Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on May 2nd?

The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is laid by Pope Julius II.

Henry VIII has his second wife, Anne Boleyn, arrested and sent to the Tower of London. She was charged with adultery, incest, and treason. After a sham trial filled with Anne’s enemies, she was found guilty, on charges of adultery, incest, conspiracy and high treason against the king. She was convicted on May 15 and beheaded four days later. More

The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis is signed, ending the Italian Wars and establishing peace between France and Spain.

The Authorized Version of the Bible (King James Version) was first published, and became the standard English language Bible.

King Charles II of England grants a permanent royal charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company, made up of a group of French explorers, giving it the right of "sole trade and commerce" control of today's Canada entire Hudson Bay drainage basin and naming the territory Rupert's Land, after his cousin Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the company's first governor. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), is the oldest continually operating company in the world. More

The Hudson's Bay Company is chartered by King Charles II, granting it a monopoly over the fur trade in the region of Hudson Bay in North America.

The first article attracting a great deal of attention about the Loch Ness “Monster” is published in the Inverness Courier. The article by Alex Campbell, water bailiff for Loch Ness and a part-time journalist, describes a large "beast" or "whale-like fish" sighted by Aldie Mackay; an enormous creature with the body of a whale rolling in the water in the loch while she and her husband John were driving on the A82 on April 15, 1933.
Today, evidence of its existence is considered anecdotal, with a number of disputed photographs and sonar readings. The scientific community explains alleged sightings of the Loch Ness Monster as hoaxes, wishful thinking, and the misidentification of mundane objects. More

An attempted prison escape by six inmates at Alcatraz resulted in two days of violent fighting, which became known as the Battle of Alcatraz. The six prisoners were able to overpower cellhouse officers and gain access to weapons and cellhouse keys, in effect taking control of the cellhouse. The U.S. Marines were eventually called out to assist, and on May 4, the escape attempt ended. Two officers were shot and killed and 18 other officers were injured during the escape attempt. Three of the inmates attempting the escape were also killed. More about Alcatraz.

Osama bin Laden, founder of the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda is killed by US forces in Pakistan. Osama bin Laden—He was the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack and numerous others.