Today in History: May 1, Obama announces killing of Osama bin Laden

Today is Friday, May 1, the 121st day of 2026. There are 244 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden during a U.S. commando operation, which took place in Abbottabad, Pakistan in the early morning hours of May 2 local time.

Also on this date:

In 1866, three days of race-related rioting erupted in Memphis, Tennessee, as white mobs targeted Black people, 46 of whom were killed, along with two whites.

In 1931, the Empire State Building was dedicated in New York City; it would be the world’s tallest building for four decades.

In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

In 1963, Jim Whittaker, joined by Sherpa mountaineer Nawang Gombu, became the first American to summit Mount Everest.

In 1964, the computer programming language BASIC (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was first run by its inventors, Dartmouth College professors John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz.

In 1971, the national passenger rail service Amtrak went into operation to bolster the declining privately-run intercity rail market.

In 2003, President George W. Bush declared that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended” in a speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which bore a banner reading “Mission Accomplished." (The last U.S. combat troops would not withdraw from Iraq until December 2011.)

In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI beatified Pope John Paul II, moving his predecessor a step closer to sainthood in a Vatican Mass attended by some 1.5 million pilgrims. (John Paul II would be declared a saint by Pope Francis at a canonization ceremony in...