Today’s Highlights

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.

On this date

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

1960: The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

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

1971: The national passenger rail service Amtrak went into operation.

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.

2015: Six Baltimore police officers were charged with felonies ranging from assault to murder in connection with the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who’d suffered a spinal injury while riding in a police van. (None of the officers would ultimately be convicted.)

Today’s birthdays

Singer Judy Collins is 86. Singer Rita Coolidge is 80. Filmmaker John Woo is 79. Actor Dann Florek is 75. Musician Ray Parker Jr. is 71. Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen is 65. Singer-actor Tim McGraw is 58. Filmmaker Wes Anderson is 56.