May 2 Birthday
On May 2, 1536, Anne Boleyn was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. She had been queen for three years. Henry VIII had been captivated by her, broken with Rome, and transformed England to marry her. Now, having failed to produce a male heir, she was accused of treason, adultery, and incest with her brother. The charges were fabricated — or at least, unsupported by evidence. The court musician Mark Smeaton was tortured into a confession; the others denied everything. Anne was beheaded on May 19 by a French swordsman specially imported for the occasion. She was thirty-five. Her daughter, Elizabeth, would become the greatest monarch in English history. In 1933, the Inverness Courier published a story about a couple who had seen "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface" of Loch Ness. It was the first modern report of the monster. The story was picked up by the national press, and within months, dozens of sightings were reported. The most famous photograph, the "surgeon's photograph" of 1934, showed a long neck rising from the water — it was revealed to be a hoax in 1994, a toy submarine with a sculpted head. Loch Ness is 23 miles long, 788 feet deep, and contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined. It is large enough to contain something unknown, which is why the legend persists despite the absence of evidence. The de Havilland Comet entered service on May 2, 1952, with BOAC flying from London to Johannesburg. It was the first commercial jet airliner. The Comet could carry 36 passengers at 500 mph, cutting the London-New York flight from fifteen hours to ten. The Comet had square windows, and the stress concentrations at the corners caused metal fatigue. Two Comets disintegrated in flight — one in 1953 and one in 1954 — killing fifty-six people. The Comet was grounded, redesigned with oval windows, and relaunched, but it had lost the market to Boeing, whose 707 entered service in 1958. The investigation into the Comet crashes led to the modern science of metal fatigue and changed how every aircraft is designed. Catherine the Great, born this day in 1729 as Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, was a German princess who married the Russian heir, Peter III, and learned Russian overnight to gain acceptance. Peter was incompetent, alcoholic, and possibly mentally impaired. Catherine conspired with her lover, a military officer, to seize the throne. Peter was deposed and murdered — strangled by Catherine's supporters. Catherine ruled Russia for thirty-four years, expanded its borders, corresponded with Voltaire and Diderot, and collected art that founded the Hermitage. People born on May 2 fall under the zodiac sign of Taurus. The birthstone is Emerald and the birth flower is Lily of the Valley. Historical events on May 2 include 1536: Anne Boleyn arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, 1933: First modern reported sighting of the Loch Ness Monster, 1952: First commercial jet airliner (de Havilland Comet) enters service. Famous people born on May 2 include Catherine the Great (1729), Benjamin Spock (1903), David Beckham (1975).