Today is Wednesday, May 2, the 123rd day of 2012. There are 243 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the face of global terrorism and architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was killed in a firefight with elite American forces at his Pakistan compound, then quickly buried at sea in a stunning finale to a furtive decade on the run. On this date:

In 1519, artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France, at age 67.

In 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Co. was chartered by England’s King Charles II.

In 1863, Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall’’ Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he died eight days later.

In 1890, the Oklahoma Territory was organized.

In 1932, Jack Benny’s first radio show, sponsored by Canada Dry, made its debut on the NBC Blue Network.

In 1936, “Peter and the Wolf,’’ a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow.

In 1945, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.

In 1952, the era of commercial jet passenger service began as a BOAC de Havilland Comet carrying 36 passengers took off on a multi-stop flight from London to Johannesburg, South Africa.

In 1957, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

In 1960, Caryl Chessman, who’d become a best-selling author and cause celebre while on death row for kidnapping, rape and robbery, was executed at San Quentin Prison in California.

In 1972, a fire at the Sunshine silver mine in Kellogg, Idaho, claimed the lives of 91 workers who succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. Longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77.