Today in History - History - May 2nd

1941Ted Williams lowest average (.308) in year he hit over .400

1982Beth Daniel wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic

1194King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.

2011Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man is killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

1933In Germany, Adolf Hitler bans trade unions

1900George Bernard Shaw's "You Never Can Tell" premieres in London

1906Tsar Nicolas II of Russia dismisses his moderate Prime Minister Witte and appoints Ivan Goremykin, a conservative bureaucrat

1929Billie Holiday (14) and her mother are arrested for prostitution following a raid of a brothel in Harlem

1954Stan Musial hits 5 HRs in a doubleheader

1865US President Johnson offers $100,000 reward for capture of Jefferson Davis

1972Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, American professional wrestler and actor

1797Abraham Gesner, Cornwallis Nova Scotia, Canadian geologist (inventor of kerosene)

1892Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen [The Red Baron], Breslau, German World War I fighter ace

1985Lily Allen, English singer and songwriter

1903Benjamin Spock, New Haven, Connecticut, American pediatrician (Common Sense Book of Baby Care)

1729Catherine the Great [Catherine II], Stettin, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia, Empress of Russia (1762-96)

2009Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal (32) weds film and stage actor Peter Sarsgaard (38) in a small chapel in Brindisi, Italy

1946"Rebecca" actress Joan Fontaine (28) weds producer and actor William Dozier (38)

1957Joseph McCarthy, anti-communist US senator (R-Wisc), dies at 48

1972J. Edgar Hoover, first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1924-72) dies at 77

2011Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda and 'the most wanted man in the world' (b. 1957)

1519Leonardo da Vinci, artist/scientist, dies at 67