This Day in History 02/05
MAY 2ND
1885 – Congo Free State formed by King Leopold II of Belgium
1927 – Intl Economic Conference (52 countries including USSR) opens
1964 – First ascent of Shishapangma the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders.
1990 – South Africa & African National Congress open talks to end apartheid
1998 – The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union’s monetary policy.
1999 – Panamanian election, 1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
2004 – Yelwa massacre of more than 630 nomad Muslims by Christians in Nigeria.
2011 – Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI’s most wanted man is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan
2011 – The 2011 E. coli O104:H4 outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others sick from the bacteria outbreak.
2012 – Barcelona football player Lionel Messi breaks the European goal-scoring record with 68 goals
2013 – 60 miners are killed after a gold mine collapses in Jebel Amir, North Darfur, Sudan
FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS
1729 – Catherine the Great [Catherine II], Stettin, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia, Empress of Russia (1762-96)
1892 – Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen [The Red Baron], Breslau, German World War I fighter ace
1972 – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, American professional wrestler and actor
1975 – David Robert Joseph BeckhamEnglish former footballer
1985 – Lily Allen, English singer and songwriter
FAMOUS DEATHS
1519 – Leonardo Da Vinci, artist/scientist, dies at 67
1957 – Joseph McCarthy, anti-communist US senator (R-Wisc), dies at 48
1972 – J. Edgar Hoover, first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1924-72) dies at 77
2005 – Wee Kim Wee, 4th President of Singapore (b. 1915)
2011 – Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda and ‘the most wanted man in the world’ (b. 1957)
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