TODAY IN HISTORY - May 2: Acclaimed actor's drinking contest leaves everyone else with a headache
Acclaimed actor Oliver Reed died during a drinking contest with a group of sailors in Malta on May 2, 1999.
The veteran actor and renowned hellraiser was 61.
Reed was at this pub in Valletta when he reportedly challenged a group of the Royal Navy sailors to a drinking contest.
Reed reportedly drank eight pints of beer, 12 shots of rum and half a bottle of whisky before he collapsed and died.
The actor's death was a massive complication for the filming of the movie Gladiator.
The movie was too far into production to replace one of its biggest names.
Instead unused footage from other scenes was used to assemble a previously unscripted death for his character Proximo.
And the final moment of the Best Picture-winning movie, intended for Reed, was rewritten for another character.
Reed had promised director Ridley Scott he wouldn't drink if he took the role.
A few years earlier he had been fired from the set of movie Cutthroat Island after drunkenly exposing himself to actress Geena Davis.
His distinctive scar across his cheek came from a bar brawl in the 1960s.
The Battle of Alcatraz at the infamous US prison erupted on May 2, 1946 when three inmates seized guns and overpowered their guards.
After freeing other inmates, their plan to was to sail a prison boat and escape across San Francisco bay.
But it was scuttled when they couldn't find the right key and were left trapped inside the prison.
US boxer Floyd Mayweather defeated his long-time rival Manny Pacquiao to claim the so-called "fight of the century" in Las Vegas on May 2, 2015.
The undefeated pound-for-pound champion proved too strong for the Filipino fighter, claiming the bout in an unanimous decision after 12 rounds.
The fight was the richest in boxing history, generating $900 million.
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