Today is Sunday, May 2, the 123rd day of 2004. There are 243 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

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

On this date:

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

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

In 1890, the Oklahoma Territory was organized.

In 1932, Jack Benny’s first radio show 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 1957, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, the controversial Republican senator from Wisconsin, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

In 1960, convicted sex offender and best-selling author Caryl Chessman was executed at San Quentin Prison in California.

In 1965, the Early Bird satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.

In 1972, after serving 48 years as head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77.

Ten years ago: Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa’s first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.

Five years ago: Yugoslav authorities handed over to the Rev. Jesse Jackson three American prisoners of war who’d been held for a month. Actor Oliver Reed died in Malta at age 61.

One year ago: A federal court struck down most of the new campaign finance law’s ban on the use of large corporate and union contributions by political parties. (However, the Supreme Court later ruled that rooting out corruption, or even the appearance of it, justified limitations on the free speech and free spending of contributors, candidates and political parties.) India and Pakistan agreed to hold talks on settling a half-century of disputes that had drawn them into three wars.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Theodore Bikel is 80. Actor Roscoe Lee Browne is 79. Rock musician Link Wray is 75. Bianca Jagger is 59. Country singer R.C. Bannon is 59. Singer Lesley Gore is 58. Singer-songwriter Larry Gatlin is 56. Rock singer Lou Gramm (Foreigner) is 54. Actress Christine Baranski is 52. Singer Angela Bofill is 50. Actress Elizabeth Berridge is 42. Country singer Ty Herndon is 42. Rock musician Todd Sucherman (Styx) is 35. Wrestler-actor The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) is 32. Actress Jenna Von Oy is 27. Olympic gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes is 19.

Thought for Today: “What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments have never learned anything from history.” – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831).