psychologist, inventor and comic book writer, died. He created the character Wonder Woman, who made her debut in All Star Comics #8 in December 1941.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Moulton_Marston)
1949 May 2, Arthur Miller won Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman."
(MC, 5/2/02)
1952 May 2, Christine Baranski, actress (Maryann-Cybill, Birdcage, Sweeney Todd), was born in Buffalo NY.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1952 May 2, The British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC), the national British carrier, introduced the world’s 1st commercial jet airliner service. Initial flights took passengers from London to Johannesburg in South Africa, with stops. The British De Havilland Comet, the first commercial jetliner, was grounded later this year after a series of fatal crashes. Its flaws were fixed and the plane went on to deliver years of reliable service.
(www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Commercial_Aviation/Opening_of_Jet_era/Tran6.htm)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.65)
1955 May 2, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Tennessee Williams for Cat on Hot Tin Roof.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1956 May 2, US Methodist church disallowed race separation.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1957 May 2, Crime boss Frank Costello narrowly survived an attempt on his life in New York; the alleged gunman, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, was acquitted at trial after Costello refused to identify him as the shooter.
(AP, 5/2/07)
1957 May 2, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (48), the controversial Republican from Wisconsin, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. McCarthy drank himself to death.
(AP, 5/2/97)(WSJ, 2/9/00, p.A26)
1960 May 2, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Alan Drury (Advice & Consent).
(MC, 5/2/02)
1960 May 2, House investigating committee looked into payola questions.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1960 May 2, Caryl Chessman (39), convicted sex offender and best-selling author, the Red Light Bandit," was executed at San Quentin Prison in California. He became a best-selling author while on death row. SFC crime reporter Bernice Davis (d.2002 at 97) later authored “Desperate and the Damned," an account of the Chessman case.
(AP, 5/2/08)(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A25)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A23)
1962 May 2, OAS struck in Algeria.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1964 May 2, In Mississippi Charles Moore (19) and Henry Dee (19) were beaten and killed by local members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their mutilated bodies were later found in the Mississippi River while federal authorities searched for civil rights workers Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner. Charles Marcus Edwards and James Ford Seale were arrested for the crime, but neither was tried. In 2007 James Ford Seale (71) was arrested and charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. In 2008 an appeals court ruled that the statue of limitations had expired overturning Seale’s conviction.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.A5)(AP, 1/25/07)(AP, 1/26/07)(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26633038/)
1965 May 2, Intelsat 1, also known as the Early Bird satellite, was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.
(AP, 5/2/08)
1967 May 2, In California two dozen legally gun-toting members of the Black Panther Party marched in the state Capitol in Sacramento to oppose a Republican gun control bill and expose the hypocrisy of politicians who only invoked the Second Amendment when it applied to white people. On July 28 Gov. Reagan signed the Milford Act, crafted with the goal of disarming members of the Black Panther Party who were conducting armed patrols of Oakland neighborhoods.
(SSFC, 10/24/21, p.E1)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act)
1967 May 2, The Stockholm Vietnam Tribunal opened and continued to May 10. The formation of this investigative body immediately followed the 1966 publication of Bertrand Russell's book, “War Crimes in Vietnam." It condemned US aggression in Vietnam and Cambodia. A 2nd session of the tribunal was held at Roskilde, Denmark, Nov 20 – Dec 1, 1967.
(www.vietnamese-american.org/contents.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal)
1968 May 2, The US Army attacked Nhi Ha in South Vietnam and began a fourteen-day battle to wrestle it away from Vietnamese Communists.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1969 May 2, Franz JHMM von Papen (b.1879), German chancellor (1932), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Papen)
1970 May 2, Diane Crump became the 1st woman jockey at the Kentucky Derby.
(www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-8312437_ITM)
1970 May 2, Student anti-war protesters at Ohio's Kent State University burned down the campus ROTC building. Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes ordered in the National Guard to take control of the campus.
(HN, 5/2/98)(HNPD, 5/4/99)
1972 May 2, The play "That Championship Season" by Jason Miller (1939-2001) premiered in NYC off Broadway. A film version premiered in 1982.
(http://www.bookrags.com/guides/championshipseason/)
1972 May 2, In Idaho a fire at the Sunshine Mine precipitated the death of 91 underground employees by smoke inhalation and/or carbon monoxide poisoning.
(www.usmra.com/saxsewell/sunshine.htm)
1972 May 2, J. Edgar Hoover (b.1895), head of the FBI (1924-72), died in Washington. Hoover had come to the forefront of federal law enforcement during the "Red Scare" of 1919 to 1920. The Watergate affair subsequently revealed that the FBI had illegally protected President Richard Nixon from investigation. Ronald Kessler later published "The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency."
(AP, 5/2/97)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover)
1972 May 2, Camp Carroll was officially surrendered to the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. This was the first major victory for the North Vietnamese Army during the Nguyen Hue Offensive. The Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary Government immediately imposed their authority in the province, as collective farms were set up and strict rules instilled by the Viet Cong were forced on the villagers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Quang_Tri)
1973 May 2, A New Jersey state trooper was killed in a gunbattle. Joanne Chesimard (b.1947), a Black Panther activist, was later found guilty in the killing and sentenced to prison. She escaped in 1979 and everntually made her way to Cuba, where she was granted asylum by Fidel Castro.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assata_Shakur)(SFC, 12/22/14, p.A8)
1974 May 2, Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals, effectively preventing him from practicing law anywhere in the United States.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1980 May 2, Pope John Paul II arrived Kinshasa for the centennial of Catholicism in Zaire and the beginning of his African tour.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)(http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id99.htm)
1981 May 2, In California Joseph Azevedo (50) was found shot dead at his mobile home in Lancaster, LA County. On Nov 6, 2010, suspect David Winter (55), a long-haul truck driver, was arrested in Ohio.
(http://tinyurl.com/4ekecdj)(SFC, 1/10/11, p.A4)
1981 May 2, In Savannah, Ga., Jim Williams shot and killed his younger, redneck boyfriend. Clint Eastwood based his 1997 film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" on this event.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.C14)
1982 May 2, A project to produce oil from shale rock in Colorado's Roan Plateau collapsed due to technical hurdles and falling oil prices. Exxon Mobil laid off 2,200 workers and cancelled its $5 billion Colony Oil Shale project near Parachute.
(USAT, 3/5/04, p.6A)(Econ, 8/20/05, p.27)(SFC, 9/4/06, p.A8)
1982 May 2, In the Falklands War the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British submarine Conqueror, killing 323 men. Lord Terence Thornton Lewin (d.1999 at 78), British military commander, was regarded as the one who persuaded Margaret Thatcher to order the sinking.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano)(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)
1983 May 2, A 6.4 earthquake injured 94 people in Coalinga, Ca., and caused an estimated $10 million in damages.
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1983_05_02.php)
1985 May 2, US financial firm E.F. Hutton pleaded guilty to charges that that it carried out a large check-kiting scam.
(WSJ, 10/15/05, p.B3)(http://my.econedlink.org/calendar.php?month=05)
1987 May 2, Alysheba won the 113th running of the Kentucky Derby to earn a record $618,600; Bet Twice came in second and Avies Copy was third.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1988 May 2, Jackson Pollock's "Search" sold for $4,800,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/gqov4)
1988 May 2, Cincinnati Reds baseball manager Pete Rose was suspended for 30 days by National League president A. Bartlett Giamatti, two days after Rose shoved an umpire during a game won by the New York Mets, 6-5. Giamatti died a week later. In 1998 his musings on baseball were published as “A Great and Glorious Game," ed. by Kenneth S. Robson.
(AP, 5/2/98)(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR p.9)
1989 May 2, At a Baltimore gathering, physicists said they were persuaded that claims of "cold fusion" were based on nothing more than experimental errors by scientists in Utah.
(AP, 5/2/99)
1990 May 2, David Rappaport (38), British 3'11' actor (Wizard, LA Law), committed suicide by gunshot in California.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0710884/)
1990 May 2, The government of South Africa and the African National Congress opened their first formal talks aimed at paving the way for more substantive negotiations on dismantling apartheid.
(AP, 5/2/00)
1991 May 2, US, British, French and Dutch forces plunged 50 miles deeper into northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/2/01)
1991 May 2, Denmark issued a pair of stamps depicting satellite pictures of its land and water temperatures.
(https://colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/58-Denmark/year/1991)
1991 May 2, In his ninth encyclical, Pope John Paul the Second acknowledged the success of capitalism, but denounced the system for sometimes achieving results at the expense of the poor and of morality. Pope John Paul II put forth his encyclical “Centesimus Annus," on the dignity of the human person and the free economy in the free society. He pointed out that the main cause of the wealth of nations is knowledge, science, know-how, and discovery.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)(WSJ, 12/23/99, p.A18)(AP, 5/2/01)
1992 May 2, Los Angeles began to recover from rioting that had erupted in the wake of the Rodney King-taped beating acquittals; about 2,800 National Guard troops patrolled the city while 3,200 stood by.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1992 May 2, Former US House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur D. Mills died in Searcy, Ark., at age 82.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1992 May 2, Ejup Ganic took over as Bosnia's acting president. Serbian prosecutors later alleged that Ganic personally commanded a series of attacks on illegal targets across Sarajevo, including an officers' club, a military hospital and what the Serbs describe as a medical convoy making its way out of town.
(AP, 3/4/11)
1993 May 2, Authorities said they had recovered the remains of David Koresh from the burned-out Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1993 May 2, Julio Gallo (82), wine maker (Gallo), died in a car accident.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1993 May 2, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic approved a plan to end the Bosnian war. Four days later, the Bosnian Serb assembly rejected it.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1994 May 2, A jury in Detroit acquitted Dr. Kevorkian of violating a 1992 law against assisted suicide.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.A3)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kevorkian/chronology.html)
1994 May 2, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa's first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1995 May 2, President Clinton agreed to allow some 20,000 Cubans into the United States after months of detention at Guantanamo Bay, but said any more Cubans who fled their country would be forcibly repatriated.
(AP, 5/2/00)
1995 May 2, A new scientific theory predicted an earthquake for the Central Valley of California to occur by July 9. It was estimated to be about 6.0 in magnitude but did not happen.
(local newspaper San Luis Obispo, Ca.)
1995 May 2, Serb missiles exploded in the heart of Zagreb, killing six.
(www.hri.org/news/usa/std/1995/95-05-02.std.html)
1996 May 2, By a 97-3 vote, the Senate passed an immigration bill to tighten border controls, make it tougher for illegal immigrants to get U.S. jobs and curtail legal immigrants' access to social services.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1996 May 2, John Dylan Katz (16) was beaten up and put into a coma in Windsor, California. He was apparently wearing the wrong colors. Arrested for the assault were Dominque Marie Gaitan (22), and 3 17-year-old youths including a girl. A 5th suspect was being sought.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-13)
1996 May 2, Some 20,000 workers marched in Asuncion, Paraguay, demanding improved wages and working conditions. Police broke up groups of strikers and detained 16 union leaders.
(SFC, 5/3/96, A-18)
1997 May 2, President Clinton and congressional Republicans came to terms on a plan to balance the budget over five years.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, A new national memorial honoring Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt was officially opened in Washington, D.C., and was dedicated by Pres. Clinton
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, In Texas Robert Scheidt surrendered to police and left behind 7 people of the Republic of Texas under the leadership of Richard McLaren. The number of separatists was reduced to 7 from an earlier estimate of 13.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)
1997 May 2, Tony Blair, whose new Labor Party crushed John Major's long-reigning Conservatives, became at age 44 Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, In Bulgaria the average salary was reported as $30 a month and the average pension $4 a month.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A18)
1997 May 2, In Zaire the Tenke Mining Corp. of Vancouver, Canada, signed a $250 million contract with the rebels to develop copper and cobalt deposits.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1998 May 2, In the 124th Kentucky Derby jockey Kent Desormeaux rode to victory on "Real Quiet."
(BS, 5/3/98, p.1A)(AP, 5/2/99)
1998 May 2, In separate radio addresses, President Clinton and congressional Republicans lambasted the Internal Revenue Service and promised more reforms to prevent future abuses.
(AP, 5/2/99)
1998 May 2, Police fired tear gas into a crowd of 3,000 students at Michigan State Univ. who were protesting the end of drinking at Munn Field.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.3A)
1998 May 2, It was reported that a small galaxy was detected 12.3 Billion light-years away, 94% of the distance back to the Big Bang.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A7)
1998 May 2, The European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was launched in Brussels with 11 nations welcomed as the founding members.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A18)
1998 May 2, Cambodian refugees entered Thailand as government troops declared that they had all but destroyed the Khmer Rouge.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.16A)
1998 May 2, In Indonesia tens of thousands of students in Jakarta and at least a dozen other cities rallied against the government.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.19A)
1998 May 2, In Tajikistan government troops withdrew from around the capital after 4 days of fighting Islamist opposition forces. An agreement for a peaceful settlement was reached.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.17A)
1999 May 2, A US F-16 went down over western Serbia on the 39th night of air strikes. Allied forces rescued the pilot. Pilot David Goldfein (b.1959) was soon rescued by American commandos in a hair-raising operation.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A3)(https://tinyurl.com/y59vv58w)
1999 May 2, Actor Oliver Reed died in Malta at age 61.
(AP, 5/2/00)
1999 May 2, Yugoslav authorities handed over to the Rev. Jesse Jackson three American prisoners of war who had been held for 32 days.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/2/00)
1999 May 2, NATO bombings struck the Obrenovac power plant in Belgrade and blacked out large areas of Serbia. A soft bomb (KIT-18) sprayed graphite over the power station and shorted its circuits. A metalworks factory in Valjevo was hit and missile hit Mitrovica where one woman was killed and several civilians wounded.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A12)(SFC, 5/4/99, p.D1)
1999 May 2, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana and Manual Marulanda Velez, the leader of FARC, agreed to begin formal peace negotiations with int'l. observers.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.C5)
1999 May 2, In Mexico Rodolfo Montiel, a peasant leader in a struggle to protect the forests of the southern Sierra Madre, was arrested, tortured and jailed on trumped-up drug and weapons charges for his battle against US and local logging companies. Teodoro Cabrera was also arrested. Pres. Fox ordered the release of Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera on Nov 8, 2001.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A16)(SFC, 11/9/01, p.A20)
1999 May 2, In Nepal insurgents killed 2 police officers the day before parliamentary elections that they asked voters to boycott. The rebels demanded land reforms and an end to the monarchy. Election related violence left at least 10 people dead.
(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 2, In Panama presidential elections were scheduled. Martin Torrijos, son of Gen'l. Omar Torrijos, was favored over Mireya Moscoso (52), wife of the late Arnulfo Arias. Moscoso led the vote in early returns.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D5)(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A12)
1999 May 2, Serbian police ambushed a convoy of ethnic Albanians near Studime and 109 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.A12)(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A14)
2000 May 2, An investigating panel concluded that Texas A&M University students cut corners in construction and school officials failed to adequately supervise them before a bonfire collapse in November 1999 that killed 12 people.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, Jockey Julie Krone became the first female elected to thoroughbred racing’s hall of fame.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, Former nurse Christina Marie Riggs was executed by injection in Arkansas for smothering her two young children.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, In Armenia Pres. Robert Kocharian fired Prime Minister Aram Sarkisian and his government for allowing the economy to deteriorate and for ignoring discord in the military. Police security was tightened around government buildings.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)
2000 May 2, In Belgium the Parliament opened an inquiry into possible government involvement in the 1961 killing of Congo’s Premier Patrice Lumumba. This followed allegations in the new book “The Murder of Lumumba" by Ludo De Witte.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)
2000 May 2, In Israel the Day of the Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was observed. The date was fixed by Israel to commemorate the Warsaw Jewish ghetto uprising of 1943.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12,13)
2000 May 2, In Indonesia it was reported that a tribal conflict between the Wampe and Bilaga on West Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, had left over 100 people dead in the last year.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A10)
2000 May 2, In the Philippines rebels at Talipao threatened to behead 2 hostages if military troops were not pulled back.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)
2000 May 2, In Rwanda health minister Ezechias Rwabuhihi reported that some 500,000 Rwandans, 6% of the population, were infected with AIDS.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A18)
2000 May 2, In Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front rebels seized 50 UN workers over the last 2 days as the West African intervention force completed its pullout. The seizures took place in Makeni, Kailahun and Magburaka.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A13)
2001 May 2, President Bush and Republican congressional leaders clinched a budget deal embracing most of the president's tax and spending goals.
(AP, 5/2/02)
2001 May 2, It was reported that a large embezzlement case in Brazil threatened to unravel the ruling coalition. Some $2 billion had disappeared from the Amazon Development Bureau (Sudam). Fakery of land deals (grilagem) was estimated to involve some 100 million acres of the Amazon Basin.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A8)(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B5)
2001 May 2, In China US technical experts examined the US spy plane on Hainan Island.
(WSJ, 5/3/01, p.A1)
2001 May 2, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan returned to China from Russia with a draft accord for relations with Russia.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D2)
2001 May 2, In China a landslide in Wulong County buried a 9-story building where 76 of 95 residents were home. 65 bodies were recovered. At least 79 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D2)(AP, 5/2/02)
2001 May 2, Germany inaugurated its new Chancellery in Berlin designed by Axel Schultes. There were concerns that the building was too grandiose.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B2)(AP, 5/2/02)
2001 May 2, Israeli bulldozers demolished 20 houses in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza and killed one teenager during the predawn operation.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B1)
2001 May 2, In North Korea Kim Jong Il agreed to hold talks with visiting EU officials about his missile program and tensions with South Korea. Kim Jong Il announced that North Korea would launch no ballistic missiles until 2003.
(WSJ, 5/3/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/4/01, p.A14)
2001 May 2, In Zambia the ruling party ousted Vice Pres. Christon Tembo, 8 Cabinet members and 11 0ther senior officials who opposed Pres. Chiluba’s bid for a 3rd term.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)
2002 May 2, The Rev. Paul Shanley, a priest at the epicenter of the clergy sex abuse scandal, turned himself in to authorities in San Diego to face charges in Massachusetts of raping boys during the 1980s. Shanley pleaded innocent but was later convicted of repeatedly raping one boy at a Newton parish in 2005, and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. On July 28, 2017, Shanley (86) was released from prison.
(AP, 5/2/07)(SFC, 7/22/17, p.A6)
2002 May 2, The Bush administration committed to join a UN int’l. conference on Middle East peace and economic reconstruction.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A1)
2002 May 2, A federal crackdown on identity theft reported 130 recent arrests. Estimates were that some 500,000 people were victimized annually.
(WSJ, 5/3/02, p.A1)
2002 May 2, The US Int’l. Trade Commission upheld a 27% tariff against imported Canadian softwood.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.B1)
2002 May 2, Dr. William F. Gibson (69), former head of the NAACP, died.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)
2002 May 2, In the Bahamas the opposition Liberal Progressive Party won Parliamentary elections with 23 seats in the 40-seat legislature. Perry Christie (b.1944) led the party to victory and served as prime minister to 2007.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A10)(AP, 5/8/12)(http://tinyurl.com/7crjgun)
2002 May 2, A report on Iraq’s oil sales showed that illegal surcharges allowed Iraq to siphon off large amounts for its war chest.
(WSJ, 5/2/02, p.A1)
2002 May 2, Yasser Arafat emerged from his West Bank headquarters, hours after Israeli troops withdrew from his compound and released the Palestinian leader from months of confinement.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2002 May 2, In the Philippines Salip Abdullah, a key aide to Abu Sayyaf chief Janjalini, was captured in Labangal village near General Santos.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A10)
2002 May 2, In Pakistan a bomb exploded in Karachi and a boy (12) was killed.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A12)
2002 May 2, In Vietnam the Russian flag was lowered over the Cam Rhan Bay naval base for the last time.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cam_Ranh_Bay)
2003 May 2, A US official warned that the US is ready to sacrifice the free flow of trade with Canada if necessary to respond to a planned Canadian decriminalization of marijuana.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, A federal court struck down most of the new campaign finance law's ban on the use of large corporate and union contributions by political parties. However, the Supreme Court later ruled that rooting out corruption, or even the appearance of it, justified limitations on the free speech and free spending of contributors, candidates and political parties.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2003 May 2, The US jobless rate was reported at 6%, an 8-year high.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B1)
2003 May 2, China reported an accident on a diesel-powered submarine that killed all 70 sailors aboard [see April 25].
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, James Miller (34), a British journalist filming a documentary in the southern Palestinian city of Rafah, was shot and killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. In 2006 a British jury ruled that the shooting was an act of murder. In 2009 Israel agreed to pay about $2 million to the family Miller.
(AP, 5/2/04)(AP, 4/6/06)(AP, 2/1/09)
2003 May 2, India and Pakistan agreed to hold talks and restore diplomatic and air links.
(WSJ, 5/5/03, p.A1)
2003 May 2, Striking Nigerian oil workers released the first of hundreds of people they have held for days on oil rigs as part of an agreement to free all the captives.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Papua New Guinea a landslide buried a meeting hall under mud and debris, killing at least eight people as they listened to election results.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2003 May 2, In eastern Sicily Giuseppe Leotta (42), a disgruntled worker, opened fire with a handgun in the Aci Castello town hall, killing 5 people. He fled and then killed himself.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Taiwan 11 more cases of SARS were confirmed with 5 new deaths. Confirmed cases totaled 100 with the death toll at 8. Mutations of the virus were also reported.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A7)
2003 May 2, Chuwit Kamolvisit, A sex club operator in Thailand, was arrested for unlawfully demolishing a downtown Bangkok block housing scores of bars and shops to make way for another massage parlor, the Taj Mahal. He soon claimed to have spent about $289,156 each month in payoffs to policemen.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Vietnam an aging Russian-made bus, carrying more than 40 passengers, burst into flames. 6 people died and 70 were badly burned. Flammable cargo was suspected.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2004 May 2, In Afghanistan a fuel-truck explosion killed at least 25 people in western Herat.
(WSJ, 5/3/04, p.A1)
2004 May 2, In Colombia 2 small bombs exploded outside the Ministry of Social Affairs in Bogota, injuring nine people and shattering windows.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2004 May 2, American hostage Thomas Hamill, kidnapped three weeks ago in an insurgent attack on his convoy, was found by U.S. forces south of Tikrit after he apparently escaped from his captors.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2004 May 2, Shiite militiamen attacked a U.S. convoy in southern Iraq, killing two soldiers and setting vehicles on fire. Two other American soldiers were killed in Baghdad. At least 9 US soldiers were killed across central and northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/2/04)(SFC, 5/3/04, p.A1)
2004 May 2, Adzharian forces blew up the three major bridges connecting their recalcitrant province with the rest of Georgia in what their leader said was a preventive measure against Georgian military action.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2004 May 2, In Israel PM Sharon’s Likud Party rejected his proposal to withdraw troops and settlers from the West Bank. Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli vehicle in the Gaza Strip, killing 4 children and their mother. Israeli soldiers killed the 2 attackers.
(AP, 5/2/04)(SFC, 5/3/04, p.A1)
2004 May 2, In Mexico a small plane carrying federal anti-narcotics agents crashed, killing all seven people on board.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 2-4, In Nigeria Tarok fighters, a predominantly Christian tribe, attacked Yelwa, a town dominated by Hausa, a rival Muslim ethnic group, razing homes and mosques and killing 500-600 people in 2 attacks over the last 3 days.
(AP, 5/6/04)(SFC, 5/7/04, p.A9)
2004 May 2, Martin Torrijos (40), son of former military dictator Gen’l. Omar Torrijos, was easily elected as Panama's next leader in its first presidential vote since the handover of the Panama Canal and withdrawal of US troops in December 1999. Torrijos promised to tackle vested interests.
