2 May 1918
- The Supreme War Council proposed that those Czech Legion units that have not yet made their way to Vladivostok, Russia should instead turn northwards to link up with the Allied forces from Archangel to establish a new eastern front line. The proposal was put to the Bolshevik authorities in Moscow by the French Military Mission and after some discussion Trotsky gave his consent.
2 May 1924
- A Douglas DT-2 torpedo bomber was launched from the carrier USS Langley, while the ship was at anchor in Pensacola Bay, Florida, United States.
» In-depth article
2 May 1925
- Douglas MacArthur returned to the United States from the Philippine Islands to take command of the IV Corps Area based at Fort McPherson, Atlanta, Georgia.
» In-depth article
2 May 1927
- Ira Eaker completed the 35,200 km Pan American Goodwill Flight around South America, winning the one of the Mackay Trophies.
» In-depth article - Photos dated 2 May 1927
2 May 1932
- USS S-31 departed Manila, Luzon, Philippine Islands for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii.
» In-depth article - USS S-35 departed the Philippine Islands for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii to join the Pacific Fleet.
» In-depth article
2 May 1933
- Hitler's Government dissolved the main Trade Union association, The German Free Trade Unions, occupied all its offices with the help of the SA and sequestrated its funds.
- Franklin Roosevelt established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which closely managed agricultural production in the United States, which included the policy of destroying excess farm supply to control prices.
» In-depth article
2 May 1935
- With the announcement that Germany was rearming, and the failure of a French plan to create an alliance of Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union, France concluded a separate alliance with the Soviet Union.
2 May 1940
- German forces reached Aandalesnes, Norway. In southern Norway, British troops began to withdraw, but continued to fight in the north to interrupt the flow of iron to Germany. British Vice Admiral John Cunningham arrived in Namsos, Norway with 3 cruisers, 5 destroyers, and 3 transports to aid with the evacuation of the British 146th Brigade; German aircraft attempted to interfere, damaging HMS Maori with a near miss, killing 5 and wounding 18; through the end of the night, 5,350 men were embarked.
» In-depth article - Mussolini offered that Italy would not go to war with the United States if the United States would stay out of Europe.
- 93 German combat divisions prepared to invade France and the Low Countries.
» In-depth article
2 May 1941
- Sandstorms at Tobruk, Libya limited the offensive capabilities of German tanks on this date. 100 kilometers to the west, British gunboat HMS Ladybird bombarded Axis positions at Derna.
» In-depth article - British ship Parracombe, with 21 crated Hurricane fighters on board for Malta, hit a mine and sank off Cape Bon, Tunisia.
- At 0500 hours, during Muslim morning prayers, 33 British aircraft from RAF Habbaniya and 8 Wellington bombers from RAF Shaibah attacked the Iraqi artillery positions which had been threatening RAF Habbaniya for the past two days. Iraq troops responded by shelling RAF Habbaniya, killing 13 and wounding 29. Elsewhere, RAF aircraft attacked the Rashid airfield near Baghdad, Iraq, destroying 22 aircraft on the ground. The RAF lost 5 aircraft in Iraq on this date.
» In-depth article - The British Royal Navy commissioned convoy escort ship HMS Lulworth, a former US Coast Guard Cutter, into service at New York, United States. She was manned by former crew members of battleship HMS Resolution, which was under repair in the US at the time.
- After sundown, German bombers attacked Liverpool, England, United Kingdom for the second consecutive night.
» In-depth article - British minesweeping trawler HMT Alberic and destroyer HMS St. Albans collided in Pentland Firth between the Orkney Islands and Britain. HMT Alberic sank with the loss of 13 crew. The HMS St. Albans sailed to Southampton, England, United Kingdom for repairs to her bow.
- British aircraft sank German anti-submarine trawler Vp 808 off the island of Borkum near the Dutch-German border.
- British destroyer HMS Jersey hit a mine and sank off Grand Harbour, Malta, killing 35 and wounding 48.
- A German memorandum noted that the plan to remove large quantities of food out of Eastern Europe to feed German civilians and military personnel would likely result in the starvation of millions of Eastern Europeans especially through the winter. The plan would continue to be implemented, however.
