May second

Today's Highlight in History:
On May second, 1863, Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Virginia; he died eight days later.

On this date:
In 1519, artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France.

In 1670, the Hudson Bay Company was chartered by England's King Charles the Second.

In 1890, the Oklahoma Territory was organized.

In 1936, "Peter and the Wolf," a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow.

In 1945, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.

In 1957, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the controversial Republican senator from Wisconsin, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

In 1960, convicted sex offender and best-selling author Caryl Chessman was executed at San Quentin Prison in California.

In 1965, the "Early Bird" satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.

In 1972, after serving 48 years as head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa's first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.

Ten years ago: The government of South Africa and the African National Congress opened their first formal talks aimed at paving the way for more substantive negotiations on dismantling apartheid.

Five years ago: President Clinton agreed to allow some 20-thousand Cubans into the United States after months of detention at Guantanamo Bay, but said any more Cubans who fled their country would be forcibly repatriated.

One year ago: Yugoslav authorities handed over to the Reverend Jesse Jackson three American prisoners of war who'd been held for a month. Actor Oliver Reed died in Malta at age 61.

"What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments have never learned anything from history."

-- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831).