(AP, 5/3/04)(Econ, 1/19/08, p.39)
2005 May 2, Florida’s Gov. Bush signed legislation imposing 25-year jail terms for some child molesters and forcing many to wear satellite tracking gear upon release.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A1)
2005 May 2, Utah’s Gov. Jon Huntsman signed a measure defying the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act despite a warning from the federal education secretary that it could cost $76 million in federal aid. The legislation gives Utah's education standards priority over federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, Pvt. 1st Class Lynndie England, the young woman pictured in some of the most notorious Abu Ghraib photos, pleaded guilty at Fort Hood, Texas, to mistreating prisoners. However, a judge later threw out the plea agreement; England was later convicted in a court-martial and sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2005 May 2, Neiman Marcus agreed to be sold to Texas pacific Group and Warburg Pincus for $5.1 billion.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.B1)
2005 May 2, Verizon Communications won its bid to buy MCI Inc. in an $8.44 billion deal.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A1)
2005 May 2, Bob Hunter (63), inspirer of Greenpeace, died.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.89)
2005 May 2, In Afghanistan an arms cache, hidden under the house of a warlord and former government militia commander named Jalal Bashgah, exploded in a bunker beneath his home killing 34 people, injuring 16 and devastating surrounding buildings.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 2, Brazil posted a record trade surplus for the month of April. During the month its currency rose 5% against the dollar.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A14)
2005 May 2, Jose Miguel Insulza, Chile’s interior minister, became head of the Organization of American States.
(WSJ, 5/2/05, p.A16)
2005 May 2, Coalition soldiers fought suspected insurgents near Qaim, a Syrian border town, in a battle that killed 12 militants, injured a 6-year-old girl and wounded six coalition soldiers.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, A car bomb exploded in an upscale shopping district of Baghdad, killing at least six Iraqis and setting fire to an apartment building.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky resigned to protest the planned Gaza withdrawal, which he called a "tragic mistake" that will encourage Palestinian violence and deepen the rift in Israeli society.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian fugitive were killed in a shootout at Seideh in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 2, Italian investigators blamed US military authorities for failing to signal there was a checkpoint ahead on the Baghdad road where American soldiers killed an Italian agent, concluding in a report that stress, inexperience and fatigue played a role in the shooting.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, In Kuwait a push to allow women to participate in local elections stalled when Islamist and conservative lawmakers abstained en masse from a key vote in parliament, leaving the measure undefeated but short of the number of votes needed for passage.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, An Oman state security court convicted 30 people of plotting to overthrow the sultan and install an Islamic government, but spared them the death penalty. Another defendant was convicted of a lesser crime.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, Pakistani authorities arrested Abu Farraj al-Libbi, head of al-Qaida operations in Pakistan. The nation's most-wanted militant had a $10 million bounty on his head. A 2nd militant was seized with al-Libbi, who has a five-million-dollar US bounty on his head, was himself a key Al-Qaeda figure with a reward tag of four million dollars.
(AP, 5/4/05)(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 2, Yevgeny Adamov, Russia's former nuclear energy minister, was arrested in the Swiss capital on a US warrant accusing him of diverting up to $9 million from funds intended to improve Russian nuclear security.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 2, The world's nations gathered, for the 7th time since it took force in 1970, to reassess how well the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is working.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2006 May 2, Louis Rukeyser (73) died in Connecticut. The best-selling author, columnist, lecturer and television host had delivered pun-filled, commonsense commentary on complicated business and economic news.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, In Minnesota a small, spiral-shaped snail that clones itself and is native to New Zealand has been discovered in Duluth-Superior Harbor and the St. Louis River estuary, raising concerns about the impact of another invasive species.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, A pre-dawn fire in NYC raged through a 21-acre site. It destroyed 15 industrial buildings and was the worst city fire in 10 years.
(http://nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/home2.shtml)(WSJ, 5/27/06, p.P9)
2006 May 2, A suspected suicide attacker set off a car bomb on a road between the Afghan capital Kabul and a main US military base, killing himself and a civilian.
(AFP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Bolivia's leftist government said it would extend control over mining, forestry and other sectors of the economy. Foreign governments warned relations could be damaged. Soldiers guarded natural gas fields and refineries across Bolivia after President Evo Morales ordered the sector nationalized, threatening to evict foreign companies unless they cede control over production within six months.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Canada's new government released its first federal budget, offering broad tax cuts and pledging to shore up the country's security with spending increases for the military, border security and policing.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, The Canadian dollar cracked 90 US cents, setting a new 28-year high and helping Canadians to realize cheaper US imports of everything from vegetables and clothing to computers.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, China's official Xinhua News Agency said glaciers in western China's Qinghai-Tibet plateau, known as the "roof of the world," are melting at a rate of 7 percent annually due to global warming.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Colombia the entire municipal council of Villavieja resigned and fled to Neiva in Huila province, fearing for their lives amid a spate of political killings.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, In western India at least 30 people were killed when a crowded bus veered off a bridge and plunged into a river. The bus, which had a capacity of 58 but was carrying 69 passengers, was traveling from Kashimira town to Thane, near Mumbai.
(AFP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Iran a court sentenced two Swedes to three years in prison each for photographing military installations. The two men, both in their 30s, were convicted of photographing military buildings and telecommunications equipment on Qeshm, an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Iraq's parliament speaker said in a nationally televised speech that the new government's top priority will be ending widespread bloodshed in cities such as Baghdad. But insurgents launched new attacks, killing at least seven Iraqis and a US soldier. US soldiers raided an al-Qaeda site and killed 10 insurgents, including 3 in suicide vests. German engineers Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke were released unharmed following 99 days in captivity.
(AP, 5/2/06)(WSJ, 5/3/06, p.A1)(AP, 5/3/07)
2006 May 2, PM Silvio Berlusconi, the longest-serving leader in postwar Italy, resigned to make way for a center-left government led by Romano Prodi.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Nepal's new prime minister announced a seven-member Cabinet, designating a communist as his deputy and foreign minister.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Norway 3 key suspects were convicted in the theft of the Edvard Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" and sentenced to between four and eight years in prison. The works were snatched by masked gunmen from the Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004. They are still missing.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, An explosion destroyed a building inside a Palestinian national security compound in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two police officers and wounding seven others.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse called for immediate peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels, saying his tiny tropical island had seen enough violence. Gunmen stormed the offices of the Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna, 400 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, killing a manager and another employee. The next day the government said the murders were timed to embarrass it as Sri Lanka hosted UNESCO World Press Freedom Day celebrations, while the rebel Tamil Tigers blamed government forces for the attack.
(AP, 5/2/06)(AFP, 5/3/06)
2007 May 2, In a defeat for anti-war Democrats, Congress failed to override President Bush's veto of legislation requiring the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Bush declared al-Qaida "public enemy No. 1 in Iraq."
(AP, 5/2/08)
2007 May 2, Cablevision Systems Corp. agreed to be taken private by the founding Dolan family for $10.6 billion in cash.
(SFC, 5/3/07, p.C2)
2007 May 2, James Abegglen, American-born chronicler of the rise of “Japan Inc.," died in Japan. In the 1960s and 1970s he warned corporate America that Japan should be taken more seriously. His 9th book was titled “21st-Century Japanese Management."
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.A8)
2007 May 2, Afghan regional officials said that 51 villagers, some of them women and children, were killed in recent fighting in western Afghanistan. The US-led coalition said it had no reports of civilian deaths.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, A former prime minister led his opposition party to victory in the Bahamas, returning to power in elections dominated by questions about the direction of the tourism-driven economy. Hubert Ingraham's Free National Movement won 23 seats in the 41-seat legislature, while PM Perry Christie's Progressive Liberal Party claimed the other 18.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 2, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said another case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, has been confirmed in a mature dairy cow in the province of British Columbia.
(Reuters, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, An Egyptian court sentenced Al Jazeera producer Huweida Taha Metwalli to six months in jail or a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,760) for her part in producing a feature on torture by Egyptian police.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Egypt and Japan agreed to push together in a bid to end the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions, calling for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
(AFP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, The grave of Hungary's last communist ruler, Janos Kadar (1956-1988), was pried open and his remains and his wife's urn were thought to have been stolen.
(Reuters, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, The Iranian state news agency reported that the country's former nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, has been arrested on an unspecified security charge.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, A suicide car bomber struck in the main Shiite district of Baghdad, killing at least nine people as the US military said its troop buildup in Baghdad was nearly complete. Three more US soldiers were killed by bombs in the capital. At least 85 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Agency said hundreds of dead seals have washed up on its Caspian Sea shoreline in the past several days, bringing the total number of the animals found dead along the shoreline in recent weeks to 832.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Ahmed Errachidi (41) a Moroccan man sent home from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay last week, was released by local authorities after terrorism-related charges were dropped.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
2007 May 2, The International Criminal Court in the Hague said it has issued arrest warrants for the Sudanese government's humanitarian affairs minister and a janjaweed militia leader suspected of committing war crimes in Darfur.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, A company spokesman said US oil giant Chevron has shut down 15,000 barrels per day of oil production in its Funiwa facility in southern Nigeria following a militant attack.
(AFP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Romania’s Parliament approved an agreement allowing the US to use four military bases and station up to 3,000 troops in the former communist country.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 2, Russian oil firms rushed to re-route a quarter of their refined products exports away from ports in Estonia after Russia's railways halted the route amid a political dispute with Tallinn. Young Russians staged raucous protests in Moscow to denounce neighboring Estonia for removing a Soviet war memorial from its capital, and the Estonian ambassador said pro-Kremlin activists tried to attack her as she arrived at a news conference.
(Reuters, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, The South Korean government announced its first-ever plan to seize assets gained by alleged Korean collaborators during Japanese colonial rule as part of efforts to reconcile with its past more than 60 years after the end of the peninsula's occupation. 2 defectors to South Korea described how they had been tortured in a North Korean prison camp, as a South Korean rights group issued a report on abuses of detainees in the communist state.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Taiwan's opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou was nominated by his Kuomintang party to run for the 2008 presidential election and pledged to improve economic ties with China.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Thailand's military-installed PM Surayud Chulanont said he has tasked his southern army commander with developing a detailed amnesty proposal for Islamic militants.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, The US and EU warned Turkey's military to stay out of the country's political showdown between the Islamic-rooted government and those in the secular establishment who fear the country will shift toward Islamic rule.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Isaac Matongo (60), the chairman of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former trade unionist, died.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2008 May 2, The US Federal Reserve and key European central banks announced a fresh offensive against a global credit crisis that has gridlocked lending and slowed the world economy.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Severe storms rolled across Arkansas and killed 8 people, including a teenager crushed by a tree while she slept in her bed. The deaths came after earlier storms seriously damaged homes and businesses in the Kansas City, Mo., area.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Sami al-Haj, an Al-Jazeera cameraman, was released from US custody at Guantanamo Bay. he returned home to Sudan after six years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Britain's ruling Labor Party suffered its worst local election defeat on record. Labor won 24% of the votes, a warning to PM Brown that he must fix Britain’s credit crunch.
(AP, 5/2/08)(WSJ, 5/3/08, p.A1)
2008 May 2, In Chechnya suspected Islamic militants clashed with police, killing two law enforcement officers. The rebel-linked Web site Kavkaz Center claimed that at least nine law enforcement officers were killed in a gunfight that lasted for four hours.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, In southern Chile authorities evacuated hundreds of people from villages after the snowcapped Chaiten volcano, considered dormant for thousands of years, erupted.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Colombian police captured Miguel Angel Mejia, the second of two drug-trafficking twins who were among the country's main cocaine shippers.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Cuba computers went on sale to the general public and potential consumers were lining up outside store windows to gawk and consider buying.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Honduras 31 prisoners were attacked by their cellmates with knives and guns just hours after they were transferred to a prison in Tegucigalpa from San Pedro Sula. At least 18 inmates died in the attack.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, Shiite clerics offered sharply different visions in the showdown between government forces and Shiite militias, one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people. Al-Qaida insurgents, mostly Sunnis, raked a police car with automatic weapons, killing 8 Iraqi policemen in the town of Qaim on the Syrian border. 2 civilians were killed and 7 others wounded in Baghdad's central Salihiyah district after a mortar round apparently fired by Shiite extremists toward the US-protected Green Zone fell short. According to US military 10 militants were killed in fighting, including a sniper and a triggerman accused of planting armor-piercing roadside bombs in Sadr City and the adjacent Ubaydi area. A roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad killed a US soldier. A roadside explosion killed 4 Marines in western Anbar province.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, A rebel spokesman said Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases deep inside Iraq for three hours overnight. The Turkish military said the raid in northern Iraq killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Nigeria’s high court ruled that former president Olusegun Obasanjo's daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, currently in hiding, must face corruption charges.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, A UN official said rising prices and funding shortages have forced the UN to stop providing emergency food aid to more than 13 percent of the 750,000 Palestinian refugees it feeds in Gaza.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Saudi Arabia a German-based quartet staged the first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender, largely expatriate audience.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, South Sudan's defense minister, Lieutenant General Dominic Dim Deng, was killed in a plane crash along with 23 other people, most of them senior members of the southern former rebel leadership.
(AFP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, In northern Yemen a motorcycle bomb exploded amid a crowd of worshippers leaving a mosque after prayers, killing at least 18 people and wounding about 45.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Zimbabwe elections officials said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the vote in the presidential elections, more than longtime President Robert Mugabe but not enough to avoid a runoff. The opposition said it was willing to share power with the ruling party, but not with longtime President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2009 May 2, Mine That Bird, a gelding from New Mexico trained by Bennie Woolley Jr., won the 135th Kentucky Derby. With an inspired ride on the rail from Calvin Borel the 50-to-1 odds win was one of the greatest upsets in America's most famous horse race.
(AP, 5/3/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.C1)
2009 May 2, Jack Kemp (b.1935), Republican politician, died of cancer at his home in Maryland. A former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, Kemp represented western NY for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988.
(AP, 5/3/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A16)
2009 May 2, In Albania Fatmir Xhindi (49), a lawmaker from the main opposition Socialist Party, was shot and killed outside his home in Roskovec. Albania ended communist rule in 1990, but has struggled since then with high unemployment, widespread corruption, dilapidated infrastructure and organized crime.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, Australia’s government said it will spend more than 70 billion US dollars boosting its defenses over the next 20 years in response to a regional military build-up and global shifts in power.
(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Austria an avalanche killed 6 hikers not far from the popular Soelden ski resort in the alpine province of Tyrol.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 2, In Bolivia former US Pres. Jimmy Carter met with Pres. Evo Morales and discussed bettering relations with the new US government.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A6)
2009 May 2, Brazilian officials said floods and mudslides from heavy rains in the northeast have killed at least 14 people in the last month and driven tens of thousands from their homes.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Brazil Augusto Boal (78), theater director and playwright known for the interactive genre called the "Theater of the Oppressed," died. Seen as a threat to the dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985, Boal was arrested, jailed and tortured before being exiled to Argentina. He returned to Brazil after the fall of the military regime.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, Canadian health officials said a traveler has carried the new H1N1 virus from Mexico to Canada, infecting his family and a herd of swine.
(Reuters, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, It was reported that an estimated 250,000 Roma lived in the Czech Rep. A rising number of the gypsies were applying for visas to Canada. Of 861 applications in 2008, 84 were accepted.
(Econ, 5/2/09, p.54)
2009 May 2, In the Dominican Rep. the decapitated body of a migrant from neighboring Haiti was found in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Santo Domingo. Residents alleged the victim killed a local merchant. About 1 million people of Haitian descent lived in the Dominican Rep., often suffering discrimination and violence.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 2, India's biggest drug maker Ranbaxy announced the recall of an antibiotic, on sale in the US, because of manufacturing problems, marking a new setback for the company. The Japanese-controlled company said it was voluntarily recalling all lots of nitrofurantoin capsules, an antibiotic used in the treatment of urinary tract infections.
(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Iraq a roadside bomb also exploded near a car and a cement mixer in Kirkuk, killing at least 3 civilians and wounding 3 others. Two American soldiers were killed after a gunman opened fire at a combat outpost near Mosul. The attacker was described as a soldier, who also served as a Sunni Muslim preacher for his unit. Iraqi police arrested Mullah Nadim Jibouri, an Awakening leader in Duluija, along with 2 of his brothers.
(AP, 5/2/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A6)(SFC, 5/4/09, p.A3)(SFC, 5/6/09, p.B5)
2009 May 2, South Pacific nations announced that military-ruled Fiji has been suspended from the 16-nation bloc for its rejection of democracy, freedom and human rights.
(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2009 May 2, An Israeli airstrike against smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border killed two people.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 2, Mexico said it had no confirmed deaths from HINI swine flu overnight, even as its confirmed caseload grew to 443.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Pakistan scores of militants attacked the Spinal Tangi security post near the Afghan border, triggering a battle that left 18 combatants dead and cast doubt on claims by Pakistan's army to have regained control of a critical region. A Taliban commander in the Khyber region, just west of Peshawar, surrendered after authorities put pressure on his tribe. Iftikhar Khan Afridi was aligned with Baitullah Mehsud, the top Pakistani Taliban commander. The Taliban beheaded two government officials in the northwestern Swat Valley in revenge for the killing of two insurgent commanders by security forces.
(AP, 5/2/09)(Reuters, 5/3/09)
2009 May 2, In Senegal Madieye Diallo's, a gay man, died of HIV AIDS. His body had only been in the ground for a few hours when a mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2009 May 2, In Sri Lanka a government doctor and a rebel-linked Web site said artillery shells hit a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka's northern war zone, killing at least 64 civilians.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Trinidad 4 police officers allegedly hijacked a smuggling boat from Venezuela and stole 1,000 endangered birds and monkeys along with 400 pounds of wild animal meat. Investigators acting on a tip found birds and monkeys in people's homes, in pet shops and even along roads in Port-of-Spain.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2010 May 2, Louisiana's 2.4-billion-dollar a year commercial and recreational fishing industry was dealt its first major blow from the April 20 oil spill, as the US government banned activities for 10 days due to health concerns.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Tennessee more rain and storms loomed as emergency officials coped with evacuations and closed roads from heavy flooding that claimed five lives. Weekend thunderstorms killed at least 31 people with 19 dead in Tennessee, 6 in Mississippi and 6 in Kentucky. More than 13 inches of rain fell in Nashville over two days, nearly doubling the previous record of 6.68 inches that fell in the wake of Hurricane Fredrick in 1979.
(AP, 5/2/10)(AP, 5/3/10)(AP, 5/4/10)(SFC, 5/8/10, p.A5)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A8)
2010 May 2, United Airlines said it has agreed to buy Continental in a $3 billion-plus deal that would create the world's largest carrier with a commanding position in several top US cities.
(AP, 5/3/10)(SFC, 5/3/10, p.D1)
2010 May 2, Lynn Redgrave (b.1943), British-born actress, died at her home in Kent, Conn. She achieved acclaim for her role in “Georgy Girl" (1966).
(SFC, 5/4/10, p.C5)
2010 May 2, In southern Afghanistan a British soldier died in an explosion while protecting fellow troops as they returned from a patrol.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Australia said it would impose taxes worth billions of dollars on mining companies to tap the profits of an Asia-driven commodities surge, prompting warnings it could "kill" the boom.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, China raised the proportion of deposits that lenders must keep in reserve at the central bank, another step in its months-old campaign to mop up excess cash in the economy at a time when inflation is on the rise.
(Reuters, 5/3/10)
2010 May 2, Cuba allowed a small group of dissidents to hold a protest march after the country's top Roman Catholic clergyman negotiated with authorities, ending three straight weeks of ugly confrontations.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants in separate incidents near the border with Israel.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Ethiopia’s information minister said police have arrested 10 suspected Islamic militants they believe were sent by Eritrea to carry out attacks to upset May 23 general elections.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Greece reached agreement with the EU and the International Monetary Fund on rescue loans to keep Athens from defaulting on its debts, a deal that will impose harsh cuts on the county's 11 million people for years.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Iran the Fars news agency reported that 9 bronze statues, some of famous Iranians and costing thousands of dollars, have been stolen in Tehran in what is said to be serial thievery.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Iraq 2 bombs exploded minutes apart near buses carrying Christian students in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least one bystander and injuring around 100 others.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Moshe Hirsch (86), an American-born anti-Zionist rabbi and close associate of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died in Jerusalem. Hirsch was a leading figure in Neturei Karta, a tiny ultra-Orthodox sect that opposes Israel's existence as a Jewish state and has embraced its enemies. Neturei Karta, which is Aramaic for "Guardians of the City," was founded some 70 years ago in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 2, In Jamaica a sleeping 5-year-old boy died after his throat was slashed. Police soon charged Jermaine Gushman (34) with the murder saying he may have done it to get back at the boy's father.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 2, In Mexico 5 people were trampled to death when a gunshot fired at a cattle fair sent a panic-stricken crowd rushing for the exits in Guadalupe, outside the industrial city of Monterrey, already on edge from rampant drug violence.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Nepal Maoist opposition supporters armed with bamboo sticks enforced a general strike that closed transportation, schools and markets across the country to demand the prime minister's resignation.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Norsk Hydro announced that it was acquiring the aluminium assets of Vale, a Brazilian mining giant, in a deal valued at $4.9 billion.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.65)
2010 May 2, Pakistani army helicopter gunships pounded insurgent hideouts in the northwest, killing at least 22 militants.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Hamas Deputy Finance Minister Ismail Mahfouz denied that the Islamic militants are caught in a cash crunch, but said Hamas is having trouble getting money into blockaded Gaza.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Somalia dozens of fighters from one of Somalia's most powerful rebel groups moved into Haradhere, a northern town where pirates operate, sending the pirates fleeing in a development that could upend the piracy trade.
(AP, 5/2/10)(SFC, 5/3/10, p.A2)
2010 May 2, In Sudan gunfire broke out and ambulance sirens wailed as hundreds of angry victims of a failed pyramid scheme protested in the Darfur region. Police opened fire as the protesters tried to march on the house of the state governor. At least 3 people died in the clashes.
(AFP, 5/2/10)(Reuters, 5/5/10)
2011 May 2, The US Army corps. of Engineers exploded a section of the Mississippi River Birds Point levee in Missouri to protect the small town of Cairo, Ill. Water levels receded but a second, smaller section was detonated May 3 to allow water back into the river.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA4)(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 2, Authorities in Arizona found a 250-foot-long unfinished smuggling tunnel underneath the US-Mexico border containing electricity, water pumps and ventilation.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 2, A twin engine cargo plane crashed near an airport in the Miami, Fl., area killing the pilot.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA4)
2011 May 2, In South Carolina Barnard Bailey (54), an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by Eutawville police officer Richard Combs. In 2014 Combs (38) was charged with murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/q3getfv)(SFC, 12/5/14, p.A18)
2011 May 2, The Algerian press said security forces have arrested seven men, mainly Algerians and Moroccans, who are suspected of supporting Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Students and riot police fought pitch battles in Algiers, leaving more than 20 injured as protesters took to the streets demanding political change.
(AFP, 5/2/11)(AFP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 2, Canadians voted in one of their most unpredictable parliamentary elections ever. The Conservatives stormed to a decisive victory, winning 54 percent of the seats in Parliament and securing a stable four-year term in power after vowing to focus on the economy. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was elected to Parliament, marking the first time a member of the environmental party has won a federal election in North America.
(Reuters, 5/2/11)(Reuters, 5/3/11)
2011 May 2, In CongoDRC at least 106 people were missing after an overloaded boat capsized overnight on the Kasai River.
(Reuters, 5/3/11)(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA2)
2011 May 2, In El Salvador Rene Emilio Ponce (64), an army general and former defense minister accused of ordering the 1989 killings of six Jesuit priests and two others during the country's civil war, died.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, Greece's cash-strapped government promised to raise an additional euro11.8 billion ($17.5 billion) through 2013, with a crackdown on tax evasion.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, A Honduran court dismissed the last two remaining charges against former President Manuel Zelaya, removing a key obstacle to his return to the country.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, Israeli-based Teva Pharmaceutical said it will pay $6.8 billion to acquire Cephalon Inc.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.D2)
2011 May 2, Japan's parliament passed a $48 billion tsunami recovery budget that will only start to cover the cost of what was the most expensive disaster ever.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, In Libya Gadhafi's forces used tanks to shell the besieged western town of Mis-rata, as rumors fueled fears that the Libyan leader was preparing to use chemical weapons. Shelling in Misrata killed 14 people.
(AP, 5/2/11)(AFP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 2, Osama bin Laden (b.1957), the face of global terrorism and architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was killed in an early morning firefight in Abbotabad, Pakistan, with elite American forces. Bin Laden was quickly buried at sea in a stunning finale to a furtive decade on the run. 3 adult males were also killed in the raid, including one of bin Laden's sons. One woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant. Courier Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed and his brother Abrar were among the dead. In 2012 former US Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette authored an account of the raid, “No Easy Day," under the pseudonym Mark Owen.
(AP, 5/2/11)(SFC, 6/2/11, p.A4)(SFC, 8/30/12, p.A3)
2011 May 2, In Sudan former civil war foes faced off in polls to elect a new governor and regional assembly in the oil-producing northern state of South Kordofan, a key battleground in the conflict. Sudan's Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, who helped slain Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden settle in Khartoum in the 1990s, was freed after more than three months in jail.
(AFP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, The Swiss government said it has identified potential assets belonging to Libya’s Moammar Khadafy and his entourage amounting to $415 million. Assets of $473 million were also found linked to Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and $69 million to Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA2)
2011 May 2, Syrian troops conducted door-to-door raids in cities and towns across the nation, arresting scores of people in a campaign of intimidation aimed at crushing the six-week uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime. Over 500 arrests were documented in Daraa since April 28 and another 300 in towns on the outskirts of Damascus.
(AP, 5/2/11)(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA3)
2011 May 2, The Vatican said in a statement that Pope Benedict XVI had "removed from pastoral care" Bishop William Morris of the Toowoomba diocese, west of Brisbane. Morris had called on the church to consider ordaining women and married men.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, In Yemen thousands of protesters took to the streets across the country to press Pres. Saleh to step down. Police gunshots in Aden killed at least one bystander. At least 140 people have been killed in the government’s crackdown on protesters.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA2)
2012 May 2, US federal authorities charged over 100 people in 7 cities with Medicare fraud in scams that bilked the program of over $450 million.
