1. On May 2, 1670, the English settlement of Charles Town (now known as Charleston) was established in South Carolina. The settlement was named after King Charles II of England and would become one of the most important cities in colonial America.

2. In 1863, during the American Civil War, Confederate forces under General James Longstreet attacked Union forces under General Oliver O. Howard near Chancellorsville, Virginia. The battle lasted three days and resulted in a Confederate victory.

3. On May 2, 1916, Mary McLeod Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in Washington, D.C. Bethune, a South Carolina native, was a prominent educator and civil rights leader who dedicated her life to improving the lives of African Americans and women.

4. In 1960, South Carolina State University students led a protest against segregation at the State House in Columbia. The protest was met with violence by state troopers and resulted in the deaths of three students: Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith. The incident became known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

5. On May 2, 2018, James Smith won the Democratic nomination for governor of South Carolina. Smith, a lawyer and state representative, went on to lose the general election to incumbent Republican governor Henry McMaster.