1941: Following the coup d'état against Iraq Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah earlier that year, the United Kingdom launches the Anglo-Iraqi War to restore him to power.
1945: World War II: Italian Campaign: General Heinrich von Vietinghoff signs the official instrument of surrender of all Wehrmacht forces in Italy.
1945: World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death.
1945: World War II: A death march from Dachau to the Austrian border[1] is halted by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.[2]
1952: The world's first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden flight, from London to Johannesburg.
1963: Berthold Seliger launches a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres near Cuxhaven. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
1964: Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the American aircraft carrier USS Card while it is docked at Saigon. A North Vietnamese frogman had placed a bomb on the ship. She is raised and returned to service less than seven months later.
2000: President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.
2004: The Yelwa massacre concludes. It began on 4 February 2004 when armed Muslims killed 78 Christians at Yelwa. In response, about 630 Muslims were killed by Christians on May 2nd.
2008: Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.
2008: Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.
2011: Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
2011: An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others sick from the bacteria outbreak.
2011: The 41st Canadian federal election is held, in which the governing Conservative Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper, increases their number of seats from a minority to a majority.
2012: 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.