(SFC, 5/3/12, p.A6)
2012 May 2, In Arizona 5 people were killed in shootings in a home in Gilbert. They included 16-month-old Lily Lynn Mederos, Amber Nieve Mederos (23), Lisa Lynn Mederos (47), Jim Franklin Hiott (24) and Jason Todd Ready (39), a former Marine with ties to neo-Nazi and Minutemen groups. Lisa Mederos was reported to have been Ready's girlfriend. It appeared that Ready, who was running for sheriff in Arizona's Pinal County, killed the others before turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 5/3/12)(SFC, 5/4/12, p.A14)
2012 May 2, SF police and sheriff’s officers arrested 26 people who had occupied a vacant church building at 888 Turk St. Most of those arrested were homeless or former residents of the old Occupy camp on Justin Herman Plaza.
(SFC, 5/3/12, p.A15)
2012 May 2, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (1895), one of the art world's most recognizable images, sold for a record $119,922,500 at auction in New York City. The previous record for an artwork sold at auction was $106.5 million for Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," sold by Christie's in 2010.
(AP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, In Afghanistan 7 people were killed after attackers in burqas detonated a suicide car bomb and clashed with guards at the "Green Village" complex of guesthouses used by the EU in Kabul. The Taliban militia announced they would launch their annual "spring offensive," code-named Al-Farouq, across Afghanistan on May 3.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, In Algeria Tarek Mameri (23) was detained for posting videos on his blog calling for a boycott of last month's parliamentary election. On June 27 a court slapped an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a 1,000-euro ($1,250) fine on a blogger.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 May 2, Britain’s national police agency closed the website of the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) following an attack by hackers. It was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, where a website's host computers are bombarded with requests for information, making them crash.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, Burundi blocked Human Rights Watch from holding a press conference to release a report on the country's political violence, which it blamed on state agents and armed opposition groups.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the US embassy, where he had sought protection after fleeing house arrest, following a deal with Beijing on his safety, US officials said. Beijing pledged that the legal campaigner and his family would be treated "humanely" and moved to a safe place, hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China for pre-arranged talks.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, In Egypt suspected supporters of the military rulers attacked predominantly Islamist anti-government protesters outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo, setting off clashes that left 20 dead as political tensions rise three weeks before crucial presidential elections.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, Eritrea has surpassed North Korea as the world's top press censor, with Syria and Iran placing third and fourth in a new list published by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, The Hungarian parliament chose Janos Ader (52), a close ally of PM Viktor Orban, to be country's new president, guaranteeing that his conservative Fidesz party will be able to pass laws at will without interference. The Hungarian Socialist Party, the largest opposition formation in parliament, boycotted the presidential election.
(AP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, In Mauritania the opposition began protests calling for President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to step down.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
2012 May 2, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen started shooting in a Potiskum market, trying to steal cattle. Witnesses said three people at the market were killed, as a fourth man suspected to be part of the group of robbers was set afire while still alive and died of his burns.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, In Somalia 2 armed men shadowed radio journalist Farhan Abdulle after he left his station, then shot him dead. He became the fifth Somali journalist killed this year.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 2, South Korea's parliament approved a long-delayed bill to start trading carbon dioxide emissions in 2015, joining the vanguard of countries battling climate change.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, Sudanese officials extended the expulsion deadline for thousands of ethnic South Sudanese encamped south of Khartoum. A UN Security Council resolution called for Sudan and South Sudan to cease hostilities along their border, and resume talks to settle unresolved issues.
(AFP, 5/2/12)(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 2, Syria's army reportedly suffered its deadliest day in a ceasefire when rebel fighters killed 20 troops, in the latest violation of the three-week truce the UN says both sides are flouting. The rebels killed 15 soldiers, including two colonels, in a dawn ambush in the northern province of Aleppo, where two rebel fighters also died. Clashes near Damascus killed six troops, while the army shelled and torched activists' homes in eastern Deir Ezzor province and regime gunfire killed a civilian in southern Daraa. 24 UN monitors were currently in place. Security forces stormed dorms Aleppo University to break up anti-government protests there, killing at least four students and wounding several others with tear gas and live ammunition.
(AFP, 5/2/12)(AP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, In southern Yemen an airstrike killed 15 al-Qaida-linked militants in their training camp in Abyan province. The airstrike resembled earlier US drone attacks, but the US did not comment.
(AP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, The UN Security Council put three top North Korean state firms on a sanctions black list over the country's failed rocket launch.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2013 May 2, Pres. Obama embarked on a trip to Mexico with a 2-day stop in Costa Rica. In a joint news conferece with Mexico’s Pres. President Enrique Pena Nieto, Obama sought to tamp down a potential rift with Mexico over a dramatic shift in the cross-border fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.
(SFC, 5/2/13, p.A3)(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, Maryland’s Gov. Martin O’Malley signed legislation to abolish the death penalty, making Maryland became the 18th US state to do so.
(SFC, 5/3/13, p.A7)
2013 May 2, Rhode Island became the nation's 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed as Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, In Texas Carnell Moore fired a gun inside the ticketing area of Bush Int’l. Airport after being confronted by a law enforcement official. Moore was killed as a Homeland Security agent fired at him and as Moore turned his gun on himself.
(SFC, 5/3/13, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/caq3jyo)
2013 May 2, Britain’s Chancellor George Osborne said tax havens such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands will work more closely with Britain and other European countries to fight tax evasion.
(Reuters, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, A British judge sentenced businessman James McCormick (57), who sold fake bomb detectors, to 10 years in jail. The millionaire, convicted last month, made an estimated 50 million pounds ($77.8 million) from the sales of his non-working detectors — which were based on a novelty golf ball finder — to countries including Iraq, Belgium, Niger and Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, British news media reported that Stuart Hall (83) had pleaded guilty last month to sex abuse charges against young girls decades ago. Media were barred from reporting the plea until now.
(SFC, 5/3/13, p.A5)
2013 May 2, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.
(Reuters, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Prominent Egyptian activist Ahmed Douma was arrested and immediately referred to trial for allegedly insulting the country's president in a TV interview.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Guatemala's government declared a state of emergency and banned public gatherings in four townships east of the capital following several days of violent clashes between police and anti-mining protesters.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Indonesia police arrested Achmad Taufiq (22) and Sefa Riano (29). They were members of a cell allegedly involved in recent attacks against Indonesian police. The suspects told authorities they wanted to retaliate against Myanmar for recent attacks on Rohingya Muslims there.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, In Iraq gunmen and security forces clashed in several districts of the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Mosul. 9 police and 4 militants were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, A Kenyan court found 2 Iranian nationals guilty of terror-related charges. Officials accused them of planning to attack Western targets inside Kenya. Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 and led officials to a 15-kg (33-pound) stash of the explosive RDX. On May 6 the two men were sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/2/13)(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 2, North Korea’s media said Kenneth Bae (44), a Korean American detained for six months in North Korea, has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state. In August Bae was reportedly hospitalized after losing over 50 pounds.
(AP, 5/2/13)(SFC, 8/12/13, p.A2)
2013 May 2, It was reported that the last rhino in Mozambique has been killed. The warden in charge of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park — the only place where the horned behemoths lived in Mozambique — also said poachers have wiped out the last of the rhinos. Mozambique's conservation director believed a few may remain.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, In Pakistan convicted India spy Sarabjit Singh died at Jinnah Hospital in the eastern city of Lahore. He was was attacked by fellow inmates on April 26 and had been comatose and on a ventilator for days. Singh was arrested in 1990 after bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad, Pakistan, that killed 14 people. Indians expressed outrage at the Pakistan government over his death.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, In Russia Valery Gergiev, the artistic director of the Mariinsky theater in St. Petersburg, opened the new Mariinsky theater next door to the old imperial structure.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.87)
2013 May 2, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said that five people have died and two other patients were in critical condition with confirmed cases of a new respiratory coronavirus related to SARS. The new virus was first identified last year in the Middle East and several of the people infected had all traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Spanish police said they have arrested 30 suspects who allegedly smuggled drugs into Spain through the southern coast using boats and jet skis.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Syrian government troops, backed by warplanes, pushed into the central districts of the city of Homs in an effort to oust rebels from the country's third largest urban center. In Aleppo rebels reportedly overran the headquarters of Assad's anti-terrorism forces. Regime jets also hit the northern city of Raqqa, killing eight people. Warplanes also hit several targets in Damascus province.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Syrian troops backed by pro-government gunmen swept into Bayda, a village in the mountains outside the city of Banias, and killed men, women and children and torched homes. At least 50 people, and as many as 100, were reported killed.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, The UN said it recorded 712 people killed in Iraq last month, including 117 members of the security forces. More people were killed in violent attacks across the country in April than in any other month since June 2008.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2014 May 2, US Health officials confirmed the first case of an American infected with MERS, a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East. The man fell ill after flying to the US late last week from Saudi Arabia where he was a health care worker.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, A California jury awarded Apple $119 million, far less than it demanded, in a patent battle with Samsung over alleged copying of smart phone features. The jury made the victory even smaller by finding that Apple illegally used one of Samsung's patents.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, SF Bay Area police raided massage parlors in Hayward, Oakland, San Leandro and San Lorenzo arresting 17 women and two men for allegedly operating fronts of prostitution.
(SSFC, 5/4/14, p.C3)
2014 May 2, In Oakland, Ca., the “Hook-Up Truck" made its debut a few blocks off Telegraph at 26th St. after security guards at Art Murmur refused its entrance. The brainchild of conceptual artist Spy Emerson provided a space for couples to enjoy intimacy.
(SFC, 5/3/14, p.C1)
2014 May 2, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (b.1918), American TV star, died at his home in Solvang, Ca. He had starred in “77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964) and “The F.B.I." (1965-1974).
(SFC, 5/3/14, p.A7)
2014 May 2, In northeastern Afghanistan numerous people were missing after a landslide buried a village in Hobo Barik village, Badakshan province. The killed and missing numbered from 255 to 2,700.
(AP, 5/2/14)(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, British judge Constance Briscoe (56) was jailed for 16 months for a catalogue of lies and deception in a case that last year brought down government minister Chris Huhne.
(AFP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, Cambodian security forces clashed with demonstrators in Phnom Penh for a 2nd straight day as the opposition canceled plans for a rally amid a ban on demonstrations and a large-scale police presence.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, Colombia's constitutional court ruled that applying a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that granted Nicaragua a disputed area of Caribbean waters could not take effect without a treaty between the countries.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, In Egypt two suicide bombings in South Sinai killed a soldier and wounded at least seven people. Two Cairo bombings killed at least 5 people. In Alexandria two people were shot dead when supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi clashed with residents.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)(SFC, 5/3/14, p.A2)
2014 May 2, In Greece some 5,000 farmers' market vendors blocked traffic in central Athens and continued giving away food as part of anti-government protests. The vendors had closed their street markets indefinitely this week.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, In northeastern India Bodo separatist rebels wearing black masks opened fire overnight on Muslim villagers in western Assam in two attacks, killing at least 11 people, mostly women and children. A 3rd attack in Baksa left 19 people dead.
(AP, 5/2/14)(SSFC, 5/4/14, p.A12)
2014 May 2, In India politician Kamruzzama Fauji died in hospital after suffering burns to 75 percent of his body when a member of a TV audience doused himself in petrol and grabbed him in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh state. The attacker also died.
(AFP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, Kenya wildlife authorities caught two police officers with six pieces of ivory at a road block while travelling from the central town of Meru to Nairobi.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, In Libya suspected Islamic militants attacked the security headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi early, killing 9 soldiers and policemen and wounding 24.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, In northern Mali Sidati Ag Baye was shot by two suspected al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremists on a motorcycle in Kidal. Baye had foiled an attack by Islamic extremists several months ago by alerting security forces to a bomb left on a runway at Kidal’s airport.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 2, The World Bank said it has approved a $12 billion loan for cash-strapped Pakistan that will be disbursed over five years.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, Philippine officials said police have arrested 58 suspected members of an online extortion syndicate this week in Manila and three other regions. They had reportedly duped hundreds of victims worldwide into exposing themselves in front of webcams or engaging in lewd chats. Some 100 more Filipino suspects were later linked to online blackmail syndicates.
(SFC, 5/3/14, p.A2)(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 2, Puerto Rico's governor filed legislation aimed at retaining young workers and reversing an exodus of people moving to the US mainland amid economic problems. The measure would allow for tax exemptions on the first $40,000 earned by those ages 16 to 26.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, South Korea suffered its second serious transport accident in just over two weeks when a subway train in the capital, Seoul, crashed into a train at a station, injuring 200 people although no one was killed.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir agreed to fly to Ethiopia for talks and to consider forming a transitional government to try and end four months of fighting in the world's newest nation following talks with US Sec. of State John Kerry.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, Syria's government and rebels agreed to a ceasefire in Homs to allow hundreds of fighters holed up in its old quarters to evacuate. Two car bombs struck two small villages in the central province of Hama, killing 23 people, including 14 children.
(AP, 5/2/14)(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, Turkish media said prosecutors have dismissed a case against 60 suspects, among them a former minister's son and a construction tycoon, in the graft scandal swirling around PM Tayyip Erdogan's inner circle.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, In Ukraine pro-Russia forces shot down two government helicopters as the country launched its first major offensive against an insurgency that has seized government buildings in the east. Two crew members were killed in the crashes, and pro-Russia militiaman was reported killed. At least 48 people died in clashes between government supporters and opponents in the Black Sea port of Odessa. Most died when government opponents took refuge in a building that caught fire after protesters threw firebombs inside.
(AP, 5/2/14)(AP, 5/3/14)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.50)
2014 May 2, Uruguay released its rules for the legal marijuana market, detailing how the government plans to get very involved in every aspect of the business. The regulations will take effect May 6.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, Venezuela's government said it has arrested 58 foreigners, including an American, on suspicion of inciting violent street protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, A Venezuelan fishing boat found 11 Chinese sailors floating in a raft about 1,000 miles west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 2 soon died of their injuries.
(SFC, 5/5/14, p.A2)
2014 May 2, In the US Virgin Islands Enrique Saldana, a former police captain, called 911 and said he was at the beach with his wife when she collapsed and stopped breathing. Jeanette Magras Saldana (43) had bruises all over her body and that it appeared she had died hours before the emergency call was made. Saldana previously was sentenced in February 2011 to more than three years in prison after being convicted of participating in an extortion conspiracy.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, Yemeni government forces killed five al Qaeda militants and wounded dozens of others in the south, in the fourth day of an offensive against Islamist insurgents. Unidentified gunmen shot dead an army colonel in his car in the southern port city of Aden.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)(Reuters, 5/3/14)
2015 May 2, Writer Michael Blake (69) died in Tucson, Az. His novel "Dances With Wolves" became a major hit movie and earned him an Academy Award for the screenplay.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 2, In Kentucky American Pharoah, ridden by Victor Espinoza, won the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
(SSFC, 5/3/15, p.B6)
2015 May 2, In Las Vegas boxer Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines lost by unanimous decision to American Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a 12-round fight.
(AP, 5/3/15)
2015 May 2, Australian police said flash floods killed 5 people in south-east Queensland when their cars were swept away following a rain storm on the east coast.
(Reuters, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, British mystery writer Ruth Rendell (b.1930), crime novelist, died in London. She brought psychological insight and social conscience to the classic British detective story. Her Wexford books were made into a popular TV series, "The Ruth Rendell Mysteries," which ran for more than a decade from 1987. In 1997 she was appointed to the House of Lords by PM Tony Blair's Labour government, becoming Baroness Rendell of Babergh.
(AP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, Burundi's government vowed a major crackdown after a week of political protests. Protest organizers called for a two-day halt to demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's move to seek a third term, which they says violates the constitution and endangers the peace deal that ended a civil war in 2005.
(AFP, 5/2/15) (Reuters, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, Canadian PM Stephen Harper made an unannounced visit to Iraq days after lawmakers extended and expanded the NATO member's air campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group.
(AFP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, In northern China police fatally shot Xu Chunhe as he was on his way to Beijing to ask the central government to help house and take care of his children and elderly mother. His relatives received approval for the aid three days after the killing.
(AP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 2, In Iraq 7 women and children were killed by a roadside bomb in Diyala province. A suicide blast killed six government troops in Anbar province. Two car bombs outside a popular Baghdad restaurant killed at least 19 people, including 4 policemen and a media figure, for which the IS group claimed responsibility.
(AP, 5/2/15)(AFP, 5/3/15)(AP, 5/3/15)
2015 May 2, Nigerian troops over the last 24 hours raided communities suspected of harboring militiamen in central Plateau state. Local media said at least 30 people died when soldiers stormed into Kadarko, Kurmi and Wadata areas.
(AFP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, In Poland one man died after being hit by a rubber bullet and 14 police officers were injured in clashes that erupted during a league football match in Knurow.
(AP, 5/3/15)
2015 May 2, In Syria fighting continued between government forces and Islamist fighters in government-held Latakia, heartland of Assad's minority Alawite community. Rebels shelled government-held districts in Aleppo, killing at least 12 civilians, including 3 children.
(Reuters, 5/2/15)(AP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, Tunisians unfurled a national flag the size of 19 football pitches in a bid to set a Guinness world record and promote patriotism in the face of Islamist extremism.
(AFP, 5/3/15)
2016 May 2, The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State on Monday with 29 strikes against the militants in Syrian and Iraq, including the northern city of Mosul under militant control.
(Reuters, 5/3/16)
2016 May 2, Solar Impulse 2 completed the 10th leg of its journey, landing in Arizona after a 16-hour flight from California. The solar-powered airplane was midway through a historic bid to circle the globe.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 2, The first US cruise ship in nearly 40 years crossed the Florida Straits from Miami and pulled into Havana Harbor, restarting commercial travel on waters that served as a stage for a half-century of Cold War hostility.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, A St. Louis jury ruled that Johnson & Johnson pay $55 million to a woman who claims its talcum powder caused her ovarian cancer.
(SFC, 5/4/16, p.A5)
2016 May 2, An Afghan police officer accused his wife of having affairs and then shot her in public before shooting himself in eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Craig Wright, an Australian man long rumored to be associated with the digital currency Bitcoin, publicly identified himself as its creator, a claim that would end one of the biggest mysteries in the tech world. BBC News said that Wright told the media outlet he is the man previously known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The computer scientist, inventor and academic said he launched the currency in 2009 with the help of others.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, China's Communist Party said it has placed Ren Zhiqiang, a property mogul and outspoken government critic, on probation for a year after he criticized state media for pledging absolute loyalty to the party.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Egypt's journalists' syndicate called for the dismissal of the interior minister and an immediate sit-in at its headquarters in downtown Cairo, to protest the police detention of two journalists on its premises the night earlier.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Around 400 people gathered in Hong Kong to protest a veteran newspaper editor's dismissal that triggered concerns about press freedom in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, In northern India dozens of fires were spreading unpredictably in the states of Uttarakhand and neighboring Himachal Pradesh. Massive wildfires in the two states have killed at least seven people in recent weeks. The fires extended into Nepal where 11 people have died fighting fires across the country, the worst in six years.
(AP, 5/2/16)(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Survivors of Indonesia's anti-communist massacres in 1965 submitted a list of what they say are more than 100 mass graves to the government after the president called for an investigation into the killings.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Indonesian police fatally shot Amokrane Sabet (49), a French citizen, after he stabbed a policeman to death while resisting arrest on the resort island of Bali.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, In Iraq an explosives-laden car detonated in Baghdad, killing at least 18 Shiite pilgrims. Tens of thousands of Shiite faithful have been making their way this week to the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, where the 8th century Imam Moussa al-Kadhim is buried.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Japan said it wants to work with countries in the lower Mekong river basin and will help them improve infrastructure and bolster development with 750 billion yen ($7 billion) in aid over three years.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced that the government will not make nearly $370 million in bond payments due today after a failure to restructure or find a political solution to the US territory's spiraling public debt crisis.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Syria's military extended a unilateral cease-fire around Damascus and opposition strongholds in the eastern suburbs of the capital for another 48 hours, as a humanitarian convoy delivered aid to 12,000 families trapped in a government-besieged area in central Syria.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, killing 18 militants.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 2, A UN arbitration court ruled that India should release Italian marine Salvatore Girone, who has been detained in Delhi for more than four years, and allow him to return home.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2017 May 2, Former San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer (b.1936) died at a senior care facility in San Rafael. In 2008 led the battle to pass Prop. 8 that banned same-sex marriage in California. The ban remained on the books until a federal court overturned it in 2010.
(SFC, 5/3/17, p.A9)
2017 May 2, In Brazil several public buses were torched in Rio de Janeiro. Police said ski-masked bandits were suspected, possibly in retaliation for a police operation.
(SFC, 5/3/17, p.A2)
2017 May 2, Britain jailed Islamic State jihadist Samata Ullah (34) to eight years in prison. The IT expert had hid extremist material on a computer memory stick disguised as cufflinks and created an online "library for terrorists".
(AFP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said armed groups in Central African Republic have killed at least 45 civilians in apparent reprisal strikes over the past three months.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, China announced it is tightening rules for online news as censors try to control a flood of information spread through instant-messaging apps, blogs and other media sources that are proliferating across the country. The rules take effect June 1.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, Greenpeace said authorities in West Africa have detained eight Chinese vessels for fishing illegally and the boat owners could be subject to millions of dollars in fines. Inspectors from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau boarded the ships off their respective coasts. They found them to be violating regulations on catching protected fish and using nets with small holes to facilitate bigger hauls.
(Reuters, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka unexpectedly announced that his government will resign over unexplained business dealings of his rival Andrej Babis, the country's finance minister.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Denmark banned five Islamic clerics and an American evangelical Christian pastor from entering the country, calling them "hate preachers" who posed threats to public order.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In Egypt the powerful Tarabeen tribe in the Sinai Peninsula said it has killed eight suspected Islamic State fighters in battle and captured three more.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Heinz Kessler (97), former East German defense minister, died in Berlin. As the country's last defense minister (1985 to 1989) he was responsible for a shoot-to-kill policy aimed at stopping people escaping to the West. He was sentenced to prison in 1991 for his role in the killing of people trying to flee the Communist state.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 2, Greece struck a deal with rescue creditors toward getting the bailout cash it needs to avoid another brush with bankruptcy this summer, though it leaves long-suffering Greeks facing years more austerity.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In India Ghulam Mohammad, a Muslim man, was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh state's Bulandshahar district for helping an interfaith couple elope. Police soon detained three members of Yuva Vahini, a Hindu militia, for suspected involvement in the killing.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, A prosecutor based in Sicily told Italian senators his office has found no links or contacts between migrant smugglers and humanitarian organizations operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, PM Fayez Serraj of Libya's UN-backed government and powerful rival Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter met in the United Arab Emirates in the latest effort to resolve the country's long-running conflict.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Mexican prosecutors said they have captured Damaso Lopez, one of the Sinaloa cartel leaders, who launched a struggle for control of the gang following the re-arrest of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Lopez was captured in Mexico City.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In central Mexico eight assailants stopped the family's vehicle before dawn on the highway. A toddler was killed when they forced open the door and a mother and daughter were raped. Victims had to walk about a mile to a toll booth after the assault. On May 16 a man identified only as "Orlando N." (37) was arrested.
(AP, 5/17/17)
2017 May 2, Bondholders filed to sue Puerto Rico in the first legal challenges to hit the US territory after a freeze on litigation that protected it from lawsuits expired amid a deep economic crisis.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In Russia the mayor’s office of Moscow published a list of 4,566 buildings, home to some 1 million people, that will be up for demolition. It was part of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s plan for an urban makeover. May residents were furious.
(Econ 5/6/17, p.50)
2017 May 2, Judges in South Sudan went on strike over poor pay and living conditions, raising the risk of impunity in a country already convulsed by criminality and war.
(Reuters, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, It was reported that Sweden will end temporary border controls introduced in 2015 to stem a large influx of asylum seekers.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In Syria a jihadist assault led by suicide bombers killed dozens at a camp for the displaced near the border with Iraq. The violence left at least 38 people dead and came as another surprise IS attack killed 10 soldiers in Iraq.
(AFP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejoined the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) he co-founded in a step on his path toward solidifying his grip on power, following his narrow victory in last month's referendum.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, UNICEF said about 1.4 million children in Somalia are projected to suffer acute malnutrition this year due to drought, 50 percent more than estimated in January.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Uruguay announced the launch of a registry of people who want to legally buy marijuana at pharmacies as part of the world's first government-regulated national marketplace for pot. Marijuana will cost about $1.30 per gram. Companies that won the government bid to grow it will charge about $.90. The rest will be split between pharmacies and the government.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Venezuela's opposition blocked streets in Caracas to denounce a decision by unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro to create a new super-body known as a "constituent assembly," a move critics say is a veiled attempt to cling to power by avoiding elections.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2018 May 2, Rudy Giuliani, Pres. Trump's new lawyer, said Trump repaid $130,000 to his personal attorney Michael Cohen for hush money Cohen had paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, directly contradicting the president's past statements.
