1979 47 years ago Notable Deaths May 2 2 sources

Giulio Natta, Italian chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903)

On May 2, in the year 1979, Giulio Natta, Italian chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903). This event is recorded as a Notable Deaths event in the history of May 2, one of 377 recorded events on this date across all of history.

1 notable person is associated with this event, including Giulio Natta. Learn more below.

Giulio Natta was an Italian chemical engineer and Nobel laureate. Natta's work at Politecnico di Milano led to the improvement of earlier work by Karl Ziegler and to the development of the Ziegler–Natta catalyst. The discoveries of Natta and Ziegler revolutionized polymer science by enabling the low-pressure, stereospecific polymerization of olefins, particularly propylene, into highly ordered, crystalline structures. This development allowed the production of high-strength plastics that were previously unobtainable. Natta won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963 with Karl Ziegler for his work on high density polymers. He also received a Lomonosov Gold Medal in 1969.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on May 2, 1979 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Notable Deaths event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 2 Wikipedia articles.
  • 1 notable person is recorded as involved in or associated with this event.
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 11 April 2026.

On This Date in History 377

Type Year Date Event
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Notable Deaths 2016 May 2 Afeni Shakur, American music businesswoman, activist, and Black Panther (born 1947)
Notable Births 2015 May 2 Princess Charlotte of Wales, British royal, and third in line to the British throne
Notable Deaths 2015 May 2 Stuart Archer, English colonel and architect (born 1915)
Notable Deaths 2015 May 2 Michael Blake, American author and screenwriter (born 1945)
Notable Deaths 2015 May 2 Guy Carawan, American singer and musicologist (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2015 May 2 Maya Plisetskaya, Russian-Lithuanian ballerina, choreographer, actress, and director (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2015 May 2 Ruth Rendell, English author (born 1930)
Historical Events 2014 May 2 Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing
Notable Deaths 2014 May 2 Tomás Balduino, Brazilian bishop (born 1922)
Notable Deaths 2014 May 2 Žarko Petan, Slovenian director, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1929)
Notable Deaths 2014 May 2 Efrem Zimbalist Jr
Selected Events 2014 May 2 Russo-Ukrainian War: Forty-eight people were killed during a confrontation between pro-Russian protesters and pro-Ukrain
Selected Events 2014 May 2 Two mudslides in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, killed at least 350 people
Notable Deaths 2013 May 2 Ernie Field, English boxer (born 1943)
Notable Deaths 2013 May 2 Jeff Hanneman, American guitarist and songwriter (born 1964)
Notable Deaths 2013 May 2 Joseph P
Notable Deaths 2013 May 2 Dvora Omer, Israeli author and educator (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2013 May 2 Ivan Turina, Croatian footballer (born 1980)
Notable Deaths 2013 May 2 Charles Banks Wilson, American painter and illustrator (born 1918)
Historical Events 2012 May 2 A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, se
Notable Deaths 2012 May 2 Fernando Lopes, Portuguese director and screenwriter (born 1935)
Notable Deaths 2012 May 2 Zenaida Manfugás, Cuban-born American-naturalized pianist (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2012 May 2 Tufan Miñnullin, Russian playwright and politician (born 1936)
Notable Deaths 2012 May 2 Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, Indonesian physician and politician, Indonesian Minister of Health (born 1955)
Notable Deaths 2012 May 2 Akira Tonomura, Japanese physicist, author, and academic (born 1942)
Notable Deaths 2012 May 2 Lourdes Valera, Venezuelan actress (born 1963)
Historical Events 2011 May 2 Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted fugitive, is killed by the Uni
Historical Events 2011 May 2 An E
Notable Deaths 2011 May 2 Osama bin Laden, Saudi Arabian terrorist, founder of Al-Qaeda (born 1957)
Selected Events 2011 May 2 The Conservative Party of Canada won enough seats in the federal election to establish their first majority government
Selected Events 2011 May 2 Osama bin Laden was killed by U
Notable Deaths 2010 May 2 Lynn Redgrave, English-American actress and singer (born 1943)
Notable Deaths 2009 May 2 Marilyn French, American author and academic (born 1929)
Notable Deaths 2009 May 2 Kiyoshiro Imawano, Japanese singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (born 1951)
Notable Deaths 2009 May 2 Jack Kemp, American football player and politician, 9th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (born 1
Historical Events 2008 May 2 Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless
Historical Events 2008 May 2 Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people
Notable Deaths 2008 May 2 Beverlee McKinsey, American actress (born 1940)
Notable Deaths 2008 May 2 Izold Pustõlnik, Ukrainian-Estonian astronomer and academic (born 1938)
Selected Events 2008 May 2 The Chaitén volcano in Chile began to erupt for the first time since around 1640
Notable Deaths 2007 May 2 Brad McGann, New Zealand director and screenwriter (born 1964)
Notable Deaths 2006 May 2 Louis Rukeyser, American journalist and author (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2005 May 2 Wee Kim Wee, Singaporean journalist and politician, 4th President of Singapore (born 1915)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

People Involved

Giulio Natta

Italian chemist (1903–1979)

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