On May 2, 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France.
In 1863 Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he died eight days later.
In 1936 “Peter and the Wolf,” a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow.
In 1957 Joseph McCarthy, the controversial Republican senator from Wisconsin, died in Bethesda, Md. He was 48.
In 1960 rapist-robber and author Caryl Chessman was executed at San Quentin Prison in California.
In 1965 the “Early Bird” satellite was used to transmit TV pictures across the Atlantic.
In 1972, after 48 years as head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington; he was 77.
In 1987 Alysheba won the 113th Kentucky Derby to earn a record $618,600.
In 1994 Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa’s first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.
In 1995 President Bill Clinton agreed to allow 20,000 Cubans into the U.S. after months of detention at Guantanamo Bay, but he said any more Cubans who fled their country would be forcibly repatriated.
In 2000 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.