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.A5)
2018 May 2, Ahmed Mohammed al-Darbi (43) became the first detainee to leave the US base in Cuba since President Donald Trump took office. The Pentagon announced his transfer to Saudi Arabia in a brief statement. The agreement to repatriate al-Darbi was made under President Barack Obama.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Annie Proulx (b.1935), American novelist, was named the recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Her books included "The Shipping News" (1993) and "Brokeback Mountain" (1997).
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.E2)
2018 May 2, The Arkansas Supreme Court said the state can enforce a voter ID law in the May 22 primary election, overruling a Pulaski County judge who had declared the measure unconstitutional.
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.A4)
2018 May 2, In Connecticut one person was killed and nine police officers injured in an explosion in a barn in North Haven. A woman had called police to report that she had escaped after being held hostage for several days.
(SFC, 5/4/18, p.A5)
2018 May 2, An aging C-130 Hercules that rescued and resupplied US citizens after last year's hurricanes crashed onto a Georgia highway during what was supposed to be its final flight, killing all nine Puerto Ricans on board.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Gibson Brands Inc., maker of Gibson guitars, filed for bankruptcy protection. Nashville-based Gibson was founded in 1894.
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.C3)
2018 May 2, Texas-based Boy Scouts of America announced a new name: Scouts BSA, to take effect in February.
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.A4)
2018 May 2, In Armenia protesters blocked roads and railways across the country, responding to a call from opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan for a campaign of civil disobedience to force the ruling elite to relinquish its grip on power.
(Reuters, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, The Basque militant group ETA, in a letter date April 16, said it has "completely dissolved all its structures" after a 60-year armed independence campaign. The Spanish government vowed not to abandon the investigation of crimes from the group's violent past.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, Britain's health minister apologized for what he called a "serious failure" that resulted in 450,000 women in England not being invited to a screening test for breast cancer.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, The Chinese state-backed documentary "Amazing China" portrayed the Huajian Group, which manufactured Ivanka Trump shoes, as a beneficent force spreading prosperity — in this case, by hiring thousands of Ethiopians at wages a fraction of what they'd have to pay in China. Huajian workers said they work without safety equipment for pay so low they can barely make ends meet.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In China PeppaPig, a cherubic British cartoon character, became an unlikely target of Internet censors as fans used her porcine likeness in rap videos and "gangster" tattoos.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, The European Union's executive branch proposed a budget to finance new priorities like defense and border control as well as compensating for Britain's departure from the bloc. Dutch PM Mark Rutte says the new seven-year budget is unacceptable because it will mean the Netherlands' EU bill will increase too much.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, Greek government officials vowed to reduce severe overcrowding at migrant camps on local islands, amid mounting protests that the migrant crisis has hurt the vital local tourism industry for a fourth successive summer.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh was hammered by more than 41,000 lightning strikes in a matter of hours. At least 14 people were killed.
(AFP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Residents of Kanpur reacted with dismay after the Indian city was found to have the worst air quality in a global World Health Organization survey that urged the nation to clean up its act. 14 Indian cities feature in the 15 cities with the dirtiest air in the WHO's global list.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In Iran a magnitude 5.3 earthquake injured at least 76 people and damaged buildings in the southwestern city of Sisakht.
(Reuters, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In Rome Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto (74), the interim leader of the Order of Malta, the world's oldest chivalric order, was elected as Grand Master for life. The influential mission was founded in Jerusalem and recognized by the pope in 1113.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In Kenya three rhinos were found dead with their horns missing in Rhino Sanctuary in Meru National Park. The country's Ministry of Tourism called it an act of poaching.
(Reuters, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, In Libya a suicide bomber and other militants attacked the election commission in Tripoli, killing at least 12 people. The Islamic state claimed responsibility for the twin suicide bombings.
(AP, 5/2/18)(Reuters, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, The Public Safety Department in Mexico's central state of Puebla said prosecutors and soldiers have raided a local police force and found that 113 of the 185 officers weren't policemen at all. The 113 faced charges equivalent to impersonating an officer. Some had presumably paid to avoid vetting and registration procedures.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, In Myanmar the judge in the trial of two Reuters journalists rejected a prosecution request to throw out the testimony of police Capt. Moe Yan Naing, who had told the court that the reporters, facing charges of possessing state secrets, had been set up by the authorities.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In northern Nigeria 13 people were killed over the last two days in prolonged clashes between cattle thieves and local civilian militia in Zamfara state.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Pakistani lawyer Jalila Haider ended her three-day hunger strike on Wednesday after the country's top general vowed to redouble efforts to protect the Shiite minority.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, Philippine defense and navy officials said they have completed the purchase of their first-ever ship-borne missile systems, boosting its maritime deterrent as part of a military modernization program. The Israeli-made Spike ER missiles were fitted on locally manufactured gunboats, known as multi-purpose attack craft.
(Reuters, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In Somalia unidentified gunmen late today kidnapped German nurse Sonja Nientiet from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Mogadishu.
(Reuters, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, In South Africa news media reported that staff member at Marakele Predator Center in Limpopo province has shot dead the male lion named Shamba after it mauled Michael Hodge, the proprietor of the facility, a day earlier. Hodge suffered neck and jaw injuries and was being treated at a Johannesburg hospital.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, Turkey lashed out at a debt downgrade by ratings agency S&P as dubiously timed less than two months ahead of elections and based on lackluster analysis.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2019 May 2, Pres. Donald Trump moved to protect health care workers who object to procedures like abortion on moral or religious grounds. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera immediately filed suit in federal court to block the new rule.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A10)
2019 May 2, More than 200 of the world's top female hockey players declared they will not compete in North America next season in a dramatic attempt to establish a single, economically viable professional league.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned under pressure amid a flurry of investigations into whether she arranged bulk sales of her self-published children's books to disguise hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, It was reported that NYC is now providing free phone calls from jails, making it the first US city to eliminate fees for inmate calls.
(SFC, 5/2/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, In New York City Najibullah Zazi (33) was sentenced to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to terrorism related charges. He had plotted in 2010 to bomb the city's subways, then switched sides after his arrest and helped the US identify and prosecute terrorists. The sentence effectively matched time he had already served in prison.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, At the Texas border a 10-month old baby was found dead and three others were feared drowned after their raft flipped overnight on the Rio Grande as they tried to cross the border near Del Rio.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, In Houston Alberto Nduli (68) died while trying to stop a driver from repossessing his SUV. Oscar Lee Harrison Jr., the tow truck driver, was at the scene after he dropped of the SUV and returned.
(SFC, 5/6/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, Beyond Meat, a purveyor of vegan burgers and sausages, began trading on the NASDAQ in an IPO at $25 per share and closed at 65.75.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.D1)
2019 May 2, An Afghan grand council agreed on several recommendations for peace talks with the Taliban, after four days of meetings in Kabul meant to hammer out a common strategy for future negotiations.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Benin hundreds of protesters manning burning barricades defied police and soldiers, after violence broke out following controversial parliamentary polls held without a single opposition candidate.
(AFP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Scientists reported that a fossilized chunk of jawbone found by a monk in a Chinese cave nearly 40 years ago has been revealed as coming from the Denisovans, a mysterious relative of the Neanderthals. The right half of a jawbone with teeth is at least 160,000 years old.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Cypriot justice minister Ionas Nicolaou resigned as criticism of police mounted for mistakes that may have led a serial killer claim more victims.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A2)
2019 May 2, The Czech Republic's central bank raised its key interest rate for the third time since June - by a quarter point to 2.00%, the highest level in more than 10 years.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, A Czech bus transporting prisoners caught fire after colliding with two trucks, one of them carrying two military tanks. A prison guard died in the crash.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, France and Germany unveiled details of a plan to create a leading electric battery industry in Europe, from the extraction of raw materials to recycling.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, A city in southern Germany became the first in the country to declare a "climate emergency," following similar moves in Canada, Britain and Switzerland. Aldermen in Konstanz voted unanimously to back a resolution promoting measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and transport.
(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 2, Hungary's PM Viktor Orban hosted hard-line Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and the two main opponents to immigration in Europe toured razor-wire fences at the Hungarian border.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In India hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated along the eastern coast as authorities braced for Cyclone Fani moving through the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Indonesia a Polish tourist was sentenced to five years in prison for treason after meeting with Papuan independence supporters. Jakub Skrzypski denied any wrongdoing and said he was the victim of a show trial. Papuan student Simon Magal, who met Skrzypski and communicated with him on Facebook, was sentenced by the same court to four years in prison.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Libya forces allied with Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter (Haftar) detained Alahrar TV journalists Mohamed al-Qarg and Mohamed al-Shibani as they covered fighting in Tripoli. They were both released on May 24.
(AP, 5/3/19)(AP, 5/25/19)
2019 May 2, Myanmar security forces shot dead at least six people in the troubled western state of Rakhine, after soldiers and police detained hundreds of people at a school.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Poland some ten thousand young Jews from around the world joined Holocaust survivors and politicians for an annual Holocaust remembrance march between the two parts of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp that focuses on fighting anti-Semitism and hatred.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Former Puerto Rico Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón (82), who oversaw one of the US territory's most prosperous periods, died at his home in Puerto Rico. Hernández served as governor from 1973 to 1977 and again from 1985 to 1993.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, A ship with 300 passengers left St. Lucia late today after spending two days under quarantine. Authorities there said the ship's doctor requested 100 vaccines after a female crew member was diagnosed with measles. The 440-foot Freewinds ship is reportedly owned by the Church of Scientology.
(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 2, South Sudan's rival parties began two days of talks in Addis Ababa in a bid to salvage a peace deal, with just days left before a unity government is meant to be formed.
(AFP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters took part in a mass rally to step up pressure on the military to hand power to civilians following last month's overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Syrian and Russian forces intensified air strikes and shelling in rebel-held northwestern Syria overnight, the heaviest assault since the area was declared a demilitarized zone under a Russian-Turkish deal.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Tunisia fuel distribution workers began a three-day strike to demand higher wages, leading to long queues and empty pumps at petrol stations across the North African nation.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, A Turkish citizen who was wounded during deadly attacks at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15 died while undergoing surgery raising the death toll from the shooting to 51.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Ugandan pop star and lawmaker Bobi Wine, who is seeking to challenge veteran leader Yoweri Museveni for the presidency, was freed on bail after spending two days in jail on charges of staging unlawful protests.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, The UN's migration agency said at least eight Africa migrants have died in makeshift camps in war-hit Yemen of complications related to acute watery diarrhea at the Ibn Khaldoon Hospital in Lahj.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called on the armed forces to oppose "any coup plotter" after a failed military uprising by forces supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido.
(AFP, 5/2/19)
2020 May 2, President Trump tweeted that he is "glad" to see North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "is back, and well" after a three week absence from public.
(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, California to date had 52,237 cases of coronavirus and 2,134 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,319 cases and 305 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,107,815 with the death toll at 65,068. The United States suffered its largest daily fatality increase after recording 2,909 deaths in 24 hours.
(sfist.com, 5/2/20)(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, In Texas a Houston police department helicopter crashed into an apartment complex. One police officer was killed, and another was in critical condition.
(Good Morning America, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Washington state reported that Yakima County had 1,203 positive cases of the coronavirus, a rate of 455 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the state. The county has a large number of people in the agriculture and food processing industries. Many live and work in close quarters, which can spread the disease.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that scientists have since embarked on a full-scale hunt for the Asian giant hornets, worried that the invaders could decimate bee populations in the United States and establish such a deep presence that all hope for eradication could be lost. Two of the predatory insects were discovered last fall in the northwest corner of Washington State.
(NY Times, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Australian health officials said a small coronavirus cluster has emerged at a meat factory in the state of Victoria, as parts of the country started easing social distancing restrictions after suppressing the infection rate to below 1 %. Victoria reported seven new cases, three of which were related to a meat-processing facility. A total of 8 employees have tested positive.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Brazil a Supreme Court judge issued an injunction suspending for 10 days a move by the right-wing government to expel Venezuela's 30 diplomats and consular staff.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Brazil there have been 4,970 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 421 deaths over the last 24 hours. The nation has now registered 95,559 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,750 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that Inmates at a prison in Manaus, Brazil, a city deep in the Amazon that has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, have taken seven prison guards hostage. Local television stations cited a video allegedly recorded by an unidentified inmate, who complained of sweltering heat and a lack of electricity in the prison.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that a top British hospital will use blood plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients as part of a trial that transfuses plasma from recovered people into sick people to give their immune systems a boost to fight the virus.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, The northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, struggling with the country's biggest coronavirus cluster, shut dine-in services, as the rest of China eases restrictions designed to hamper the spread of the disease. China reported two new coronavirus cases for today, up from one the day before. The number of confirmed cases in China has reached 82,877. With no new deaths reported, the death toll remained at 4,633. The Harbin cases outbreak was traced to a to a Chinese student who flew from America in March.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.33)
2020 May 2, Egyptian authorities said they have relocated four ancient sphinxes to Tahrir Square, the congested traffic circle in the heart of Cairo. The sphinxes will remain inside wooden boxes until the official unveiling of renovations.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Egyptian filmmaker Shady Habash (22), detained without trial for over two years for making a music video that mocked President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, died at Cairo’s maximum-security Tora Prison complex.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, The French health ministry said travelers to France, including French citizens returning home, will face a compulsory two-week quarantine and possible isolation when they arrive in the country to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that India has mandated that all public and private sector employees use a government-backed Bluetooth tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as New Delhi begins easing some of its lockdown measures in lower-risk areas.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Indian troops in Kashmir entered a house in the Handwara area late today and successfully extricated a number of hostages held by militants. Five Indian troops and two militants were killed in the fighting.
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A2)
2020 May 2, Indonesia recorded 292 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 10,843. 31 new deaths took the total number of fatalities to 831.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Iran's death toll from the coronavirus increased by 65 in the past 24 hours to 6,156. Total diagnosed cases reached 96,448, up by 802 in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Iraq Islamic State militants killed at least 10 militiamen of Popular Mobilization Forces in a coordinated assault overnight near the central city of Samarra.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Ireland said it will allow firms impacted by the coronavirus crisis to warehouse tax liabilities for 12 months, offering a "lifeline" as part of an additional package of business supports that could reach 6.5 billion euros.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Several thousand Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv, demonstrating against PM Benjamin Netanyahu's new coalition deal with his chief rival a day before the country's Supreme Court is to begin debating a series of legal challenges to the agreement.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic jumped by 474, against 269 the day before. The daily tally of new infections was broadly stable for a third day running at 1,900 against 1,965 a day earlier. The total death toll now stands at 28,710. The total number of confirmed cases amounted to 209,328, the third highest global tally behind those of the US and Spain.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who is the ruling party’s candidate in October’s presidential election, was evacuated to France for medical checks Ivory Coast has recorded more than 1,300 cases of the coronavirus, one of the highest totals in West Africa, and 15 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, Lesotho lawmakers and South African mediators said that legislation awaiting assent from the king will see PM Thabane (80), suspected of killing his ex-wife, leave office soon.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Malaysia senior Minister Ismail Sabri defended the detention of more than 580 immigrants in an operation in Kuala Lumpur. He said all tested negative for the coronavirus and have been sent to detention camps. Malaysia has 6,176 virus cases and 103 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020 May 2, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 445 to 40,236. 94 new deaths took the total COVID-19 fatalities to 4,987.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, New Zealand recorded one new coronavirus death, bringing the toll to 20. There were two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections, that raised the total to 1,134.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Pakistan recorded its highest single-day increase in new coronavirus infections with 1,297 new cases, bringing the total to 18,114. The increase coincided with a growing number of daily tests.
(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020 May 2, The Philippines said it has recorded 156 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 24 more deaths, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 8,928 and the fatalities to 603.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow, where the mayor threatened to cut the number of travel permits.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In South Africa thousands of people stood in line for hours in a South African township waiting for handouts of food. The scene has repeated for days.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Spain joggers, cyclists and surfers across the country emerged from their homes, with adults allowed out for exercise for the first time in seven weeks as the government began easing tough coronavirus restrictions.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In northeastern Syria imprisoned members of the Islamic State group rioted and took control of a prison in Hassakeh for several hours. By the following day Kurdish-led authorities negotiated an end to the unrest.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, Thailand reported six new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,966. Since Thailand first detected the coronavirus in January, a total of 54 patients have died.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2021 May 2, In southern California at least three people were killed and more than two dozen were hospitalized after a small cabin cruiser capsized and appeared to have broken apart off Point Loma.
(The Week, 5/3/21)(Reuters, 8/20/21)
2021 May 2, California to date had 3,718,778 cases of coronavirus and 61,513 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 436,080 cases and 6,276 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 32,399,512 with the death toll at 576,797.
(sfist.com, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station off the coast of Panama City, Florida, making the first US crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, It was reported that the Earth's axis is being shifted due to human activities causing the climate emergency. The redistribution of water resources started in the 1990s as global heating began to melt glaciers sending much of the runoff into the oceans.
(SSFC, 5/2/21, p.A16)
2021 May 2, In Afghanistan gasoline tanker trucks burst into flames in Kabul overnight, killing at least seven people and starting large fires that caused power cuts to some parts of the capital.
(Reuters, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Dubai's budget carrier flydubai reported a loss of $194 million in 2020 as revenue fell by more than 50% in what it described as one of the toughest years in the aviation industry.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Prominent German philosopher Juergen Habermas (91) said he will not accept the high-priced Sheikh Zayed Book Award from the United Arab Emirates, reversing an earlier decision.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, A New Delhi court said it would start punishing public officials for failing to deliver a steady supply of oxygen and other materials needed to save lives during India's devastating coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, In India prominent government critic Mamata Banerjee won a third term as the chief minister of West Bengal with a strong majority of 216 seats in the 294-seat assembly.
(The Guardian, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, An unnamed Iranian official claimed that a deal had been finalized where Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe would be released as soon as the UK repays a 1970s-era arms debt. He also claimed that Tehran and Washington have agreed on a deal to swap prisoners and to release Iranian funds held in the United States. The US promptly dismissed the reports as false. UK Foreign Office minister James Cleverly suggested this was deliberate misinformation.
(The Telegraph, 5/2/21)(The Telegraph, 5/3/21)
2021 May 2, Gunmen in a passing car opened fire at Israelis standing at a major intersection in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, injuring three of them. The assailants reportedly escaped in a car with Palestinian license plates.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Lebanese authorities said they have arrested two brothers suspected of smuggling drugs in pomegranate shipments to Saudi Arabia, leading the kingdom to ban Lebanese fruits and vegetables.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, At least 11 people drowned when a rubber dinghy carrying two dozen Europe-bound migrants capsized off Libya.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Malaysia said it has detected its first case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant first identified in India, days after imposing a ban on flights from India.
(Reuters, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, North Korea warned the United States will face “a very grave situation" because President Joe Biden “made a big blunder" in his recent speech by calling the North a security threat and revealing his intent to maintain a hostile policy against it.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree granting amnesty and reducing sentences for several categories of crime committed before May 2.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Thailand's Health Ministry reported 1,940 new coronavirus cases, while deaths hit 21 for a second day, the highest daily number of fatalities since the pandemic began.
(Reuters, 5/2/21)
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For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
1250 May 2, Toeransa, sultan of Egypt, was murdered.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1459 May 2, Pierozzi Antoninus, Italian archbishop of Florence, saint, died.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1497 May 2, John Cabot departed for North America. [see Jun 24]
(MC, 5/2/02)
1519 May 2, Artist Leonardo da Vinci (67) died at the Chateau du Clos-Luce, France, where he had lived since 1516. In 1994 A. Richard Turner wrote "Inventing Leonardo," a history of Leonardo legends. In 2004 Bulent Atalay authored “Math and the Mona Lisa: The Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci." In 2004 Charles Nicholl authored “Leonard da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind."
(AP, 5/2/97)(NH, 5/97, p.58)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.80)(Econ, 12/11/04, p.81)(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.C6)
1536 May 2, King Henry VIII accused Anna Boleyn of adultery, incest, and treason. [see May 15, May 19]
(MC, 5/2/02)
1551 May 2, William Camden, English historian (Brittania, Annales), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1598 May 2, Henry IV signed the Treaty of Vervins, ending Spain's interference in France.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1601 May 2, Athanasius Kircher, German Jesuit, inventor (magic lantern), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1668 May 2, Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the War of Devolution in France.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1670 May 2, The Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson Bay (the Hudson Bay Co.) was chartered by England's King Charles II to exploit the resources of the Hudson Bay area. By 2006 it had mutated into Canada’s largest non-food retailer.
(AP, 5/2/97)(HN, 5/2/98)(AH, 4/01, p.36)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.36)
1729 May 2, Catherine the Great (d.1796), (Catherine II), empress (czarina) of Russia (1762-1796), was born. She succeeded her husband Peter III to the throne in 1762. "I am one of the people who love the why of things." [see Apr 21]
(AP, 9/4/97)(HN, 5/2/99)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1776 May 2, France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1797 May 2, A mutiny in the British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1798 May 2, The black General Toussaint L'ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo. After 5 years of fighting over 60% of 20,000 British troops were buried on St. Domingue.
(HN, 5/2/99)(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.12)
1808 May 2, The citizens of Madrid rose up against Napoleon. It culminated in a fierce battle fought out in the Puerta del Sol, Madrid's central square. The Spanish were defeated, and during the night the French army lead by Grand Duke Joachim Murat slaughtered hundreds of citizens along the Prado promenade in reprisal.
(HN, 5/2/98)(MC, 5/2/02)
1813 May 2, Napoleon defeated a Russian and Prussian army at Grossgorschen. During the Napoleonic Wars a British naval officer proposed the use of saturation bombing and chemical warfare.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1833 May 2, Czar Nicholas banned the public sale of serfs.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1837 May 2, Henry Martyn Roberts, parliamentarian (Robert's Rules of Order).
(HN, 5/2/02)
1844 May 2, Elijah McCoy, black inventor, held over 50 patents, was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1856 May 22, Charles Cora, a gambler, and James Casey, a member of the SF Board of supervisors, were hanged by the SF Committee of Vigilance led by merchant Charles Doane, following a drumhead trial at “Fort Gunnybags, "the vigilante headquarters on Sacramento St. There was widespread belief that Cora and Casey were “in cahoots" with then sheriff David Scannel. Cora was in jail for recently killing US Marshal William H. Richardson, who had drunkenly insulted Cora's mistress, Belle Ryan. Cora and Ryan were married in Cora's jail cell hours before being hanged.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C1)(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C1)(SFC, 8/24/19, p.C2)
1860 May 2, William Maddock Bayliss, British physiologist, co-discoverer of hormones, was born.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1860 May 2, Theodor Herzl, journalist, founder (Zionist movement), was born in Austria.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1863 May 2, The Confederates smashed Hooker's flank and won a smashing victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia. Confederate Gen’l. Stonewall Jackson was shot by friendly fire as he returned to his lines; he died eight days later. Captain J. Keith Boswell, an officer with Jackson, was also shot and killed.
(HT, 3/97, p.48)(AP, 5/2/99)(HN, 5/2/99)
1865 May 2, President Johnson offered a $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1866 May 2, Jesse Lazear, American physician and researcher of yellow fever.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1873 May 2, Jurgis Baltrušaitis (d.1944), Lithuanian Symbolist poet and translator, was born.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurgis_Baltru%C5%A1aitis)
1876 May 2, American civil engineer James Buchanan Eads hired the luxury steamer Grand Republic for her maiden voyage to carry investors and the press from New Orleans to the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi to show off his work. The jetties were completed in 1880 and New Orleans went from being the nation’s 9th largest port to the 2nd largest.
(ON, 10/09, p.8)
1877 May 2, Vernon Castle, ballroom dancer.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1885 May 2, "Good Housekeeping" magazine was 1st published.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1885 May 2, The Congo Free State was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1886 May 2, Edouard Lockroy, French Minister of Culture, announced plans for a tower for the 1889 Paris exhibition and invited proposals for the project. The winning design was submitted by engineer Gustave Eiffel.
(ON, 7/03, p.9)
1887 May 2, Hannibal W. Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1887 May 2, The remains of composer Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), were transferred from Paris to Santa Croce, Florence.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1890 May 2, The Oklahoma Territory was organized.
(AP, 5/2/97) (HN, 5/2/98)
1892 May 2, Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), was born. He was a German pilot and greatest ace of world War I with 80 planes to his credit.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1895 May 2, Lorenz Milton Hart, lyricist, collaborator with Richard Rodgers.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1902 May 2, "A Trip To The Moon," the 1st science fiction, was film released. The French film "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" (Voyage to the Moon) was a 14-minute silent film directed by Georges Melies. It displayed early efforts in trick photography to show a group of scientists traveling to the moon after being shot from a giant cannon.
