Today in History - History - May 2nd

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

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

1939Lou Gehrig ends 2,130 consecutive game streak, Yanks beat Tigers 22-2

1957Gangster Frank Costello escapes an assassination attempt made by rival mobsters

1999John Elway announces his retirement from the NFL

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

1909Honus Wagner steals his way around bases in 1st inning against Cubs

1954Stan Musial hits 5 HRs in a doubleheader

2012Barcelona football player Lionel Messi breaks the European goal-scoring record with 68 goals

1938Ella Fitzgerald records "A-Tisket, A-Tasket"

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

1985Lily Allen, English singer and songwriter

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

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

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)

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)

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

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