MAY 2, 2011: Killing of Osama bin Laden
On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad by United States Navy SEALs of SEAL Team Six (also known as DEVGRU).
The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was carried out in a CIA-led mission, with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating the Special Mission Units involved in the raid. In addition to SEAL Team Six, participating units under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), also known as the “Night Stalkers,” and the CIA’s Special Activities Division, which heavily recruits from former JSOC Special Mission Units.
The success of the operation ended a nearly decade-long manhunt for bin Laden, who was accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The raid took 40 minutes, and bin Laden was killed shortly before 1:00 a.m.
Three other men, including one of bin Laden’s sons, and a woman in the compound were also killed. After the raid, U.S. forces returned to Afghanistan with bin Laden’s body for identification and then flew over 850 miles (1,370 km) to the Arabian Sea, where he was buried in accordance with Islamic tradition.
May 2, Nelson Mandela claims victory in first democratic South Africa elections
On May 2, 1994, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa’s first democratic elections.
The South African election of 1994 was the first fully democratic election in the country’s history. It was the first time that people of all races could vote in a national election. The election marked the end of the apartheid system, which had kept people of color separate from whites.
Mandela, the face of the anti-apartheid movement, was released from prison nine days later, setting him on the road to becoming South Africa’s first Black leader.
South Africa needed years to prepare and was still on a knife-edge in the months and weeks before the election because of ongoing political violence, but the vote – held over four days between April 26 and April 29 to accommodate the large numbers who turned out – went ahead successfully.
Nearly 20 million South Africans of all races voted, compared with just 3 million white people in the last general election under apartheid in 1989.
Incumbent president, de Klerk’s NP won 20 percent of the votes, and the ANC emerged victorious with 63 percent.
The nation celebrated, as it did the following year when South Africa won the Rugby World Cup, and in 1996 when it won the Africa Cup of Nations becoming the continent’s football champions. A beaming Mandela handed over the trophy on each occasion.