(WSJ, 3/19/98, p.R4)(MC, 5/2/02)
1903 May 2, Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, author and activist, was born. His book, "Common Sense of Baby and Child Care" sold 30 million copies.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1908 May 2, The original version of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," with music by Albert Von Tilzer and lyrics by Jack Norworth, was copyrighted by Von Tilzer's York Music Co. It sealed the popularity of Cracker Jacks, a popcorn candy.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AH, 10/01, p.34)(WSJ, 3/22/08, p.W16)
1912 May 2, Axel Springer, German newspaper magnate, was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1919 May 2, The first U.S. air passenger service started.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1920 May 2, 1st game of National Negro Baseball League was played in Indianapolis.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1921 May 2, Satyajit Ray, Indian film director (Aparajito, The World of Apu), was born.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1923 May 2, Lieutenants Okaley Kelly and John Macready took off from New York for the West Coast on what would become the first successful nonstop transcontinental flight.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1924 May 2, Theodore Bikel, Austrian-US folk singer, actor (Russians Are Coming), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1926 May 2, US military "intervened" in Nicaragua. [see May 3]
(MC, 5/2/02)
1928 May 2, In Emeryville, Ca., a raid on a brewery next door to the home of Police Chief Ed. J. Carey uncovered 5,000 gallons of unbottled beer and 3,000 bottles of beer. Jimmy Reese, star 2nd baseman of the Oakland Coast League and son-ibn-law of Chief Carey, emerged from a cottage in front of the warehouse and demanded to know what the raid was about. Alameda Ct. DA Earl Warren filed a federal complaint against Carey.
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.E3)
1932 May 2, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Pearl S. Buck for “The Good Earth."
(MC, 5/2/02)
1932 May 2, Walter Duranty of the NY Times won a Pulitzer Prize for his series on the Soviet Union that contained uncritical praise of Joseph Stalin. In 2003 a historian argued, without success, that the prize should be revoked due to Duranty's deliberate failure to cover the forced famine in the Ukraine that killed millions of people. In 2004 David C. Engerman authored "Modernization from the Other Shore," an American view of the Soviet experience."
(SFC, 10/23/03, p.A3)(SFC, 11/22/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 2/24/04, p.D8)
1932 May 2, Jack Benny's first radio show made its debut on the NBC Blue Network.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1933 May 2, In Germany, Adolf Hitler banned trade unions.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1934 May 2, Nazi Germany began "People's court."
(MC, 5/2/02)
1934 May 2, In Germany a Chancellery meeting took place between Adolph Hitler and executives of General Motors Corp. and its German division (Opel). Opel quickly became an essential element in German rearmament.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1936 May 2, Michael Rabin, violinist (In Memorium), was born in NYC.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1936 May 2, "Peter and the Wolf," a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1936 May 2, With the Italian invasion Ethiopia’s Emp. Haile Selassie left for French Somaliland. He went into exile for 5 years during which time he was based in Bath, England.
(http://tinyurl.com/ahqhm)
1938 May 2, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Thornton Wilder (Our Town).
(MC, 5/2/02)
1939 May 2, Baseball player Henry Louis Gehrig, “the Iron Horse," asked to be taken out of the NY Yankees starting lineup in a game where the Yanks beat Tigers 22-2. He had played 2,130 consecutive games. A few weeks later he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral schlerosis, a fatal neuromuscular disease.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, Par. p.2)(SFEC, 3/30/97, BR. p.10)(MC, 5/2/02)
1941 May 2, Martin Bormann succeeded Rudolf Hess as Hitler's deputy.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1941 May 2, Hostilities broke out between British forces in Iraq and that country's pro-German faction under PM Rashid Ali. There was a pro-Axis coup led by the army. Quickly overthrown by British troops, a pro-British regime under PM Nuri al-Said was installed, declaring war on the Axis powers in 1943.
(HN, 5/2/99)(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A10)
1942 May 2, Admiral Chester J. Nimitz, convinced that the Japanese would attack Midway Island, visited the island to review its readiness.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1942 May 2, Japanese troops occupied Mandalay Burma.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, German Army in Italy surrendered.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, The Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria. The Russians took Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting and General Weidling surrendered. Yevgeny Khaldei (d.1997 at 80), soldier-photographer, made pictures of Soviet soldiers hoisting the red flag over the Reichstag in Berlin.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AP, 5/2/97)(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A19)(HN, 5/2/98)(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, Yugoslav troops occupied Trieste.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1946 May 2-1946 May 4, A 3-day siege at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended after five people were killed. Six led by bank robber Bernard Paul Coy (46) inmates took 9 guards hostage. Inmate Joe Cretzer shot the 9 hostages but killed only one. He and 2 compeers were later shot and killed. 2 inmates were executed for their part and one served out a life sentence.
(AP, 5/4/97)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A12)(SFC, 4/12/14, p.C1)
1947 May 2, William Moulton Marston (b.1893), American psychologist, inventor and comic book writer, died. He created the character Wonder Woman, who made her debut in All Star Comics #8 in December 1941.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Moulton_Marston)
1949 May 2, Arthur Miller won Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman."
(MC, 5/2/02)
1952 May 2, Christine Baranski, actress (Maryann-Cybill, Birdcage, Sweeney Todd), was born in Buffalo NY.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1952 May 2, The British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC), the national British carrier, introduced the world’s 1st commercial jet airliner service. Initial flights took passengers from London to Johannesburg in South Africa, with stops. The British De Havilland Comet, the first commercial jetliner, was grounded later this year after a series of fatal crashes. Its flaws were fixed and the plane went on to deliver years of reliable service.
(www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Commercial_Aviation/Opening_of_Jet_era/Tran6.htm)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.65)
1955 May 2, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Tennessee Williams for Cat on Hot Tin Roof.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1956 May 2, US Methodist church disallowed race separation.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1957 May 2, Crime boss Frank Costello narrowly survived an attempt on his life in New York; the alleged gunman, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, was acquitted at trial after Costello refused to identify him as the shooter.
(AP, 5/2/07)
1957 May 2, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (48), the controversial Republican from Wisconsin, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. McCarthy drank himself to death.
(AP, 5/2/97)(WSJ, 2/9/00, p.A26)
1960 May 2, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Alan Drury (Advice & Consent).
(MC, 5/2/02)
1960 May 2, House investigating committee looked into payola questions.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1960 May 2, Caryl Chessman (39), convicted sex offender and best-selling author, the Red Light Bandit," was executed at San Quentin Prison in California. He became a best-selling author while on death row. SFC crime reporter Bernice Davis (d.2002 at 97) later authored “Desperate and the Damned," an account of the Chessman case.
(AP, 5/2/08)(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A25)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A23)
1962 May 2, OAS struck in Algeria.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1964 May 2, In Mississippi Charles Moore (19) and Henry Dee (19) were beaten and killed by local members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their mutilated bodies were later found in the Mississippi River while federal authorities searched for civil rights workers Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner. Charles Marcus Edwards and James Ford Seale were arrested for the crime, but neither was tried. In 2007 James Ford Seale (71) was arrested and charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. In 2008 an appeals court ruled that the statue of limitations had expired overturning Seale’s conviction.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.A5)(AP, 1/25/07)(AP, 1/26/07)(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26633038/)
1965 May 2, Intelsat 1, also known as the Early Bird satellite, was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.
(AP, 5/2/08)
1967 May 2, In California two dozen legally gun-toting members of the Black Panther Party marched in the state Capitol in Sacramento to oppose a Republican gun control bill and expose the hypocrisy of politicians who only invoked the Second Amendment when it applied to white people. On July 28 Gov. Reagan signed the Milford Act, crafted with the goal of disarming members of the Black Panther Party who were conducting armed patrols of Oakland neighborhoods.
(SSFC, 10/24/21, p.E1)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act)
1967 May 2, The Stockholm Vietnam Tribunal opened and continued to May 10. The formation of this investigative body immediately followed the 1966 publication of Bertrand Russell's book, “War Crimes in Vietnam." It condemned US aggression in Vietnam and Cambodia. A 2nd session of the tribunal was held at Roskilde, Denmark, Nov 20 – Dec 1, 1967.
(www.vietnamese-american.org/contents.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal)
1968 May 2, The US Army attacked Nhi Ha in South Vietnam and began a fourteen-day battle to wrestle it away from Vietnamese Communists.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1969 May 2, Franz JHMM von Papen (b.1879), German chancellor (1932), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Papen)
1970 May 2, Diane Crump became the 1st woman jockey at the Kentucky Derby.
(www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-8312437_ITM)
1970 May 2, Student anti-war protesters at Ohio's Kent State University burned down the campus ROTC building. Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes ordered in the National Guard to take control of the campus.
(HN, 5/2/98)(HNPD, 5/4/99)
1972 May 2, The play "That Championship Season" by Jason Miller (1939-2001) premiered in NYC off Broadway. A film version premiered in 1982.
(http://www.bookrags.com/guides/championshipseason/)
1972 May 2, In Idaho a fire at the Sunshine Mine precipitated the death of 91 underground employees by smoke inhalation and/or carbon monoxide poisoning.
(www.usmra.com/saxsewell/sunshine.htm)
1972 May 2, J. Edgar Hoover (b.1895), head of the FBI (1924-72), died in Washington. Hoover had come to the forefront of federal law enforcement during the "Red Scare" of 1919 to 1920. The Watergate affair subsequently revealed that the FBI had illegally protected President Richard Nixon from investigation. Ronald Kessler later published "The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency."
(AP, 5/2/97)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover)
1972 May 2, Camp Carroll was officially surrendered to the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. This was the first major victory for the North Vietnamese Army during the Nguyen Hue Offensive. The Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary Government immediately imposed their authority in the province, as collective farms were set up and strict rules instilled by the Viet Cong were forced on the villagers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Quang_Tri)
1973 May 2, A New Jersey state trooper was killed in a gunbattle. Joanne Chesimard (b.1947), a Black Panther activist, was later found guilty in the killing and sentenced to prison. She escaped in 1979 and everntually made her way to Cuba, where she was granted asylum by Fidel Castro.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assata_Shakur)(SFC, 12/22/14, p.A8)
1974 May 2, Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals, effectively preventing him from practicing law anywhere in the United States.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1980 May 2, Pope John Paul II arrived Kinshasa for the centennial of Catholicism in Zaire and the beginning of his African tour.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)(http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id99.htm)
1981 May 2, In California Joseph Azevedo (50) was found shot dead at his mobile home in Lancaster, LA County. On Nov 6, 2010, suspect David Winter (55), a long-haul truck driver, was arrested in Ohio.
(http://tinyurl.com/4ekecdj)(SFC, 1/10/11, p.A4)
1981 May 2, In Savannah, Ga., Jim Williams shot and killed his younger, redneck boyfriend. Clint Eastwood based his 1997 film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" on this event.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.C14)
1982 May 2, A project to produce oil from shale rock in Colorado's Roan Plateau collapsed due to technical hurdles and falling oil prices. Exxon Mobil laid off 2,200 workers and cancelled its $5 billion Colony Oil Shale project near Parachute.
(USAT, 3/5/04, p.6A)(Econ, 8/20/05, p.27)(SFC, 9/4/06, p.A8)
1982 May 2, In the Falklands War the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British submarine Conqueror, killing 323 men. Lord Terence Thornton Lewin (d.1999 at 78), British military commander, was regarded as the one who persuaded Margaret Thatcher to order the sinking.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano)(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)
1983 May 2, A 6.4 earthquake injured 94 people in Coalinga, Ca., and caused an estimated $10 million in damages.
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1983_05_02.php)
1985 May 2, US financial firm E.F. Hutton pleaded guilty to charges that that it carried out a large check-kiting scam.
(WSJ, 10/15/05, p.B3)(http://my.econedlink.org/calendar.php?month=05)
1987 May 2, Alysheba won the 113th running of the Kentucky Derby to earn a record $618,600; Bet Twice came in second and Avies Copy was third.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1988 May 2, Jackson Pollock's "Search" sold for $4,800,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/gqov4)
1988 May 2, Cincinnati Reds baseball manager Pete Rose was suspended for 30 days by National League president A. Bartlett Giamatti, two days after Rose shoved an umpire during a game won by the New York Mets, 6-5. Giamatti died a week later. In 1998 his musings on baseball were published as “A Great and Glorious Game," ed. by Kenneth S. Robson.
(AP, 5/2/98)(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR p.9)
1989 May 2, At a Baltimore gathering, physicists said they were persuaded that claims of "cold fusion" were based on nothing more than experimental errors by scientists in Utah.
(AP, 5/2/99)
1990 May 2, David Rappaport (38), British 3'11' actor (Wizard, LA Law), committed suicide by gunshot in California.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0710884/)
1990 May 2, The government of South Africa and the African National Congress opened their first formal talks aimed at paving the way for more substantive negotiations on dismantling apartheid.
(AP, 5/2/00)
1991 May 2, US, British, French and Dutch forces plunged 50 miles deeper into northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/2/01)
1991 May 2, Denmark issued a pair of stamps depicting satellite pictures of its land and water temperatures.
(https://colnect.com/en/stamps/list/country/58-Denmark/year/1991)
1991 May 2, In his ninth encyclical, Pope John Paul the Second acknowledged the success of capitalism, but denounced the system for sometimes achieving results at the expense of the poor and of morality. Pope John Paul II put forth his encyclical “Centesimus Annus," on the dignity of the human person and the free economy in the free society. He pointed out that the main cause of the wealth of nations is knowledge, science, know-how, and discovery.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)(WSJ, 12/23/99, p.A18)(AP, 5/2/01)
1992 May 2, Los Angeles began to recover from rioting that had erupted in the wake of the Rodney King-taped beating acquittals; about 2,800 National Guard troops patrolled the city while 3,200 stood by.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1992 May 2, Former US House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur D. Mills died in Searcy, Ark., at age 82.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1992 May 2, Ejup Ganic took over as Bosnia's acting president. Serbian prosecutors later alleged that Ganic personally commanded a series of attacks on illegal targets across Sarajevo, including an officers' club, a military hospital and what the Serbs describe as a medical convoy making its way out of town.
(AP, 3/4/11)
1993 May 2, Authorities said they had recovered the remains of David Koresh from the burned-out Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1993 May 2, Julio Gallo (82), wine maker (Gallo), died in a car accident.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1993 May 2, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic approved a plan to end the Bosnian war. Four days later, the Bosnian Serb assembly rejected it.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1994 May 2, A jury in Detroit acquitted Dr. Kevorkian of violating a 1992 law against assisted suicide.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.A3)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kevorkian/chronology.html)
1994 May 2, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa's first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1995 May 2, President Clinton agreed to allow some 20,000 Cubans into the United States after months of detention at Guantanamo Bay, but said any more Cubans who fled their country would be forcibly repatriated.
(AP, 5/2/00)
1995 May 2, A new scientific theory predicted an earthquake for the Central Valley of California to occur by July 9. It was estimated to be about 6.0 in magnitude but did not happen.
(local newspaper San Luis Obispo, Ca.)
1995 May 2, Serb missiles exploded in the heart of Zagreb, killing six.
(www.hri.org/news/usa/std/1995/95-05-02.std.html)
1996 May 2, By a 97-3 vote, the Senate passed an immigration bill to tighten border controls, make it tougher for illegal immigrants to get U.S. jobs and curtail legal immigrants' access to social services.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1996 May 2, John Dylan Katz (16) was beaten up and put into a coma in Windsor, California. He was apparently wearing the wrong colors. Arrested for the assault were Dominque Marie Gaitan (22), and 3 17-year-old youths including a girl. A 5th suspect was being sought.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-13)
1996 May 2, Some 20,000 workers marched in Asuncion, Paraguay, demanding improved wages and working conditions. Police broke up groups of strikers and detained 16 union leaders.
(SFC, 5/3/96, A-18)
1997 May 2, President Clinton and congressional Republicans came to terms on a plan to balance the budget over five years.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, A new national memorial honoring Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt was officially opened in Washington, D.C., and was dedicated by Pres. Clinton
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, In Texas Robert Scheidt surrendered to police and left behind 7 people of the Republic of Texas under the leadership of Richard McLaren. The number of separatists was reduced to 7 from an earlier estimate of 13.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)
1997 May 2, Tony Blair, whose new Labor Party crushed John Major's long-reigning Conservatives, became at age 44 Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, In Bulgaria the average salary was reported as $30 a month and the average pension $4 a month.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A18)
1997 May 2, In Zaire the Tenke Mining Corp. of Vancouver, Canada, signed a $250 million contract with the rebels to develop copper and cobalt deposits.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1998 May 2, In the 124th Kentucky Derby jockey Kent Desormeaux rode to victory on "Real Quiet."
(BS, 5/3/98, p.1A)(AP, 5/2/99)
1998 May 2, In separate radio addresses, President Clinton and congressional Republicans lambasted the Internal Revenue Service and promised more reforms to prevent future abuses.
(AP, 5/2/99)
1998 May 2, Police fired tear gas into a crowd of 3,000 students at Michigan State Univ. who were protesting the end of drinking at Munn Field.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.3A)
1998 May 2, It was reported that a small galaxy was detected 12.3 Billion light-years away, 94% of the distance back to the Big Bang.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A7)
1998 May 2, The European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was launched in Brussels with 11 nations welcomed as the founding members.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A18)
1998 May 2, Cambodian refugees entered Thailand as government troops declared that they had all but destroyed the Khmer Rouge.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.16A)
1998 May 2, In Indonesia tens of thousands of students in Jakarta and at least a dozen other cities rallied against the government.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.19A)
1998 May 2, In Tajikistan government troops withdrew from around the capital after 4 days of fighting Islamist opposition forces. An agreement for a peaceful settlement was reached.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.17A)
1999 May 2, A US F-16 went down over western Serbia on the 39th night of air strikes. Allied forces rescued the pilot. Pilot David Goldfein (b.1959) was soon rescued by American commandos in a hair-raising operation.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A3)(https://tinyurl.com/y59vv58w)
1999 May 2, Actor Oliver Reed died in Malta at age 61.
(AP, 5/2/00)
1999 May 2, Yugoslav authorities handed over to the Rev. Jesse Jackson three American prisoners of war who had been held for 32 days.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/2/00)
1999 May 2, NATO bombings struck the Obrenovac power plant in Belgrade and blacked out large areas of Serbia. A soft bomb (KIT-18) sprayed graphite over the power station and shorted its circuits. A metalworks factory in Valjevo was hit and missile hit Mitrovica where one woman was killed and several civilians wounded.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A12)(SFC, 5/4/99, p.D1)
1999 May 2, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana and Manual Marulanda Velez, the leader of FARC, agreed to begin formal peace negotiations with int'l. observers.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.C5)
1999 May 2, In Mexico Rodolfo Montiel, a peasant leader in a struggle to protect the forests of the southern Sierra Madre, was arrested, tortured and jailed on trumped-up drug and weapons charges for his battle against US and local logging companies. Teodoro Cabrera was also arrested. Pres. Fox ordered the release of Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera on Nov 8, 2001.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A16)(SFC, 11/9/01, p.A20)
1999 May 2, In Nepal insurgents killed 2 police officers the day before parliamentary elections that they asked voters to boycott. The rebels demanded land reforms and an end to the monarchy. Election related violence left at least 10 people dead.
(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A1)
1999 May 2, In Panama presidential elections were scheduled. Martin Torrijos, son of Gen'l. Omar Torrijos, was favored over Mireya Moscoso (52), wife of the late Arnulfo Arias. Moscoso led the vote in early returns.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D5)(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A12)
1999 May 2, Serbian police ambushed a convoy of ethnic Albanians near Studime and 109 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.A12)(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A14)
2000 May 2, An investigating panel concluded that Texas A&M University students cut corners in construction and school officials failed to adequately supervise them before a bonfire collapse in November 1999 that killed 12 people.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, Jockey Julie Krone became the first female elected to thoroughbred racing’s hall of fame.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, Former nurse Christina Marie Riggs was executed by injection in Arkansas for smothering her two young children.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, In Armenia Pres. Robert Kocharian fired Prime Minister Aram Sarkisian and his government for allowing the economy to deteriorate and for ignoring discord in the military. Police security was tightened around government buildings.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)
2000 May 2, In Belgium the Parliament opened an inquiry into possible government involvement in the 1961 killing of Congo’s Premier Patrice Lumumba. This followed allegations in the new book “The Murder of Lumumba" by Ludo De Witte.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)
2000 May 2, In Israel the Day of the Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was observed. The date was fixed by Israel to commemorate the Warsaw Jewish ghetto uprising of 1943.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12,13)
2000 May 2, In Indonesia it was reported that a tribal conflict between the Wampe and Bilaga on West Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, had left over 100 people dead in the last year.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A10)
2000 May 2, In the Philippines rebels at Talipao threatened to behead 2 hostages if military troops were not pulled back.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)
2000 May 2, In Rwanda health minister Ezechias Rwabuhihi reported that some 500,000 Rwandans, 6% of the population, were infected with AIDS.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A18)
2000 May 2, In Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front rebels seized 50 UN workers over the last 2 days as the West African intervention force completed its pullout. The seizures took place in Makeni, Kailahun and Magburaka.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A13)
2001 May 2, President Bush and Republican congressional leaders clinched a budget deal embracing most of the president's tax and spending goals.
(AP, 5/2/02)
2001 May 2, It was reported that a large embezzlement case in Brazil threatened to unravel the ruling coalition. Some $2 billion had disappeared from the Amazon Development Bureau (Sudam). Fakery of land deals (grilagem) was estimated to involve some 100 million acres of the Amazon Basin.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A8)(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B5)
2001 May 2, In China US technical experts examined the US spy plane on Hainan Island.
(WSJ, 5/3/01, p.A1)
2001 May 2, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan returned to China from Russia with a draft accord for relations with Russia.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D2)
2001 May 2, In China a landslide in Wulong County buried a 9-story building where 76 of 95 residents were home. 65 bodies were recovered. At least 79 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D2)(AP, 5/2/02)
2001 May 2, Germany inaugurated its new Chancellery in Berlin designed by Axel Schultes. There were concerns that the building was too grandiose.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B2)(AP, 5/2/02)
2001 May 2, Israeli bulldozers demolished 20 houses in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza and killed one teenager during the predawn operation.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B1)
2001 May 2, In North Korea Kim Jong Il agreed to hold talks with visiting EU officials about his missile program and tensions with South Korea. Kim Jong Il announced that North Korea would launch no ballistic missiles until 2003.
(WSJ, 5/3/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/4/01, p.A14)
2001 May 2, In Zambia the ruling party ousted Vice Pres. Christon Tembo, 8 Cabinet members and 11 0ther senior officials who opposed Pres. Chiluba’s bid for a 3rd term.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)
2002 May 2, The Rev. Paul Shanley, a priest at the epicenter of the clergy sex abuse scandal, turned himself in to authorities in San Diego to face charges in Massachusetts of raping boys during the 1980s. Shanley pleaded innocent but was later convicted of repeatedly raping one boy at a Newton parish in 2005, and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. On July 28, 2017, Shanley (86) was released from prison.
(AP, 5/2/07)(SFC, 7/22/17, p.A6)
2002 May 2, The Bush administration committed to join a UN int’l. conference on Middle East peace and economic reconstruction.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A1)
2002 May 2, A federal crackdown on identity theft reported 130 recent arrests. Estimates were that some 500,000 people were victimized annually.
(WSJ, 5/3/02, p.A1)
2002 May 2, The US Int’l. Trade Commission upheld a 27% tariff against imported Canadian softwood.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.B1)
2002 May 2, Dr. William F. Gibson (69), former head of the NAACP, died.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)
2002 May 2, In the Bahamas the opposition Liberal Progressive Party won Parliamentary elections with 23 seats in the 40-seat legislature. Perry Christie (b.1944) led the party to victory and served as prime minister to 2007.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A10)(AP, 5/8/12)(http://tinyurl.com/7crjgun)
2002 May 2, A report on Iraq’s oil sales showed that illegal surcharges allowed Iraq to siphon off large amounts for its war chest.
(WSJ, 5/2/02, p.A1)
2002 May 2, Yasser Arafat emerged from his West Bank headquarters, hours after Israeli troops withdrew from his compound and released the Palestinian leader from months of confinement.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2002 May 2, In the Philippines Salip Abdullah, a key aide to Abu Sayyaf chief Janjalini, was captured in Labangal village near General Santos.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A10)
2002 May 2, In Pakistan a bomb exploded in Karachi and a boy (12) was killed.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A12)
2002 May 2, In Vietnam the Russian flag was lowered over the Cam Rhan Bay naval base for the last time.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cam_Ranh_Bay)
2003 May 2, A US official warned that the US is ready to sacrifice the free flow of trade with Canada if necessary to respond to a planned Canadian decriminalization of marijuana.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, A federal court struck down most of the new campaign finance law's ban on the use of large corporate and union contributions by political parties. However, the Supreme Court later ruled that rooting out corruption, or even the appearance of it, justified limitations on the free speech and free spending of contributors, candidates and political parties.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2003 May 2, The US jobless rate was reported at 6%, an 8-year high.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B1)
2003 May 2, China reported an accident on a diesel-powered submarine that killed all 70 sailors aboard [see April 25].
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, James Miller (34), a British journalist filming a documentary in the southern Palestinian city of Rafah, was shot and killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. In 2006 a British jury ruled that the shooting was an act of murder. In 2009 Israel agreed to pay about $2 million to the family Miller.
