On May 2, 1863, during the Civil War, Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Virginia; he died eight days later.

In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, upheld 8-1 a Virginia law allowing the forced sterilization of people in order to promote the “health of the patient and the welfare of society.”

In 1994, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa’s first democratic elections.

In 1997, Tony Blair, whose Labour Party crushed John Major’s long-reigning Conservatives in a national election, became Britain’s youngest prime minister in 185 years, at age 43.

In 2022, a draft was leaked of a Supreme Court ruling throwing out the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling. The decision would be released in essentially the same form the following month.