2 May 406

Russo-Ukrainian War: Forty-eight people were killed during a confrontation between pro-Russian protesters and pro-Ukrainian unity protesters in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

Two mudslides in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, killed at least 350 people.

Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six in his private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Chaitén volcano in Chile began to erupt for the first time since around 1640.

Cyclone Manou formed in the Indian Ocean; over the next two weeks it struck Madagascar and left more than 100,000 people homeless.

Mireya Moscoso (pictured) became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.

Croatian War of Independence: Serb forces began rocket attacks on the Croatian capital Zagreb, killing 7 people and injuring around 200 others.

Henri Toivonen was killed in an accident while leading the Tour de Corse rally, resulting in FISA banning the popular Group B rally cars for the following season.

Falklands War: HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano (pictured), the only ship ever to have been deliberately sunk by a nuclear submarine in battle.

Vietnam War: An explosion attributed to Viet Cong commandos caused the escort carrier USNS Card to sink in the port of Saigon.

World War II: General Helmuth Weidling, the German commander of Berlin, surrendered to Soviet forces led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, ending the Battle of Berlin.

A dust explosion (depicted) at the world's largest flour mill in Minneapolis resulted in 18 deaths.

A royal charter granted the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly in the fur trade in Rupert's Land (present-day Canada).

Presbyterian clergyman John Knox returned from exile to lead the Scottish Reformation.

King Richard I of England gave the city of Portsmouth its first royal charter.

Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing.

A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for a work of art at auction.

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted fugitive, is killed by the United States Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others are taken ill.

Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.

Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.

President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.

Panamanian general election: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.

The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.