(AP, 5/2/04)(AP, 4/6/06)(AP, 2/1/09)
2003 May 2, India and Pakistan agreed to hold talks and restore diplomatic and air links.
(WSJ, 5/5/03, p.A1)
2003 May 2, Striking Nigerian oil workers released the first of hundreds of people they have held for days on oil rigs as part of an agreement to free all the captives.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Papua New Guinea a landslide buried a meeting hall under mud and debris, killing at least eight people as they listened to election results.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2003 May 2, In eastern Sicily Giuseppe Leotta (42), a disgruntled worker, opened fire with a handgun in the Aci Castello town hall, killing 5 people. He fled and then killed himself.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Taiwan 11 more cases of SARS were confirmed with 5 new deaths. Confirmed cases totaled 100 with the death toll at 8. Mutations of the virus were also reported.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A7)
2003 May 2, Chuwit Kamolvisit, A sex club operator in Thailand, was arrested for unlawfully demolishing a downtown Bangkok block housing scores of bars and shops to make way for another massage parlor, the Taj Mahal. He soon claimed to have spent about $289,156 each month in payoffs to policemen.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Vietnam an aging Russian-made bus, carrying more than 40 passengers, burst into flames. 6 people died and 70 were badly burned. Flammable cargo was suspected.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2004 May 2, In Afghanistan a fuel-truck explosion killed at least 25 people in western Herat.
(WSJ, 5/3/04, p.A1)
2004 May 2, In Colombia 2 small bombs exploded outside the Ministry of Social Affairs in Bogota, injuring nine people and shattering windows.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2004 May 2, American hostage Thomas Hamill, kidnapped three weeks ago in an insurgent attack on his convoy, was found by U.S. forces south of Tikrit after he apparently escaped from his captors.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2004 May 2, Shiite militiamen attacked a U.S. convoy in southern Iraq, killing two soldiers and setting vehicles on fire. Two other American soldiers were killed in Baghdad. At least 9 US soldiers were killed across central and northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/2/04)(SFC, 5/3/04, p.A1)
2004 May 2, Adzharian forces blew up the three major bridges connecting their recalcitrant province with the rest of Georgia in what their leader said was a preventive measure against Georgian military action.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2004 May 2, In Israel PM Sharon’s Likud Party rejected his proposal to withdraw troops and settlers from the West Bank. Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli vehicle in the Gaza Strip, killing 4 children and their mother. Israeli soldiers killed the 2 attackers.
(AP, 5/2/04)(SFC, 5/3/04, p.A1)
2004 May 2, In Mexico a small plane carrying federal anti-narcotics agents crashed, killing all seven people on board.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 2-4, In Nigeria Tarok fighters, a predominantly Christian tribe, attacked Yelwa, a town dominated by Hausa, a rival Muslim ethnic group, razing homes and mosques and killing 500-600 people in 2 attacks over the last 3 days.
(AP, 5/6/04)(SFC, 5/7/04, p.A9)
2004 May 2, Martin Torrijos (40), son of former military dictator Gen’l. Omar Torrijos, was easily elected as Panama's next leader in its first presidential vote since the handover of the Panama Canal and withdrawal of US troops in December 1999. Torrijos promised to tackle vested interests.
(AP, 5/3/04)(Econ, 1/19/08, p.39)
2005 May 2, Florida’s Gov. Bush signed legislation imposing 25-year jail terms for some child molesters and forcing many to wear satellite tracking gear upon release.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A1)
2005 May 2, Utah’s Gov. Jon Huntsman signed a measure defying the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act despite a warning from the federal education secretary that it could cost $76 million in federal aid. The legislation gives Utah's education standards priority over federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, Pvt. 1st Class Lynndie England, the young woman pictured in some of the most notorious Abu Ghraib photos, pleaded guilty at Fort Hood, Texas, to mistreating prisoners. However, a judge later threw out the plea agreement; England was later convicted in a court-martial and sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2005 May 2, Neiman Marcus agreed to be sold to Texas pacific Group and Warburg Pincus for $5.1 billion.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.B1)
2005 May 2, Verizon Communications won its bid to buy MCI Inc. in an $8.44 billion deal.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A1)
2005 May 2, Bob Hunter (63), inspirer of Greenpeace, died.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.89)
2005 May 2, In Afghanistan an arms cache, hidden under the house of a warlord and former government militia commander named Jalal Bashgah, exploded in a bunker beneath his home killing 34 people, injuring 16 and devastating surrounding buildings.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 2, Brazil posted a record trade surplus for the month of April. During the month its currency rose 5% against the dollar.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A14)
2005 May 2, Jose Miguel Insulza, Chile’s interior minister, became head of the Organization of American States.
(WSJ, 5/2/05, p.A16)
2005 May 2, Coalition soldiers fought suspected insurgents near Qaim, a Syrian border town, in a battle that killed 12 militants, injured a 6-year-old girl and wounded six coalition soldiers.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, A car bomb exploded in an upscale shopping district of Baghdad, killing at least six Iraqis and setting fire to an apartment building.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky resigned to protest the planned Gaza withdrawal, which he called a "tragic mistake" that will encourage Palestinian violence and deepen the rift in Israeli society.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian fugitive were killed in a shootout at Seideh in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 2, Italian investigators blamed US military authorities for failing to signal there was a checkpoint ahead on the Baghdad road where American soldiers killed an Italian agent, concluding in a report that stress, inexperience and fatigue played a role in the shooting.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 2, In Kuwait a push to allow women to participate in local elections stalled when Islamist and conservative lawmakers abstained en masse from a key vote in parliament, leaving the measure undefeated but short of the number of votes needed for passage.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, An Oman state security court convicted 30 people of plotting to overthrow the sultan and install an Islamic government, but spared them the death penalty. Another defendant was convicted of a lesser crime.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, Pakistani authorities arrested Abu Farraj al-Libbi, head of al-Qaida operations in Pakistan. The nation's most-wanted militant had a $10 million bounty on his head. A 2nd militant was seized with al-Libbi, who has a five-million-dollar US bounty on his head, was himself a key Al-Qaeda figure with a reward tag of four million dollars.
(AP, 5/4/05)(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 2, Yevgeny Adamov, Russia's former nuclear energy minister, was arrested in the Swiss capital on a US warrant accusing him of diverting up to $9 million from funds intended to improve Russian nuclear security.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 2, The world's nations gathered, for the 7th time since it took force in 1970, to reassess how well the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is working.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2006 May 2, Louis Rukeyser (73) died in Connecticut. The best-selling author, columnist, lecturer and television host had delivered pun-filled, commonsense commentary on complicated business and economic news.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, In Minnesota a small, spiral-shaped snail that clones itself and is native to New Zealand has been discovered in Duluth-Superior Harbor and the St. Louis River estuary, raising concerns about the impact of another invasive species.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, A pre-dawn fire in NYC raged through a 21-acre site. It destroyed 15 industrial buildings and was the worst city fire in 10 years.
(http://nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/home2.shtml)(WSJ, 5/27/06, p.P9)
2006 May 2, A suspected suicide attacker set off a car bomb on a road between the Afghan capital Kabul and a main US military base, killing himself and a civilian.
(AFP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Bolivia's leftist government said it would extend control over mining, forestry and other sectors of the economy. Foreign governments warned relations could be damaged. Soldiers guarded natural gas fields and refineries across Bolivia after President Evo Morales ordered the sector nationalized, threatening to evict foreign companies unless they cede control over production within six months.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Canada's new government released its first federal budget, offering broad tax cuts and pledging to shore up the country's security with spending increases for the military, border security and policing.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, The Canadian dollar cracked 90 US cents, setting a new 28-year high and helping Canadians to realize cheaper US imports of everything from vegetables and clothing to computers.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, China's official Xinhua News Agency said glaciers in western China's Qinghai-Tibet plateau, known as the "roof of the world," are melting at a rate of 7 percent annually due to global warming.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Colombia the entire municipal council of Villavieja resigned and fled to Neiva in Huila province, fearing for their lives amid a spate of political killings.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 2, In western India at least 30 people were killed when a crowded bus veered off a bridge and plunged into a river. The bus, which had a capacity of 58 but was carrying 69 passengers, was traveling from Kashimira town to Thane, near Mumbai.
(AFP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Iran a court sentenced two Swedes to three years in prison each for photographing military installations. The two men, both in their 30s, were convicted of photographing military buildings and telecommunications equipment on Qeshm, an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Iraq's parliament speaker said in a nationally televised speech that the new government's top priority will be ending widespread bloodshed in cities such as Baghdad. But insurgents launched new attacks, killing at least seven Iraqis and a US soldier. US soldiers raided an al-Qaeda site and killed 10 insurgents, including 3 in suicide vests. German engineers Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke were released unharmed following 99 days in captivity.
(AP, 5/2/06)(WSJ, 5/3/06, p.A1)(AP, 5/3/07)
2006 May 2, PM Silvio Berlusconi, the longest-serving leader in postwar Italy, resigned to make way for a center-left government led by Romano Prodi.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Nepal's new prime minister announced a seven-member Cabinet, designating a communist as his deputy and foreign minister.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, In Norway 3 key suspects were convicted in the theft of the Edvard Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" and sentenced to between four and eight years in prison. The works were snatched by masked gunmen from the Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004. They are still missing.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, An explosion destroyed a building inside a Palestinian national security compound in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two police officers and wounding seven others.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 2, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse called for immediate peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels, saying his tiny tropical island had seen enough violence. Gunmen stormed the offices of the Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna, 400 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, killing a manager and another employee. The next day the government said the murders were timed to embarrass it as Sri Lanka hosted UNESCO World Press Freedom Day celebrations, while the rebel Tamil Tigers blamed government forces for the attack.
(AP, 5/2/06)(AFP, 5/3/06)
2007 May 2, In a defeat for anti-war Democrats, Congress failed to override President Bush's veto of legislation requiring the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Bush declared al-Qaida "public enemy No. 1 in Iraq."
(AP, 5/2/08)
2007 May 2, Cablevision Systems Corp. agreed to be taken private by the founding Dolan family for $10.6 billion in cash.
(SFC, 5/3/07, p.C2)
2007 May 2, James Abegglen, American-born chronicler of the rise of “Japan Inc.," died in Japan. In the 1960s and 1970s he warned corporate America that Japan should be taken more seriously. His 9th book was titled “21st-Century Japanese Management."
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.A8)
2007 May 2, Afghan regional officials said that 51 villagers, some of them women and children, were killed in recent fighting in western Afghanistan. The US-led coalition said it had no reports of civilian deaths.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, A former prime minister led his opposition party to victory in the Bahamas, returning to power in elections dominated by questions about the direction of the tourism-driven economy. Hubert Ingraham's Free National Movement won 23 seats in the 41-seat legislature, while PM Perry Christie's Progressive Liberal Party claimed the other 18.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 2, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said another case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, has been confirmed in a mature dairy cow in the province of British Columbia.
(Reuters, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, An Egyptian court sentenced Al Jazeera producer Huweida Taha Metwalli to six months in jail or a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,760) for her part in producing a feature on torture by Egyptian police.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Egypt and Japan agreed to push together in a bid to end the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions, calling for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
(AFP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, The grave of Hungary's last communist ruler, Janos Kadar (1956-1988), was pried open and his remains and his wife's urn were thought to have been stolen.
(Reuters, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, The Iranian state news agency reported that the country's former nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, has been arrested on an unspecified security charge.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, A suicide car bomber struck in the main Shiite district of Baghdad, killing at least nine people as the US military said its troop buildup in Baghdad was nearly complete. Three more US soldiers were killed by bombs in the capital. At least 85 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Agency said hundreds of dead seals have washed up on its Caspian Sea shoreline in the past several days, bringing the total number of the animals found dead along the shoreline in recent weeks to 832.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Ahmed Errachidi (41) a Moroccan man sent home from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay last week, was released by local authorities after terrorism-related charges were dropped.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
2007 May 2, The International Criminal Court in the Hague said it has issued arrest warrants for the Sudanese government's humanitarian affairs minister and a janjaweed militia leader suspected of committing war crimes in Darfur.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, A company spokesman said US oil giant Chevron has shut down 15,000 barrels per day of oil production in its Funiwa facility in southern Nigeria following a militant attack.
(AFP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Romania’s Parliament approved an agreement allowing the US to use four military bases and station up to 3,000 troops in the former communist country.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 2, Russian oil firms rushed to re-route a quarter of their refined products exports away from ports in Estonia after Russia's railways halted the route amid a political dispute with Tallinn. Young Russians staged raucous protests in Moscow to denounce neighboring Estonia for removing a Soviet war memorial from its capital, and the Estonian ambassador said pro-Kremlin activists tried to attack her as she arrived at a news conference.
(Reuters, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, The South Korean government announced its first-ever plan to seize assets gained by alleged Korean collaborators during Japanese colonial rule as part of efforts to reconcile with its past more than 60 years after the end of the peninsula's occupation. 2 defectors to South Korea described how they had been tortured in a North Korean prison camp, as a South Korean rights group issued a report on abuses of detainees in the communist state.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Taiwan's opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou was nominated by his Kuomintang party to run for the 2008 presidential election and pledged to improve economic ties with China.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Thailand's military-installed PM Surayud Chulanont said he has tasked his southern army commander with developing a detailed amnesty proposal for Islamic militants.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, The US and EU warned Turkey's military to stay out of the country's political showdown between the Islamic-rooted government and those in the secular establishment who fear the country will shift toward Islamic rule.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, Isaac Matongo (60), the chairman of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former trade unionist, died.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2008 May 2, The US Federal Reserve and key European central banks announced a fresh offensive against a global credit crisis that has gridlocked lending and slowed the world economy.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Severe storms rolled across Arkansas and killed 8 people, including a teenager crushed by a tree while she slept in her bed. The deaths came after earlier storms seriously damaged homes and businesses in the Kansas City, Mo., area.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Sami al-Haj, an Al-Jazeera cameraman, was released from US custody at Guantanamo Bay. he returned home to Sudan after six years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Britain's ruling Labor Party suffered its worst local election defeat on record. Labor won 24% of the votes, a warning to PM Brown that he must fix Britain’s credit crunch.
(AP, 5/2/08)(WSJ, 5/3/08, p.A1)
2008 May 2, In Chechnya suspected Islamic militants clashed with police, killing two law enforcement officers. The rebel-linked Web site Kavkaz Center claimed that at least nine law enforcement officers were killed in a gunfight that lasted for four hours.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, In southern Chile authorities evacuated hundreds of people from villages after the snowcapped Chaiten volcano, considered dormant for thousands of years, erupted.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Colombian police captured Miguel Angel Mejia, the second of two drug-trafficking twins who were among the country's main cocaine shippers.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Cuba computers went on sale to the general public and potential consumers were lining up outside store windows to gawk and consider buying.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Honduras 31 prisoners were attacked by their cellmates with knives and guns just hours after they were transferred to a prison in Tegucigalpa from San Pedro Sula. At least 18 inmates died in the attack.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, Shiite clerics offered sharply different visions in the showdown between government forces and Shiite militias, one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people. Al-Qaida insurgents, mostly Sunnis, raked a police car with automatic weapons, killing 8 Iraqi policemen in the town of Qaim on the Syrian border. 2 civilians were killed and 7 others wounded in Baghdad's central Salihiyah district after a mortar round apparently fired by Shiite extremists toward the US-protected Green Zone fell short. According to US military 10 militants were killed in fighting, including a sniper and a triggerman accused of planting armor-piercing roadside bombs in Sadr City and the adjacent Ubaydi area. A roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad killed a US soldier. A roadside explosion killed 4 Marines in western Anbar province.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, A rebel spokesman said Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases deep inside Iraq for three hours overnight. The Turkish military said the raid in northern Iraq killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, Nigeria’s high court ruled that former president Olusegun Obasanjo's daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, currently in hiding, must face corruption charges.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, A UN official said rising prices and funding shortages have forced the UN to stop providing emergency food aid to more than 13 percent of the 750,000 Palestinian refugees it feeds in Gaza.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, In Saudi Arabia a German-based quartet staged the first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender, largely expatriate audience.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, South Sudan's defense minister, Lieutenant General Dominic Dim Deng, was killed in a plane crash along with 23 other people, most of them senior members of the southern former rebel leadership.
(AFP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 2, In northern Yemen a motorcycle bomb exploded amid a crowd of worshippers leaving a mosque after prayers, killing at least 18 people and wounding about 45.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Zimbabwe elections officials said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the vote in the presidential elections, more than longtime President Robert Mugabe but not enough to avoid a runoff. The opposition said it was willing to share power with the ruling party, but not with longtime President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2009 May 2, Mine That Bird, a gelding from New Mexico trained by Bennie Woolley Jr., won the 135th Kentucky Derby. With an inspired ride on the rail from Calvin Borel the 50-to-1 odds win was one of the greatest upsets in America's most famous horse race.
(AP, 5/3/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.C1)
2009 May 2, Jack Kemp (b.1935), Republican politician, died of cancer at his home in Maryland. A former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, Kemp represented western NY for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988.
(AP, 5/3/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A16)
2009 May 2, In Albania Fatmir Xhindi (49), a lawmaker from the main opposition Socialist Party, was shot and killed outside his home in Roskovec. Albania ended communist rule in 1990, but has struggled since then with high unemployment, widespread corruption, dilapidated infrastructure and organized crime.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, Australia’s government said it will spend more than 70 billion US dollars boosting its defenses over the next 20 years in response to a regional military build-up and global shifts in power.
(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Austria an avalanche killed 6 hikers not far from the popular Soelden ski resort in the alpine province of Tyrol.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 2, In Bolivia former US Pres. Jimmy Carter met with Pres. Evo Morales and discussed bettering relations with the new US government.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A6)
2009 May 2, Brazilian officials said floods and mudslides from heavy rains in the northeast have killed at least 14 people in the last month and driven tens of thousands from their homes.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Brazil Augusto Boal (78), theater director and playwright known for the interactive genre called the "Theater of the Oppressed," died. Seen as a threat to the dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985, Boal was arrested, jailed and tortured before being exiled to Argentina. He returned to Brazil after the fall of the military regime.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, Canadian health officials said a traveler has carried the new H1N1 virus from Mexico to Canada, infecting his family and a herd of swine.
(Reuters, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, It was reported that an estimated 250,000 Roma lived in the Czech Rep. A rising number of the gypsies were applying for visas to Canada. Of 861 applications in 2008, 84 were accepted.
(Econ, 5/2/09, p.54)
2009 May 2, In the Dominican Rep. the decapitated body of a migrant from neighboring Haiti was found in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Santo Domingo. Residents alleged the victim killed a local merchant. About 1 million people of Haitian descent lived in the Dominican Rep., often suffering discrimination and violence.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 2, India's biggest drug maker Ranbaxy announced the recall of an antibiotic, on sale in the US, because of manufacturing problems, marking a new setback for the company. The Japanese-controlled company said it was voluntarily recalling all lots of nitrofurantoin capsules, an antibiotic used in the treatment of urinary tract infections.
(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Iraq a roadside bomb also exploded near a car and a cement mixer in Kirkuk, killing at least 3 civilians and wounding 3 others. Two American soldiers were killed after a gunman opened fire at a combat outpost near Mosul. The attacker was described as a soldier, who also served as a Sunni Muslim preacher for his unit. Iraqi police arrested Mullah Nadim Jibouri, an Awakening leader in Duluija, along with 2 of his brothers.
(AP, 5/2/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A6)(SFC, 5/4/09, p.A3)(SFC, 5/6/09, p.B5)
2009 May 2, South Pacific nations announced that military-ruled Fiji has been suspended from the 16-nation bloc for its rejection of democracy, freedom and human rights.
(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2009 May 2, An Israeli airstrike against smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border killed two people.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 2, Mexico said it had no confirmed deaths from HINI swine flu overnight, even as its confirmed caseload grew to 443.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Pakistan scores of militants attacked the Spinal Tangi security post near the Afghan border, triggering a battle that left 18 combatants dead and cast doubt on claims by Pakistan's army to have regained control of a critical region. A Taliban commander in the Khyber region, just west of Peshawar, surrendered after authorities put pressure on his tribe. Iftikhar Khan Afridi was aligned with Baitullah Mehsud, the top Pakistani Taliban commander. The Taliban beheaded two government officials in the northwestern Swat Valley in revenge for the killing of two insurgent commanders by security forces.
(AP, 5/2/09)(Reuters, 5/3/09)
2009 May 2, In Senegal Madieye Diallo's, a gay man, died of HIV AIDS. His body had only been in the ground for a few hours when a mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2009 May 2, In Sri Lanka a government doctor and a rebel-linked Web site said artillery shells hit a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka's northern war zone, killing at least 64 civilians.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Trinidad 4 police officers allegedly hijacked a smuggling boat from Venezuela and stole 1,000 endangered birds and monkeys along with 400 pounds of wild animal meat. Investigators acting on a tip found birds and monkeys in people's homes, in pet shops and even along roads in Port-of-Spain.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2010 May 2, Louisiana's 2.4-billion-dollar a year commercial and recreational fishing industry was dealt its first major blow from the April 20 oil spill, as the US government banned activities for 10 days due to health concerns.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Tennessee more rain and storms loomed as emergency officials coped with evacuations and closed roads from heavy flooding that claimed five lives. Weekend thunderstorms killed at least 31 people with 19 dead in Tennessee, 6 in Mississippi and 6 in Kentucky. More than 13 inches of rain fell in Nashville over two days, nearly doubling the previous record of 6.68 inches that fell in the wake of Hurricane Fredrick in 1979.
(AP, 5/2/10)(AP, 5/3/10)(AP, 5/4/10)(SFC, 5/8/10, p.A5)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A8)
2010 May 2, United Airlines said it has agreed to buy Continental in a $3 billion-plus deal that would create the world's largest carrier with a commanding position in several top US cities.
(AP, 5/3/10)(SFC, 5/3/10, p.D1)
2010 May 2, Lynn Redgrave (b.1943), British-born actress, died at her home in Kent, Conn. She achieved acclaim for her role in “Georgy Girl" (1966).
(SFC, 5/4/10, p.C5)
2010 May 2, In southern Afghanistan a British soldier died in an explosion while protecting fellow troops as they returned from a patrol.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Australia said it would impose taxes worth billions of dollars on mining companies to tap the profits of an Asia-driven commodities surge, prompting warnings it could "kill" the boom.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, China raised the proportion of deposits that lenders must keep in reserve at the central bank, another step in its months-old campaign to mop up excess cash in the economy at a time when inflation is on the rise.
(Reuters, 5/3/10)
2010 May 2, Cuba allowed a small group of dissidents to hold a protest march after the country's top Roman Catholic clergyman negotiated with authorities, ending three straight weeks of ugly confrontations.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants in separate incidents near the border with Israel.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Ethiopia’s information minister said police have arrested 10 suspected Islamic militants they believe were sent by Eritrea to carry out attacks to upset May 23 general elections.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Greece reached agreement with the EU and the International Monetary Fund on rescue loans to keep Athens from defaulting on its debts, a deal that will impose harsh cuts on the county's 11 million people for years.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Iran the Fars news agency reported that 9 bronze statues, some of famous Iranians and costing thousands of dollars, have been stolen in Tehran in what is said to be serial thievery.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Iraq 2 bombs exploded minutes apart near buses carrying Christian students in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least one bystander and injuring around 100 others.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Moshe Hirsch (86), an American-born anti-Zionist rabbi and close associate of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died in Jerusalem. Hirsch was a leading figure in Neturei Karta, a tiny ultra-Orthodox sect that opposes Israel's existence as a Jewish state and has embraced its enemies. Neturei Karta, which is Aramaic for "Guardians of the City," was founded some 70 years ago in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 2, In Jamaica a sleeping 5-year-old boy died after his throat was slashed. Police soon charged Jermaine Gushman (34) with the murder saying he may have done it to get back at the boy's father.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 2, In Mexico 5 people were trampled to death when a gunshot fired at a cattle fair sent a panic-stricken crowd rushing for the exits in Guadalupe, outside the industrial city of Monterrey, already on edge from rampant drug violence.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Nepal Maoist opposition supporters armed with bamboo sticks enforced a general strike that closed transportation, schools and markets across the country to demand the prime minister's resignation.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Norsk Hydro announced that it was acquiring the aluminium assets of Vale, a Brazilian mining giant, in a deal valued at $4.9 billion.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.65)
2010 May 2, Pakistani army helicopter gunships pounded insurgent hideouts in the northwest, killing at least 22 militants.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, Hamas Deputy Finance Minister Ismail Mahfouz denied that the Islamic militants are caught in a cash crunch, but said Hamas is having trouble getting money into blockaded Gaza.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 2, In Somalia dozens of fighters from one of Somalia's most powerful rebel groups moved into Haradhere, a northern town where pirates operate, sending the pirates fleeing in a development that could upend the piracy trade.