2 May 1942
- The Japanese launched another aerial bombardment against the Australian seaplane base at Tulagi, Solomon Islands. Deducing that an invasion of coming soon, the Australian personnel evacuated the base after sundown.
» In-depth article - Roosevelt extended the Lend-Lease Act to include Iraq and Iran.
- German submarine U-402 sank US armed yacht Cythera 115 miles east of Cape Fear, North Carolina, United States, killing 69 of 71 aboard; the two survivors were captured by U-402 and taken to Germany as prisoners of war. During the day, the 36 survivors of Norwegian ship Bidevind, sunk by German submarine U-752 on the previous day off New York, United States, reached the US Coast Guard station near Toms River, New Jersey, United States by lifeboat. After sundown, at 2253 hours, U-66 sank Norwegian tanker Sandar 40 miles north of Trinidad; 3 were killed, 34 survived.
» In-depth article - Goebbels noted in his diary that the term "Baedecker attacks", named after a popular travel guide and used here to suggest that the German bombers targeted British cultural centers, should be banned by his propaganda ministry.
» In-depth article - The powder magazine of gun battery Geary on Corregidor in the Philippine Islands was hit by Japanese artillery at 1627 hours, detonating 1,600 62-pound powder bags; 56 were killed and hundreds were wounded. To the east, in Manila Bay, river gunboat USS Mindanao was scuttled to prevent capture.
» In-depth article - The BI-1 rocket-powered prototype aircraft successfully underwent a low-power test at Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, lifting the aircraft about one meter off the ground.
» In-depth article - Dr. H. V. Evatt, the Australian representative to the British War Cabinet and the Pacific War Council arrived in the United Kingdom.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-573, seriously damaged by aerial depth charges from a British Hudson aircraft on the previous day, arrived at Cartagena, Spain. The submarine and her crew were interned by the Spanish authorities.
- German submarine U-74, dispatched to rescue the damaged submarine U-573, was attacked and sunk by British destroyers HMS Wishart and HMS Wrestler 60 miles southeast of Cartagena, Spain; all 47 aboard were killed.
- 1st Burma Division unsuccessfully attacked Japanese 33rd Infantry Division at Monywa, Burma on the Chindwin River.
» In-depth article - British destroyer HMS St Albans and minesweeper HMS Seagull, while escorting Allied convoy PQ 15, attacked an ASDIC contact 200 miles northwest of Tromsø, Norway. As the target surfaced, she turned out to be Polish submarine Jastrzab, which suffered serious damage and 5 killed. The submarine was written off and scuttled shortly after the 35 survivors were taken off. On the same day, German torpedo bombers attacked PQ 15, sinking freighters Cape Corso, Jutland, and Botavon.
- Tatsuta Maru departed Kirun (now Keelung), Taiwan.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement - USS Pollack departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her third war patrol.
» In-depth article - Already-damaged HMS Edinburgh, carrying £5,000,000 worth of Soviet gold meant as payment for US weapons and other war supplies, was attacked by German destroyers Z.7 Hermann Schoemann, Z.24, and Z.25. She heavily damaged destroyer Z.7 Hermann Schoemann (which would be scuttled at 0830 hours), but also suffered a torpedo hit which killed 57. Now structurally unsound, she was scuttled by HMS Harrier and HMS Foresight. The gold also went to the bottom of the Barents Sea.
» In-depth article - Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Kure, Japan.
» In-depth article - USS Flying Fish arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii.
» In-depth article - USS Drum sank Japanese seaplane carrier Mizuho 90 miles southeast of Tokyo, Japan at 0416 hours; 101 were killed, 472 survived.
» In-depth article - USS Trout sank Japanese freighter Uzan Maru 134 miles southwest of Tokyo, Japan.
» In-depth article - Photos dated 2 May 1942
2 May 1943
- Viktor Lutze, head of the SA, was killed by partisans; he was succeeded by Wilhelm Scheppmann. The cause of death was officially stated as an automobile accident.
- Japanese aircraft conducted a raid on Darwin, Australia.
- The RAF Bomber Command reported to the British Air Ministry that it currently had 725 ready crews for operations; the number included 129 crews of Wellington bombers and 250 crews for Lancaster bombers.
» In-depth article - The Japanese Southeast Detached Force was established for the defense of the Solomon Islands, with its base in Rabaul.
