Anniversaries 2 May

Birth

Robert Hall15

British Baptist pastor 1764–1831

Novalis102

German poet and writer 1772–1801

John Galt (novelist)7

British writer 1779–1839

Henry Martyn Robert1

United States Army general and Chief of Engineers 1837–1923

Jerome K. Jerome87

English humorist 1859–1927

Theodor Herzl11

Austro-Hungarian journalist and writer 1860–1904

Nannie Helen Burroughs1

American activist 1879–1961

Edvige Carboni2

Italian Mystic 1880–1952

Nikolai Krylenko7

Russian revolutionary, politician and chess organiser 1885–1938

Gottfried Benn1

German novelist, poet 1886–1956

E.E. "Doc" Smith1

Food engineer and author (1890-1965) 1890–1965

E. E. Smith1

Food engineer and author (1890-1965) 1890–1965

Lorenz Hart7

lyricist 1895–1943

Wilm Hosenfeld2

Righteous Among the Nations 1895–1952

Ernesto Grassi12

Italian philosopher 1902–1991

Benjamin Spock19

American pediatrician and author of Baby and Child Care 1903–1998

Doris Fisher3

American musician 1915–2003

Satyajit Ray8

Indian author, poet, composer, lyricist, filmmaker 1921–1992

Frank Honywill George9

British psychologist 1921–1997

B. B. Lal2

Indian archaeologist 1921

Michael Andrew Screech3

1926–2018

Joanna Macy2

American activist 1929

Martha Grimes2

American crime writer and literature professor 1931

Sumio Iijima1

Japanese nanotechnologist 1939

Robert S. Kaplan6

American accounting academic 1940

Bianca Jagger5

Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a form… 1945

José Luis Mollaghan1

Argentinian archbishop 1946

James Dyson1

British inventor, industrial designer and founder of the Dy… 1947

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick4

American academic 1950–2009

Tony Schwartz1

American writer 1952

Roger McNamee1

American musician 1956

Mohammed Omar6

Founder and former leader of the Taliban 1959–2013

Gjorge Ivanov12

President of Macedonia 1960

Edward Frenkel5

mathematician working in representation theory, algebraic g… 1968

Dwayne Johnson5

American actor and professional wrestler 1972

David Beckham2

English footballer 1975

Lily Allen6

English singer, songwriter, actress, and television present… 1985

Michelle Lambert5

American singer-songwriter and violinist 1985

Death

Athanasius of Alexandria7

Patriarch of Alexandria 295–373

Leonardo Da Vinci363

Italian Renaissance polymath 1452–1519

George Wither7

English poet 1588–1667

Hester Thrale4

Welsh author and salon-holder 1741–1821

William Beckford7

English novelist 1760–1844

James Gates Percival4

American geologis, poet, and surgeon 1795–1856

Alfred de Musset4

French writer 1810–1857

Tom Wills1

Australian sportsman 1835–1880

Gustav Landauer4

German anarchist 1870–1919

Robert Michels1

German sociologist 1876–1936

Franz von Papen10

German chancellor 1879–1969

Viktor Lutze5

SA Stabschef 1890–1943

William Moulton Marston21

American psychologist, lawyer, inventor and comic book writ… 1893–1947

J. Edgar Hoover8

American law enforcement officer and first director of the … 1895–1972

Martin Bormann6

Nazi leader and private secretary to Adolf Hitler 1900–1945

John C. Eccles12

Australian neurophysioloigst 1903–1997

Joseph McCarthy4

Wisconsin politician 1908–1957

Balraj Madhok2

Indian politician 1920–2016

Paulo Freire115

educator and philosopher 1921–1997

Caryl Chessman1

Convicted robber, kidnapper and rapist, writer 1921–1960

Marilyn French4

Novelist, critic 1929–2009

Ruth Rendell4

British writer 1930–2015

Augusto Boal14

Brazilian writer 1931–2009

Louis Rukeyser2

American journalist 1933–2006

Jack Kemp2

American football player, quarterback, U.S. Congressman 1935–2009

Rafael Hernández Colón2

Puerto Rican politician 1936–2019

Michael Blake1

American writer 1945–2015

Tibor Kalman1

American graphic designer 1949–1999

Osama bin Laden55

founder of al-Qaeda 1957–2011