(AP, 5/2/10)(SFC, 5/3/10, p.A2)
2010 May 2, In Sudan gunfire broke out and ambulance sirens wailed as hundreds of angry victims of a failed pyramid scheme protested in the Darfur region. Police opened fire as the protesters tried to march on the house of the state governor. At least 3 people died in the clashes.
(AFP, 5/2/10)(Reuters, 5/5/10)
2011 May 2, The US Army corps. of Engineers exploded a section of the Mississippi River Birds Point levee in Missouri to protect the small town of Cairo, Ill. Water levels receded but a second, smaller section was detonated May 3 to allow water back into the river.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA4)(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 2, Authorities in Arizona found a 250-foot-long unfinished smuggling tunnel underneath the US-Mexico border containing electricity, water pumps and ventilation.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 2, A twin engine cargo plane crashed near an airport in the Miami, Fl., area killing the pilot.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA4)
2011 May 2, In South Carolina Barnard Bailey (54), an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by Eutawville police officer Richard Combs. In 2014 Combs (38) was charged with murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/q3getfv)(SFC, 12/5/14, p.A18)
2011 May 2, The Algerian press said security forces have arrested seven men, mainly Algerians and Moroccans, who are suspected of supporting Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Students and riot police fought pitch battles in Algiers, leaving more than 20 injured as protesters took to the streets demanding political change.
(AFP, 5/2/11)(AFP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 2, Canadians voted in one of their most unpredictable parliamentary elections ever. The Conservatives stormed to a decisive victory, winning 54 percent of the seats in Parliament and securing a stable four-year term in power after vowing to focus on the economy. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was elected to Parliament, marking the first time a member of the environmental party has won a federal election in North America.
(Reuters, 5/2/11)(Reuters, 5/3/11)
2011 May 2, In CongoDRC at least 106 people were missing after an overloaded boat capsized overnight on the Kasai River.
(Reuters, 5/3/11)(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA2)
2011 May 2, In El Salvador Rene Emilio Ponce (64), an army general and former defense minister accused of ordering the 1989 killings of six Jesuit priests and two others during the country's civil war, died.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, Greece's cash-strapped government promised to raise an additional euro11.8 billion ($17.5 billion) through 2013, with a crackdown on tax evasion.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, A Honduran court dismissed the last two remaining charges against former President Manuel Zelaya, removing a key obstacle to his return to the country.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, Israeli-based Teva Pharmaceutical said it will pay $6.8 billion to acquire Cephalon Inc.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.D2)
2011 May 2, Japan's parliament passed a $48 billion tsunami recovery budget that will only start to cover the cost of what was the most expensive disaster ever.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, In Libya Gadhafi's forces used tanks to shell the besieged western town of Mis-rata, as rumors fueled fears that the Libyan leader was preparing to use chemical weapons. Shelling in Misrata killed 14 people.
(AP, 5/2/11)(AFP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 2, Osama bin Laden (b.1957), the face of global terrorism and architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was killed in an early morning firefight in Abbotabad, Pakistan, with elite American forces. Bin Laden was quickly buried at sea in a stunning finale to a furtive decade on the run. 3 adult males were also killed in the raid, including one of bin Laden's sons. One woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant. Courier Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed and his brother Abrar were among the dead. In 2012 former US Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette authored an account of the raid, “No Easy Day," under the pseudonym Mark Owen.
(AP, 5/2/11)(SFC, 6/2/11, p.A4)(SFC, 8/30/12, p.A3)
2011 May 2, In Sudan former civil war foes faced off in polls to elect a new governor and regional assembly in the oil-producing northern state of South Kordofan, a key battleground in the conflict. Sudan's Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, who helped slain Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden settle in Khartoum in the 1990s, was freed after more than three months in jail.
(AFP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, The Swiss government said it has identified potential assets belonging to Libya’s Moammar Khadafy and his entourage amounting to $415 million. Assets of $473 million were also found linked to Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and $69 million to Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA2)
2011 May 2, Syrian troops conducted door-to-door raids in cities and towns across the nation, arresting scores of people in a campaign of intimidation aimed at crushing the six-week uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime. Over 500 arrests were documented in Daraa since April 28 and another 300 in towns on the outskirts of Damascus.
(AP, 5/2/11)(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA3)
2011 May 2, The Vatican said in a statement that Pope Benedict XVI had "removed from pastoral care" Bishop William Morris of the Toowoomba diocese, west of Brisbane. Morris had called on the church to consider ordaining women and married men.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, In Yemen thousands of protesters took to the streets across the country to press Pres. Saleh to step down. Police gunshots in Aden killed at least one bystander. At least 140 people have been killed in the government’s crackdown on protesters.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA2)
2012 May 2, US federal authorities charged over 100 people in 7 cities with Medicare fraud in scams that bilked the program of over $450 million.
(SFC, 5/3/12, p.A6)
2012 May 2, In Arizona 5 people were killed in shootings in a home in Gilbert. They included 16-month-old Lily Lynn Mederos, Amber Nieve Mederos (23), Lisa Lynn Mederos (47), Jim Franklin Hiott (24) and Jason Todd Ready (39), a former Marine with ties to neo-Nazi and Minutemen groups. Lisa Mederos was reported to have been Ready's girlfriend. It appeared that Ready, who was running for sheriff in Arizona's Pinal County, killed the others before turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 5/3/12)(SFC, 5/4/12, p.A14)
2012 May 2, SF police and sheriff’s officers arrested 26 people who had occupied a vacant church building at 888 Turk St. Most of those arrested were homeless or former residents of the old Occupy camp on Justin Herman Plaza.
(SFC, 5/3/12, p.A15)
2012 May 2, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (1895), one of the art world's most recognizable images, sold for a record $119,922,500 at auction in New York City. The previous record for an artwork sold at auction was $106.5 million for Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," sold by Christie's in 2010.
(AP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, In Afghanistan 7 people were killed after attackers in burqas detonated a suicide car bomb and clashed with guards at the "Green Village" complex of guesthouses used by the EU in Kabul. The Taliban militia announced they would launch their annual "spring offensive," code-named Al-Farouq, across Afghanistan on May 3.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, In Algeria Tarek Mameri (23) was detained for posting videos on his blog calling for a boycott of last month's parliamentary election. On June 27 a court slapped an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a 1,000-euro ($1,250) fine on a blogger.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 May 2, Britain’s national police agency closed the website of the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) following an attack by hackers. It was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, where a website's host computers are bombarded with requests for information, making them crash.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, Burundi blocked Human Rights Watch from holding a press conference to release a report on the country's political violence, which it blamed on state agents and armed opposition groups.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the US embassy, where he had sought protection after fleeing house arrest, following a deal with Beijing on his safety, US officials said. Beijing pledged that the legal campaigner and his family would be treated "humanely" and moved to a safe place, hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China for pre-arranged talks.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, In Egypt suspected supporters of the military rulers attacked predominantly Islamist anti-government protesters outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo, setting off clashes that left 20 dead as political tensions rise three weeks before crucial presidential elections.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, Eritrea has surpassed North Korea as the world's top press censor, with Syria and Iran placing third and fourth in a new list published by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, The Hungarian parliament chose Janos Ader (52), a close ally of PM Viktor Orban, to be country's new president, guaranteeing that his conservative Fidesz party will be able to pass laws at will without interference. The Hungarian Socialist Party, the largest opposition formation in parliament, boycotted the presidential election.
(AP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, In Mauritania the opposition began protests calling for President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to step down.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
2012 May 2, In northeastern Nigeria gunmen started shooting in a Potiskum market, trying to steal cattle. Witnesses said three people at the market were killed, as a fourth man suspected to be part of the group of robbers was set afire while still alive and died of his burns.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, In Somalia 2 armed men shadowed radio journalist Farhan Abdulle after he left his station, then shot him dead. He became the fifth Somali journalist killed this year.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 2, South Korea's parliament approved a long-delayed bill to start trading carbon dioxide emissions in 2015, joining the vanguard of countries battling climate change.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, Sudanese officials extended the expulsion deadline for thousands of ethnic South Sudanese encamped south of Khartoum. A UN Security Council resolution called for Sudan and South Sudan to cease hostilities along their border, and resume talks to settle unresolved issues.
(AFP, 5/2/12)(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 2, Syria's army reportedly suffered its deadliest day in a ceasefire when rebel fighters killed 20 troops, in the latest violation of the three-week truce the UN says both sides are flouting. The rebels killed 15 soldiers, including two colonels, in a dawn ambush in the northern province of Aleppo, where two rebel fighters also died. Clashes near Damascus killed six troops, while the army shelled and torched activists' homes in eastern Deir Ezzor province and regime gunfire killed a civilian in southern Daraa. 24 UN monitors were currently in place. Security forces stormed dorms Aleppo University to break up anti-government protests there, killing at least four students and wounding several others with tear gas and live ammunition.
(AFP, 5/2/12)(AP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, In southern Yemen an airstrike killed 15 al-Qaida-linked militants in their training camp in Abyan province. The airstrike resembled earlier US drone attacks, but the US did not comment.
(AP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 2, The UN Security Council put three top North Korean state firms on a sanctions black list over the country's failed rocket launch.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2013 May 2, Pres. Obama embarked on a trip to Mexico with a 2-day stop in Costa Rica. In a joint news conferece with Mexico’s Pres. President Enrique Pena Nieto, Obama sought to tamp down a potential rift with Mexico over a dramatic shift in the cross-border fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.
(SFC, 5/2/13, p.A3)(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, Maryland’s Gov. Martin O’Malley signed legislation to abolish the death penalty, making Maryland became the 18th US state to do so.
(SFC, 5/3/13, p.A7)
2013 May 2, Rhode Island became the nation's 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed as Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, In Texas Carnell Moore fired a gun inside the ticketing area of Bush Int’l. Airport after being confronted by a law enforcement official. Moore was killed as a Homeland Security agent fired at him and as Moore turned his gun on himself.
(SFC, 5/3/13, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/caq3jyo)
2013 May 2, Britain’s Chancellor George Osborne said tax havens such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands will work more closely with Britain and other European countries to fight tax evasion.
(Reuters, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, A British judge sentenced businessman James McCormick (57), who sold fake bomb detectors, to 10 years in jail. The millionaire, convicted last month, made an estimated 50 million pounds ($77.8 million) from the sales of his non-working detectors — which were based on a novelty golf ball finder — to countries including Iraq, Belgium, Niger and Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, British news media reported that Stuart Hall (83) had pleaded guilty last month to sex abuse charges against young girls decades ago. Media were barred from reporting the plea until now.
(SFC, 5/3/13, p.A5)
2013 May 2, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.
(Reuters, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Prominent Egyptian activist Ahmed Douma was arrested and immediately referred to trial for allegedly insulting the country's president in a TV interview.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Guatemala's government declared a state of emergency and banned public gatherings in four townships east of the capital following several days of violent clashes between police and anti-mining protesters.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Indonesia police arrested Achmad Taufiq (22) and Sefa Riano (29). They were members of a cell allegedly involved in recent attacks against Indonesian police. The suspects told authorities they wanted to retaliate against Myanmar for recent attacks on Rohingya Muslims there.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, In Iraq gunmen and security forces clashed in several districts of the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Mosul. 9 police and 4 militants were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, A Kenyan court found 2 Iranian nationals guilty of terror-related charges. Officials accused them of planning to attack Western targets inside Kenya. Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 and led officials to a 15-kg (33-pound) stash of the explosive RDX. On May 6 the two men were sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/2/13)(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 2, North Korea’s media said Kenneth Bae (44), a Korean American detained for six months in North Korea, has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state. In August Bae was reportedly hospitalized after losing over 50 pounds.
(AP, 5/2/13)(SFC, 8/12/13, p.A2)
2013 May 2, It was reported that the last rhino in Mozambique has been killed. The warden in charge of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park — the only place where the horned behemoths lived in Mozambique — also said poachers have wiped out the last of the rhinos. Mozambique's conservation director believed a few may remain.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, In Pakistan convicted India spy Sarabjit Singh died at Jinnah Hospital in the eastern city of Lahore. He was was attacked by fellow inmates on April 26 and had been comatose and on a ventilator for days. Singh was arrested in 1990 after bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad, Pakistan, that killed 14 people. Indians expressed outrage at the Pakistan government over his death.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, In Russia Valery Gergiev, the artistic director of the Mariinsky theater in St. Petersburg, opened the new Mariinsky theater next door to the old imperial structure.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.87)
2013 May 2, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said that five people have died and two other patients were in critical condition with confirmed cases of a new respiratory coronavirus related to SARS. The new virus was first identified last year in the Middle East and several of the people infected had all traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Spanish police said they have arrested 30 suspects who allegedly smuggled drugs into Spain through the southern coast using boats and jet skis.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Syrian government troops, backed by warplanes, pushed into the central districts of the city of Homs in an effort to oust rebels from the country's third largest urban center. In Aleppo rebels reportedly overran the headquarters of Assad's anti-terrorism forces. Regime jets also hit the northern city of Raqqa, killing eight people. Warplanes also hit several targets in Damascus province.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, Syrian troops backed by pro-government gunmen swept into Bayda, a village in the mountains outside the city of Banias, and killed men, women and children and torched homes. At least 50 people, and as many as 100, were reported killed.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 2, The UN said it recorded 712 people killed in Iraq last month, including 117 members of the security forces. More people were killed in violent attacks across the country in April than in any other month since June 2008.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2014 May 2, US Health officials confirmed the first case of an American infected with MERS, a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East. The man fell ill after flying to the US late last week from Saudi Arabia where he was a health care worker.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, A California jury awarded Apple $119 million, far less than it demanded, in a patent battle with Samsung over alleged copying of smart phone features. The jury made the victory even smaller by finding that Apple illegally used one of Samsung's patents.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, SF Bay Area police raided massage parlors in Hayward, Oakland, San Leandro and San Lorenzo arresting 17 women and two men for allegedly operating fronts of prostitution.
(SSFC, 5/4/14, p.C3)
2014 May 2, In Oakland, Ca., the “Hook-Up Truck" made its debut a few blocks off Telegraph at 26th St. after security guards at Art Murmur refused its entrance. The brainchild of conceptual artist Spy Emerson provided a space for couples to enjoy intimacy.
(SFC, 5/3/14, p.C1)
2014 May 2, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (b.1918), American TV star, died at his home in Solvang, Ca. He had starred in “77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964) and “The F.B.I." (1965-1974).
(SFC, 5/3/14, p.A7)
2014 May 2, In northeastern Afghanistan numerous people were missing after a landslide buried a village in Hobo Barik village, Badakshan province. The killed and missing numbered from 255 to 2,700.
(AP, 5/2/14)(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, British judge Constance Briscoe (56) was jailed for 16 months for a catalogue of lies and deception in a case that last year brought down government minister Chris Huhne.
(AFP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, Cambodian security forces clashed with demonstrators in Phnom Penh for a 2nd straight day as the opposition canceled plans for a rally amid a ban on demonstrations and a large-scale police presence.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, Colombia's constitutional court ruled that applying a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that granted Nicaragua a disputed area of Caribbean waters could not take effect without a treaty between the countries.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, In Egypt two suicide bombings in South Sinai killed a soldier and wounded at least seven people. Two Cairo bombings killed at least 5 people. In Alexandria two people were shot dead when supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi clashed with residents.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)(SFC, 5/3/14, p.A2)
2014 May 2, In Greece some 5,000 farmers' market vendors blocked traffic in central Athens and continued giving away food as part of anti-government protests. The vendors had closed their street markets indefinitely this week.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, In northeastern India Bodo separatist rebels wearing black masks opened fire overnight on Muslim villagers in western Assam in two attacks, killing at least 11 people, mostly women and children. A 3rd attack in Baksa left 19 people dead.
(AP, 5/2/14)(SSFC, 5/4/14, p.A12)
2014 May 2, In India politician Kamruzzama Fauji died in hospital after suffering burns to 75 percent of his body when a member of a TV audience doused himself in petrol and grabbed him in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh state. The attacker also died.
(AFP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, Kenya wildlife authorities caught two police officers with six pieces of ivory at a road block while travelling from the central town of Meru to Nairobi.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, In Libya suspected Islamic militants attacked the security headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi early, killing 9 soldiers and policemen and wounding 24.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, In northern Mali Sidati Ag Baye was shot by two suspected al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremists on a motorcycle in Kidal. Baye had foiled an attack by Islamic extremists several months ago by alerting security forces to a bomb left on a runway at Kidal’s airport.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 2, The World Bank said it has approved a $12 billion loan for cash-strapped Pakistan that will be disbursed over five years.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, Philippine officials said police have arrested 58 suspected members of an online extortion syndicate this week in Manila and three other regions. They had reportedly duped hundreds of victims worldwide into exposing themselves in front of webcams or engaging in lewd chats. Some 100 more Filipino suspects were later linked to online blackmail syndicates.
(SFC, 5/3/14, p.A2)(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 2, Puerto Rico's governor filed legislation aimed at retaining young workers and reversing an exodus of people moving to the US mainland amid economic problems. The measure would allow for tax exemptions on the first $40,000 earned by those ages 16 to 26.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, South Korea suffered its second serious transport accident in just over two weeks when a subway train in the capital, Seoul, crashed into a train at a station, injuring 200 people although no one was killed.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir agreed to fly to Ethiopia for talks and to consider forming a transitional government to try and end four months of fighting in the world's newest nation following talks with US Sec. of State John Kerry.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, Syria's government and rebels agreed to a ceasefire in Homs to allow hundreds of fighters holed up in its old quarters to evacuate. Two car bombs struck two small villages in the central province of Hama, killing 23 people, including 14 children.
(AP, 5/2/14)(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, Turkish media said prosecutors have dismissed a case against 60 suspects, among them a former minister's son and a construction tycoon, in the graft scandal swirling around PM Tayyip Erdogan's inner circle.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 2, In Ukraine pro-Russia forces shot down two government helicopters as the country launched its first major offensive against an insurgency that has seized government buildings in the east. Two crew members were killed in the crashes, and pro-Russia militiaman was reported killed. At least 48 people died in clashes between government supporters and opponents in the Black Sea port of Odessa. Most died when government opponents took refuge in a building that caught fire after protesters threw firebombs inside.
(AP, 5/2/14)(AP, 5/3/14)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.50)
2014 May 2, Uruguay released its rules for the legal marijuana market, detailing how the government plans to get very involved in every aspect of the business. The regulations will take effect May 6.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, Venezuela's government said it has arrested 58 foreigners, including an American, on suspicion of inciting violent street protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, A Venezuelan fishing boat found 11 Chinese sailors floating in a raft about 1,000 miles west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 2 soon died of their injuries.
(SFC, 5/5/14, p.A2)
2014 May 2, In the US Virgin Islands Enrique Saldana, a former police captain, called 911 and said he was at the beach with his wife when she collapsed and stopped breathing. Jeanette Magras Saldana (43) had bruises all over her body and that it appeared she had died hours before the emergency call was made. Saldana previously was sentenced in February 2011 to more than three years in prison after being convicted of participating in an extortion conspiracy.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 2, Yemeni government forces killed five al Qaeda militants and wounded dozens of others in the south, in the fourth day of an offensive against Islamist insurgents. Unidentified gunmen shot dead an army colonel in his car in the southern port city of Aden.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)(Reuters, 5/3/14)
2015 May 2, Writer Michael Blake (69) died in Tucson, Az. His novel "Dances With Wolves" became a major hit movie and earned him an Academy Award for the screenplay.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 2, In Kentucky American Pharoah, ridden by Victor Espinoza, won the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
(SSFC, 5/3/15, p.B6)
2015 May 2, In Las Vegas boxer Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines lost by unanimous decision to American Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a 12-round fight.
(AP, 5/3/15)
2015 May 2, Australian police said flash floods killed 5 people in south-east Queensland when their cars were swept away following a rain storm on the east coast.
(Reuters, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, British mystery writer Ruth Rendell (b.1930), crime novelist, died in London. She brought psychological insight and social conscience to the classic British detective story. Her Wexford books were made into a popular TV series, "The Ruth Rendell Mysteries," which ran for more than a decade from 1987. In 1997 she was appointed to the House of Lords by PM Tony Blair's Labour government, becoming Baroness Rendell of Babergh.
(AP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, Burundi's government vowed a major crackdown after a week of political protests. Protest organizers called for a two-day halt to demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's move to seek a third term, which they says violates the constitution and endangers the peace deal that ended a civil war in 2005.
(AFP, 5/2/15) (Reuters, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, Canadian PM Stephen Harper made an unannounced visit to Iraq days after lawmakers extended and expanded the NATO member's air campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group.
(AFP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, In northern China police fatally shot Xu Chunhe as he was on his way to Beijing to ask the central government to help house and take care of his children and elderly mother. His relatives received approval for the aid three days after the killing.
(AP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 2, In Iraq 7 women and children were killed by a roadside bomb in Diyala province. A suicide blast killed six government troops in Anbar province. Two car bombs outside a popular Baghdad restaurant killed at least 19 people, including 4 policemen and a media figure, for which the IS group claimed responsibility.
(AP, 5/2/15)(AFP, 5/3/15)(AP, 5/3/15)
2015 May 2, Nigerian troops over the last 24 hours raided communities suspected of harboring militiamen in central Plateau state. Local media said at least 30 people died when soldiers stormed into Kadarko, Kurmi and Wadata areas.
(AFP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, In Poland one man died after being hit by a rubber bullet and 14 police officers were injured in clashes that erupted during a league football match in Knurow.
(AP, 5/3/15)
2015 May 2, In Syria fighting continued between government forces and Islamist fighters in government-held Latakia, heartland of Assad's minority Alawite community. Rebels shelled government-held districts in Aleppo, killing at least 12 civilians, including 3 children.
(Reuters, 5/2/15)(AP, 5/2/15)
2015 May 2, Tunisians unfurled a national flag the size of 19 football pitches in a bid to set a Guinness world record and promote patriotism in the face of Islamist extremism.
(AFP, 5/3/15)
2016 May 2, The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State on Monday with 29 strikes against the militants in Syrian and Iraq, including the northern city of Mosul under militant control.
(Reuters, 5/3/16)
2016 May 2, Solar Impulse 2 completed the 10th leg of its journey, landing in Arizona after a 16-hour flight from California. The solar-powered airplane was midway through a historic bid to circle the globe.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 2, The first US cruise ship in nearly 40 years crossed the Florida Straits from Miami and pulled into Havana Harbor, restarting commercial travel on waters that served as a stage for a half-century of Cold War hostility.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, A St. Louis jury ruled that Johnson & Johnson pay $55 million to a woman who claims its talcum powder caused her ovarian cancer.
(SFC, 5/4/16, p.A5)
2016 May 2, An Afghan police officer accused his wife of having affairs and then shot her in public before shooting himself in eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Craig Wright, an Australian man long rumored to be associated with the digital currency Bitcoin, publicly identified himself as its creator, a claim that would end one of the biggest mysteries in the tech world. BBC News said that Wright told the media outlet he is the man previously known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The computer scientist, inventor and academic said he launched the currency in 2009 with the help of others.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, China's Communist Party said it has placed Ren Zhiqiang, a property mogul and outspoken government critic, on probation for a year after he criticized state media for pledging absolute loyalty to the party.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Egypt's journalists' syndicate called for the dismissal of the interior minister and an immediate sit-in at its headquarters in downtown Cairo, to protest the police detention of two journalists on its premises the night earlier.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Around 400 people gathered in Hong Kong to protest a veteran newspaper editor's dismissal that triggered concerns about press freedom in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, In northern India dozens of fires were spreading unpredictably in the states of Uttarakhand and neighboring Himachal Pradesh. Massive wildfires in the two states have killed at least seven people in recent weeks. The fires extended into Nepal where 11 people have died fighting fires across the country, the worst in six years.
