On This Day - 2nd May
1194
King Richard I gave Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. The date that such a charter was granted is considered to be when a city was founded.
1536Anne Boleyn, second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was sent to the Tower of London, accused of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft. She was executed 17 days later.
1559Scottish clergyman John Knox returned from exile to become the leader of the 'Scottish Reformation'. The movement led to the ousting of Mary of Guise, who governed the country in the name of her young daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.
1568Mary, Queen of Scots, escaped from Loch Leven Castle in Perth and Kinross with the help of her jailer's family. She was imprisoned there in 1567 and had been forced to abdicate as queen.
1611The Authorized Version of the Bible (King James Version) was first published and became the standard English language Bible.
1797A mutiny in the British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.
1933The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster was born when a sighting made local news. Several London newspapers sent correspondents to Scotland, and a circus offered a £20,000 reward for capture of the beast.
1942World War II: HMS Edinburgh was sunk in the Barents Sea off the Norwegian coast. Its cargo of gold bars lay in 800 feet of water until salvaged in 1981.
1952The world's first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1, set off from London to Johannesburg on its maiden flight.
1953Football legend Sir Stanley Matthews, at the age of 38, won an FA Cup winners' medal as Blackpool came back from trailing 3-1 to beat Bolton 4-3. In recognition of the impact he had on the match, it become known as the 'Matthews Final'.
1964The death of Nancy Astor, American born English politician and socialite and the first woman to take a seat in Parliament.
1965Britain's Early Bird satellite began transmitting TV programmes to more than 300 million viewers. The first programme was:- 'Out Of This World'.
1969The Cunard passenger liner Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) set sail from Southampton on its maiden voyage. One of the two QE2s 13 tonne anchors (see 
picture) was donated by Cunard to Southampton in March 2010 'to commemorate the long association between the city and this iconic liner'. (see 
picture). In March, 2017, a Dubai-based construction company announced that it had been contracted to refurbish the ship. On 18th April 2018 it opened to visitors, but with only five of the planned 13 restaurants and bars completed.
1982The Argentinean light cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Conqueror during the Falklands War. The crew of 368 seamen perished and there was considerable criticism in Britain as the ship was sailing outside the 200-mile exclusion zone at the time.
1997Following Tony Blair's victory in the general election, John Major announced that he was stepping down as leader of Britain's Conservative Party.
2010The death of actress Lynn Redgrave, OBE, daughter of actor Sir Michael Redgrave and sister to actress Vanessa Redgrave.
201471 year old Max Clifford, the 'master media manipulator and publicist' and the man behind many of the tabloid scoops of the previous 30 years was sentenced to 8 years in jail. He was found guilty, on 28th April 2014, of eight counts of indecent assault on women and girls as young as 15 over a period of 20 years. Clifford became the first person to be convicted under the high profile 'Operation Yewtree', sparked by abuse claims against Jimmy Savile.'
2015The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to her second child (Charlotte Elizabeth Diana), a sister to Prince George. She will be fourth in line to the throne.