- Franklin Roosevelt informed George Marshall that he was going to approve the supplies Chiang Kaishek requested without any caveats, which included 500 planes and 10,000 tons of supplies to be delivered over the Hump.
» In-depth article - Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Rabaul, New Britain.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement - USS Gar reported sinking a Japanese ship in daylight with her deck gun.
» In-depth article - USS Skipjack attacked a Japanese transport in the Pacific Ocean; all four torpedoes missed.
» In-depth article - Photos dated 2 May 1943
2 May 1944
- 54-year-old Leonard Dawe, a teacher, compiled a cross-puzzle which was published in the Daily Telegraph on this date. He was put under MI5 investigation as the crossword puzzle contained the code names of the American landing beaches in Normandy, France.
» In-depth article - Two transports arrived at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp with 1,800 Jews from Budapest, Hungary and 2,000 from Topolya, Yugoslavia. 1,102 were registered into the camp, and the remaining 2,698 were sent to the gas chambers.
» In-depth article
2 May 1945
- Wilhelm Burgdorf passed away.
» In-depth article - British Second Army reached Lübeck, Germany.
- German forces allowed the passage of convoys carrying relief supplies to civilians in occupied Netherlands. On the same day, 400 American B-17 bombers dropped food and other supplies over the Netherlands.
- British government announced that London, England, United Kingdom was now a "Go Home" area, ending the nearly six-year evacuation.
- General Weidling accepted General Chuikov's terms of unconditional surrender; the surrender of the Berlin garrison was to be effective at 1500 hours. On the same day, the Soviet Hammer and Sickle flag was hoisted atop the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany.
» In-depth article - A group of German rocket scientists including von Braun and Dornberger surrendered to US troops.
- Commandant Rahm of the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp relinquished control of the camp to the International Red Cross.
» In-depth article - In Burma, Indian 26th Division of the Anglo-Indian XV Corps made an amphibious landing near Rangoon, Burma. To the north, Indian 17th Division secured Pegu and advanced toward Rangoon; it would not beat Indian 26th Division in the race for Rangoon.
» In-depth article - Ann Baumgartner married Major William Carl and adopted her husband's last name.
» In-depth article - Soviet troops captured Rechlin-Lärz Airfield in Rechlin, Pomerania, Germany, a Luftwaffe test site.
- Field Marshal Alexander accepted the surrender of the Axis forces in Southern Europe. Over 1,000,000 men in northern Italy and Austria laid down their arms.
» In-depth article - The US coastal minesweeper YMS-481 was sunk by Japanese shore batteries off Tarakan, Borneo.
- The Japanese-sponsored puppet state Manchukuo issued its last postage stamps.
- A group of prominent prisoners of war were transferred from the camp at Laufen in southern Germany to a camp at Markt Pongau near Salzburg in occupied Austria, where they would be treated respectfully by SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger who wished to curry favor as the war was coming to an end.
- Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Kure, Japan.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement - Air Group 87 arrived aboard USS Ticonderoga at Pearl Harbor.
» In-depth article - U-977 departed Kristiansand, Norway on her first and only war patrol.
» In-depth article - USS Trepang surfaced to shell a sampan, but later called off the attack and allowed the boat to leave.
» In-depth article - USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese vessel in the Gulf of Siam; all torpedoes missed.
» In-depth article - USS Pompon attacked a small Japanese boat off Taiwan with her deck gun; the boat escaped without damage.
» In-depth article - USS Hawkbill fired three torpedoes into Japanese minelayer Hatsutaka, which she had damaged on the previous day, sinking her.
» In-depth article - Photos dated 2 May 1945
See all photos dated 2 May 1945
2 May 1946
- Lansdowne was decommissioned from service.
» In-depth article - Bailey was decommissioned from service.
» In-depth article
2 May 1955
- Alexander Hore-Ruthven passed away.
» In-depth article
2 May 1969
- Franz von Papen passed away.
» In-depth article
2 May 2007
- The Investigative Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property, an official Korean government body, announced a plan to seize land assets from descendents of nine Koreans who obtained the land from the Japanese occupation government through their collaboration. These assets amounted to 3,600,000,000 Won (about US$3,900,000).
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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