(AP, 5/2/16)(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Survivors of Indonesia's anti-communist massacres in 1965 submitted a list of what they say are more than 100 mass graves to the government after the president called for an investigation into the killings.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Indonesian police fatally shot Amokrane Sabet (49), a French citizen, after he stabbed a policeman to death while resisting arrest on the resort island of Bali.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, In Iraq an explosives-laden car detonated in Baghdad, killing at least 18 Shiite pilgrims. Tens of thousands of Shiite faithful have been making their way this week to the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, where the 8th century Imam Moussa al-Kadhim is buried.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Japan said it wants to work with countries in the lower Mekong river basin and will help them improve infrastructure and bolster development with 750 billion yen ($7 billion) in aid over three years.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced that the government will not make nearly $370 million in bond payments due today after a failure to restructure or find a political solution to the US territory's spiraling public debt crisis.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Syria's military extended a unilateral cease-fire around Damascus and opposition strongholds in the eastern suburbs of the capital for another 48 hours, as a humanitarian convoy delivered aid to 12,000 families trapped in a government-besieged area in central Syria.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 2, Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, killing 18 militants.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 2, A UN arbitration court ruled that India should release Italian marine Salvatore Girone, who has been detained in Delhi for more than four years, and allow him to return home.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2017 May 2, Former San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer (b.1936) died at a senior care facility in San Rafael. In 2008 led the battle to pass Prop. 8 that banned same-sex marriage in California. The ban remained on the books until a federal court overturned it in 2010.
(SFC, 5/3/17, p.A9)
2017 May 2, In Brazil several public buses were torched in Rio de Janeiro. Police said ski-masked bandits were suspected, possibly in retaliation for a police operation.
(SFC, 5/3/17, p.A2)
2017 May 2, Britain jailed Islamic State jihadist Samata Ullah (34) to eight years in prison. The IT expert had hid extremist material on a computer memory stick disguised as cufflinks and created an online "library for terrorists".
(AFP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said armed groups in Central African Republic have killed at least 45 civilians in apparent reprisal strikes over the past three months.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, China announced it is tightening rules for online news as censors try to control a flood of information spread through instant-messaging apps, blogs and other media sources that are proliferating across the country. The rules take effect June 1.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, Greenpeace said authorities in West Africa have detained eight Chinese vessels for fishing illegally and the boat owners could be subject to millions of dollars in fines. Inspectors from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau boarded the ships off their respective coasts. They found them to be violating regulations on catching protected fish and using nets with small holes to facilitate bigger hauls.
(Reuters, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka unexpectedly announced that his government will resign over unexplained business dealings of his rival Andrej Babis, the country's finance minister.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Denmark banned five Islamic clerics and an American evangelical Christian pastor from entering the country, calling them "hate preachers" who posed threats to public order.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In Egypt the powerful Tarabeen tribe in the Sinai Peninsula said it has killed eight suspected Islamic State fighters in battle and captured three more.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Heinz Kessler (97), former East German defense minister, died in Berlin. As the country's last defense minister (1985 to 1989) he was responsible for a shoot-to-kill policy aimed at stopping people escaping to the West. He was sentenced to prison in 1991 for his role in the killing of people trying to flee the Communist state.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 2, Greece struck a deal with rescue creditors toward getting the bailout cash it needs to avoid another brush with bankruptcy this summer, though it leaves long-suffering Greeks facing years more austerity.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In India Ghulam Mohammad, a Muslim man, was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh state's Bulandshahar district for helping an interfaith couple elope. Police soon detained three members of Yuva Vahini, a Hindu militia, for suspected involvement in the killing.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, A prosecutor based in Sicily told Italian senators his office has found no links or contacts between migrant smugglers and humanitarian organizations operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, PM Fayez Serraj of Libya's UN-backed government and powerful rival Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter met in the United Arab Emirates in the latest effort to resolve the country's long-running conflict.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Mexican prosecutors said they have captured Damaso Lopez, one of the Sinaloa cartel leaders, who launched a struggle for control of the gang following the re-arrest of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Lopez was captured in Mexico City.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In central Mexico eight assailants stopped the family's vehicle before dawn on the highway. A toddler was killed when they forced open the door and a mother and daughter were raped. Victims had to walk about a mile to a toll booth after the assault. On May 16 a man identified only as "Orlando N." (37) was arrested.
(AP, 5/17/17)
2017 May 2, Bondholders filed to sue Puerto Rico in the first legal challenges to hit the US territory after a freeze on litigation that protected it from lawsuits expired amid a deep economic crisis.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In Russia the mayor’s office of Moscow published a list of 4,566 buildings, home to some 1 million people, that will be up for demolition. It was part of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s plan for an urban makeover. May residents were furious.
(Econ 5/6/17, p.50)
2017 May 2, Judges in South Sudan went on strike over poor pay and living conditions, raising the risk of impunity in a country already convulsed by criminality and war.
(Reuters, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, It was reported that Sweden will end temporary border controls introduced in 2015 to stem a large influx of asylum seekers.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, In Syria a jihadist assault led by suicide bombers killed dozens at a camp for the displaced near the border with Iraq. The violence left at least 38 people dead and came as another surprise IS attack killed 10 soldiers in Iraq.
(AFP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejoined the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) he co-founded in a step on his path toward solidifying his grip on power, following his narrow victory in last month's referendum.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, UNICEF said about 1.4 million children in Somalia are projected to suffer acute malnutrition this year due to drought, 50 percent more than estimated in January.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Uruguay announced the launch of a registry of people who want to legally buy marijuana at pharmacies as part of the world's first government-regulated national marketplace for pot. Marijuana will cost about $1.30 per gram. Companies that won the government bid to grow it will charge about $.90. The rest will be split between pharmacies and the government.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 2, Venezuela's opposition blocked streets in Caracas to denounce a decision by unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro to create a new super-body known as a "constituent assembly," a move critics say is a veiled attempt to cling to power by avoiding elections.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2018 May 2, Rudy Giuliani, Pres. Trump's new lawyer, said Trump repaid $130,000 to his personal attorney Michael Cohen for hush money Cohen had paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, directly contradicting the president's past statements.
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.A5)
2018 May 2, Ahmed Mohammed al-Darbi (43) became the first detainee to leave the US base in Cuba since President Donald Trump took office. The Pentagon announced his transfer to Saudi Arabia in a brief statement. The agreement to repatriate al-Darbi was made under President Barack Obama.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Annie Proulx (b.1935), American novelist, was named the recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Her books included "The Shipping News" (1993) and "Brokeback Mountain" (1997).
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.E2)
2018 May 2, The Arkansas Supreme Court said the state can enforce a voter ID law in the May 22 primary election, overruling a Pulaski County judge who had declared the measure unconstitutional.
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.A4)
2018 May 2, In Connecticut one person was killed and nine police officers injured in an explosion in a barn in North Haven. A woman had called police to report that she had escaped after being held hostage for several days.
(SFC, 5/4/18, p.A5)
2018 May 2, An aging C-130 Hercules that rescued and resupplied US citizens after last year's hurricanes crashed onto a Georgia highway during what was supposed to be its final flight, killing all nine Puerto Ricans on board.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Gibson Brands Inc., maker of Gibson guitars, filed for bankruptcy protection. Nashville-based Gibson was founded in 1894.
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.C3)
2018 May 2, Texas-based Boy Scouts of America announced a new name: Scouts BSA, to take effect in February.
(SFC, 5/3/18, p.A4)
2018 May 2, In Armenia protesters blocked roads and railways across the country, responding to a call from opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan for a campaign of civil disobedience to force the ruling elite to relinquish its grip on power.
(Reuters, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, The Basque militant group ETA, in a letter date April 16, said it has "completely dissolved all its structures" after a 60-year armed independence campaign. The Spanish government vowed not to abandon the investigation of crimes from the group's violent past.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, Britain's health minister apologized for what he called a "serious failure" that resulted in 450,000 women in England not being invited to a screening test for breast cancer.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, The Chinese state-backed documentary "Amazing China" portrayed the Huajian Group, which manufactured Ivanka Trump shoes, as a beneficent force spreading prosperity — in this case, by hiring thousands of Ethiopians at wages a fraction of what they'd have to pay in China. Huajian workers said they work without safety equipment for pay so low they can barely make ends meet.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In China PeppaPig, a cherubic British cartoon character, became an unlikely target of Internet censors as fans used her porcine likeness in rap videos and "gangster" tattoos.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, The European Union's executive branch proposed a budget to finance new priorities like defense and border control as well as compensating for Britain's departure from the bloc. Dutch PM Mark Rutte says the new seven-year budget is unacceptable because it will mean the Netherlands' EU bill will increase too much.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, Greek government officials vowed to reduce severe overcrowding at migrant camps on local islands, amid mounting protests that the migrant crisis has hurt the vital local tourism industry for a fourth successive summer.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh was hammered by more than 41,000 lightning strikes in a matter of hours. At least 14 people were killed.
(AFP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Residents of Kanpur reacted with dismay after the Indian city was found to have the worst air quality in a global World Health Organization survey that urged the nation to clean up its act. 14 Indian cities feature in the 15 cities with the dirtiest air in the WHO's global list.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In Iran a magnitude 5.3 earthquake injured at least 76 people and damaged buildings in the southwestern city of Sisakht.
(Reuters, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In Rome Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto (74), the interim leader of the Order of Malta, the world's oldest chivalric order, was elected as Grand Master for life. The influential mission was founded in Jerusalem and recognized by the pope in 1113.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In Kenya three rhinos were found dead with their horns missing in Rhino Sanctuary in Meru National Park. The country's Ministry of Tourism called it an act of poaching.
(Reuters, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, In Libya a suicide bomber and other militants attacked the election commission in Tripoli, killing at least 12 people. The Islamic state claimed responsibility for the twin suicide bombings.
(AP, 5/2/18)(Reuters, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, The Public Safety Department in Mexico's central state of Puebla said prosecutors and soldiers have raided a local police force and found that 113 of the 185 officers weren't policemen at all. The 113 faced charges equivalent to impersonating an officer. Some had presumably paid to avoid vetting and registration procedures.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, In Myanmar the judge in the trial of two Reuters journalists rejected a prosecution request to throw out the testimony of police Capt. Moe Yan Naing, who had told the court that the reporters, facing charges of possessing state secrets, had been set up by the authorities.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In northern Nigeria 13 people were killed over the last two days in prolonged clashes between cattle thieves and local civilian militia in Zamfara state.
(AP, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, Pakistani lawyer Jalila Haider ended her three-day hunger strike on Wednesday after the country's top general vowed to redouble efforts to protect the Shiite minority.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, Philippine defense and navy officials said they have completed the purchase of their first-ever ship-borne missile systems, boosting its maritime deterrent as part of a military modernization program. The Israeli-made Spike ER missiles were fitted on locally manufactured gunboats, known as multi-purpose attack craft.
(Reuters, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, In Somalia unidentified gunmen late today kidnapped German nurse Sonja Nientiet from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Mogadishu.
(Reuters, 5/3/18)
2018 May 2, In South Africa news media reported that staff member at Marakele Predator Center in Limpopo province has shot dead the male lion named Shamba after it mauled Michael Hodge, the proprietor of the facility, a day earlier. Hodge suffered neck and jaw injuries and was being treated at a Johannesburg hospital.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 2, Turkey lashed out at a debt downgrade by ratings agency S&P as dubiously timed less than two months ahead of elections and based on lackluster analysis.
(AFP, 5/2/18)
2019 May 2, Pres. Donald Trump moved to protect health care workers who object to procedures like abortion on moral or religious grounds. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera immediately filed suit in federal court to block the new rule.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A10)
2019 May 2, More than 200 of the world's top female hockey players declared they will not compete in North America next season in a dramatic attempt to establish a single, economically viable professional league.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned under pressure amid a flurry of investigations into whether she arranged bulk sales of her self-published children's books to disguise hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, It was reported that NYC is now providing free phone calls from jails, making it the first US city to eliminate fees for inmate calls.
(SFC, 5/2/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, In New York City Najibullah Zazi (33) was sentenced to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to terrorism related charges. He had plotted in 2010 to bomb the city's subways, then switched sides after his arrest and helped the US identify and prosecute terrorists. The sentence effectively matched time he had already served in prison.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, At the Texas border a 10-month old baby was found dead and three others were feared drowned after their raft flipped overnight on the Rio Grande as they tried to cross the border near Del Rio.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, In Houston Alberto Nduli (68) died while trying to stop a driver from repossessing his SUV. Oscar Lee Harrison Jr., the tow truck driver, was at the scene after he dropped of the SUV and returned.
(SFC, 5/6/19, p.A5)
2019 May 2, Beyond Meat, a purveyor of vegan burgers and sausages, began trading on the NASDAQ in an IPO at $25 per share and closed at 65.75.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.D1)
2019 May 2, An Afghan grand council agreed on several recommendations for peace talks with the Taliban, after four days of meetings in Kabul meant to hammer out a common strategy for future negotiations.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Benin hundreds of protesters manning burning barricades defied police and soldiers, after violence broke out following controversial parliamentary polls held without a single opposition candidate.
(AFP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Scientists reported that a fossilized chunk of jawbone found by a monk in a Chinese cave nearly 40 years ago has been revealed as coming from the Denisovans, a mysterious relative of the Neanderthals. The right half of a jawbone with teeth is at least 160,000 years old.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Cypriot justice minister Ionas Nicolaou resigned as criticism of police mounted for mistakes that may have led a serial killer claim more victims.
(SFC, 5/3/19, p.A2)
2019 May 2, The Czech Republic's central bank raised its key interest rate for the third time since June - by a quarter point to 2.00%, the highest level in more than 10 years.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, A Czech bus transporting prisoners caught fire after colliding with two trucks, one of them carrying two military tanks. A prison guard died in the crash.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, France and Germany unveiled details of a plan to create a leading electric battery industry in Europe, from the extraction of raw materials to recycling.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, A city in southern Germany became the first in the country to declare a "climate emergency," following similar moves in Canada, Britain and Switzerland. Aldermen in Konstanz voted unanimously to back a resolution promoting measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and transport.
(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 2, Hungary's PM Viktor Orban hosted hard-line Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and the two main opponents to immigration in Europe toured razor-wire fences at the Hungarian border.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In India hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated along the eastern coast as authorities braced for Cyclone Fani moving through the Bay of Bengal.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Indonesia a Polish tourist was sentenced to five years in prison for treason after meeting with Papuan independence supporters. Jakub Skrzypski denied any wrongdoing and said he was the victim of a show trial. Papuan student Simon Magal, who met Skrzypski and communicated with him on Facebook, was sentenced by the same court to four years in prison.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Libya forces allied with Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter (Haftar) detained Alahrar TV journalists Mohamed al-Qarg and Mohamed al-Shibani as they covered fighting in Tripoli. They were both released on May 24.
(AP, 5/3/19)(AP, 5/25/19)
2019 May 2, Myanmar security forces shot dead at least six people in the troubled western state of Rakhine, after soldiers and police detained hundreds of people at a school.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Poland some ten thousand young Jews from around the world joined Holocaust survivors and politicians for an annual Holocaust remembrance march between the two parts of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp that focuses on fighting anti-Semitism and hatred.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Former Puerto Rico Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón (82), who oversaw one of the US territory's most prosperous periods, died at his home in Puerto Rico. Hernández served as governor from 1973 to 1977 and again from 1985 to 1993.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, A ship with 300 passengers left St. Lucia late today after spending two days under quarantine. Authorities there said the ship's doctor requested 100 vaccines after a female crew member was diagnosed with measles. The 440-foot Freewinds ship is reportedly owned by the Church of Scientology.
(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 2, South Sudan's rival parties began two days of talks in Addis Ababa in a bid to salvage a peace deal, with just days left before a unity government is meant to be formed.
(AFP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters took part in a mass rally to step up pressure on the military to hand power to civilians following last month's overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Syrian and Russian forces intensified air strikes and shelling in rebel-held northwestern Syria overnight, the heaviest assault since the area was declared a demilitarized zone under a Russian-Turkish deal.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, In Tunisia fuel distribution workers began a three-day strike to demand higher wages, leading to long queues and empty pumps at petrol stations across the North African nation.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, A Turkish citizen who was wounded during deadly attacks at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15 died while undergoing surgery raising the death toll from the shooting to 51.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Ugandan pop star and lawmaker Bobi Wine, who is seeking to challenge veteran leader Yoweri Museveni for the presidency, was freed on bail after spending two days in jail on charges of staging unlawful protests.
(Reuters, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, The UN's migration agency said at least eight Africa migrants have died in makeshift camps in war-hit Yemen of complications related to acute watery diarrhea at the Ibn Khaldoon Hospital in Lahj.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 2, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called on the armed forces to oppose "any coup plotter" after a failed military uprising by forces supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido.
(AFP, 5/2/19)
2020 May 2, President Trump tweeted that he is "glad" to see North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "is back, and well" after a three week absence from public.
(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, California to date had 52,237 cases of coronavirus and 2,134 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,319 cases and 305 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,107,815 with the death toll at 65,068. The United States suffered its largest daily fatality increase after recording 2,909 deaths in 24 hours.
(sfist.com, 5/2/20)(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, In Texas a Houston police department helicopter crashed into an apartment complex. One police officer was killed, and another was in critical condition.
(Good Morning America, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Washington state reported that Yakima County had 1,203 positive cases of the coronavirus, a rate of 455 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the state. The county has a large number of people in the agriculture and food processing industries. Many live and work in close quarters, which can spread the disease.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that scientists have since embarked on a full-scale hunt for the Asian giant hornets, worried that the invaders could decimate bee populations in the United States and establish such a deep presence that all hope for eradication could be lost. Two of the predatory insects were discovered last fall in the northwest corner of Washington State.
(NY Times, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Australian health officials said a small coronavirus cluster has emerged at a meat factory in the state of Victoria, as parts of the country started easing social distancing restrictions after suppressing the infection rate to below 1 %. Victoria reported seven new cases, three of which were related to a meat-processing facility. A total of 8 employees have tested positive.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Brazil a Supreme Court judge issued an injunction suspending for 10 days a move by the right-wing government to expel Venezuela's 30 diplomats and consular staff.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Brazil there have been 4,970 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 421 deaths over the last 24 hours. The nation has now registered 95,559 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,750 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that Inmates at a prison in Manaus, Brazil, a city deep in the Amazon that has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, have taken seven prison guards hostage. Local television stations cited a video allegedly recorded by an unidentified inmate, who complained of sweltering heat and a lack of electricity in the prison.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that a top British hospital will use blood plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients as part of a trial that transfuses plasma from recovered people into sick people to give their immune systems a boost to fight the virus.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, The northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, struggling with the country's biggest coronavirus cluster, shut dine-in services, as the rest of China eases restrictions designed to hamper the spread of the disease. China reported two new coronavirus cases for today, up from one the day before. The number of confirmed cases in China has reached 82,877. With no new deaths reported, the death toll remained at 4,633. The Harbin cases outbreak was traced to a to a Chinese student who flew from America in March.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.33)
2020 May 2, Egyptian authorities said they have relocated four ancient sphinxes to Tahrir Square, the congested traffic circle in the heart of Cairo. The sphinxes will remain inside wooden boxes until the official unveiling of renovations.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Egyptian filmmaker Shady Habash (22), detained without trial for over two years for making a music video that mocked President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, died at Cairo’s maximum-security Tora Prison complex.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, The French health ministry said travelers to France, including French citizens returning home, will face a compulsory two-week quarantine and possible isolation when they arrive in the country to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that India has mandated that all public and private sector employees use a government-backed Bluetooth tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as New Delhi begins easing some of its lockdown measures in lower-risk areas.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Indian troops in Kashmir entered a house in the Handwara area late today and successfully extricated a number of hostages held by militants. Five Indian troops and two militants were killed in the fighting.
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A2)
2020 May 2, Indonesia recorded 292 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 10,843. 31 new deaths took the total number of fatalities to 831.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Iran's death toll from the coronavirus increased by 65 in the past 24 hours to 6,156. Total diagnosed cases reached 96,448, up by 802 in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Iraq Islamic State militants killed at least 10 militiamen of Popular Mobilization Forces in a coordinated assault overnight near the central city of Samarra.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Ireland said it will allow firms impacted by the coronavirus crisis to warehouse tax liabilities for 12 months, offering a "lifeline" as part of an additional package of business supports that could reach 6.5 billion euros.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Several thousand Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv, demonstrating against PM Benjamin Netanyahu's new coalition deal with his chief rival a day before the country's Supreme Court is to begin debating a series of legal challenges to the agreement.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic jumped by 474, against 269 the day before. The daily tally of new infections was broadly stable for a third day running at 1,900 against 1,965 a day earlier. The total death toll now stands at 28,710. The total number of confirmed cases amounted to 209,328, the third highest global tally behind those of the US and Spain.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who is the ruling party’s candidate in October’s presidential election, was evacuated to France for medical checks Ivory Coast has recorded more than 1,300 cases of the coronavirus, one of the highest totals in West Africa, and 15 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, Lesotho lawmakers and South African mediators said that legislation awaiting assent from the king will see PM Thabane (80), suspected of killing his ex-wife, leave office soon.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Malaysia senior Minister Ismail Sabri defended the detention of more than 580 immigrants in an operation in Kuala Lumpur. He said all tested negative for the coronavirus and have been sent to detention camps. Malaysia has 6,176 virus cases and 103 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020 May 2, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 445 to 40,236. 94 new deaths took the total COVID-19 fatalities to 4,987.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, New Zealand recorded one new coronavirus death, bringing the toll to 20. There were two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections, that raised the total to 1,134.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Pakistan recorded its highest single-day increase in new coronavirus infections with 1,297 new cases, bringing the total to 18,114. The increase coincided with a growing number of daily tests.
(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020 May 2, The Philippines said it has recorded 156 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 24 more deaths, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 8,928 and the fatalities to 603.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow, where the mayor threatened to cut the number of travel permits.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In South Africa thousands of people stood in line for hours in a South African township waiting for handouts of food. The scene has repeated for days.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Spain joggers, cyclists and surfers across the country emerged from their homes, with adults allowed out for exercise for the first time in seven weeks as the government began easing tough coronavirus restrictions.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In northeastern Syria imprisoned members of the Islamic State group rioted and took control of a prison in Hassakeh for several hours. By the following day Kurdish-led authorities negotiated an end to the unrest.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, Thailand reported six new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,966. Since Thailand first detected the coronavirus in January, a total of 54 patients have died.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2021 May 2, In southern California at least three people were killed and more than two dozen were hospitalized after a small cabin cruiser capsized and appeared to have broken apart off Point Loma.
(The Week, 5/3/21)(Reuters, 8/20/21)
2021 May 2, California to date had 3,718,778 cases of coronavirus and 61,513 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 436,080 cases and 6,276 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 32,399,512 with the death toll at 576,797.
(sfist.com, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station off the coast of Panama City, Florida, making the first US crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, It was reported that the Earth's axis is being shifted due to human activities causing the climate emergency. The redistribution of water resources started in the 1990s as global heating began to melt glaciers sending much of the runoff into the oceans.
(SSFC, 5/2/21, p.A16)
2021 May 2, In Afghanistan gasoline tanker trucks burst into flames in Kabul overnight, killing at least seven people and starting large fires that caused power cuts to some parts of the capital.
(Reuters, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Dubai's budget carrier flydubai reported a loss of $194 million in 2020 as revenue fell by more than 50% in what it described as one of the toughest years in the aviation industry.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Prominent German philosopher Juergen Habermas (91) said he will not accept the high-priced Sheikh Zayed Book Award from the United Arab Emirates, reversing an earlier decision.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, A New Delhi court said it would start punishing public officials for failing to deliver a steady supply of oxygen and other materials needed to save lives during India's devastating coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, In India prominent government critic Mamata Banerjee won a third term as the chief minister of West Bengal with a strong majority of 216 seats in the 294-seat assembly.
(The Guardian, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, An unnamed Iranian official claimed that a deal had been finalized where Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe would be released as soon as the UK repays a 1970s-era arms debt. He also claimed that Tehran and Washington have agreed on a deal to swap prisoners and to release Iranian funds held in the United States. The US promptly dismissed the reports as false. UK Foreign Office minister James Cleverly suggested this was deliberate misinformation.
(The Telegraph, 5/2/21)(The Telegraph, 5/3/21)
2021 May 2, Gunmen in a passing car opened fire at Israelis standing at a major intersection in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, injuring three of them. The assailants reportedly escaped in a car with Palestinian license plates.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Lebanese authorities said they have arrested two brothers suspected of smuggling drugs in pomegranate shipments to Saudi Arabia, leading the kingdom to ban Lebanese fruits and vegetables.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, At least 11 people drowned when a rubber dinghy carrying two dozen Europe-bound migrants capsized off Libya.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Malaysia said it has detected its first case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant first identified in India, days after imposing a ban on flights from India.
(Reuters, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, North Korea warned the United States will face “a very grave situation" because President Joe Biden “made a big blunder" in his recent speech by calling the North a security threat and revealing his intent to maintain a hostile policy against it.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree granting amnesty and reducing sentences for several categories of crime committed before May 2.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 2, Thailand's Health Ministry reported 1,940 new coronavirus cases, while deaths hit 21 for a second day, the highest daily number of fatalities since the pandemic began.
(Reuters, 5/2/21)
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