The General Belgrano in the Argentine navy is struck by two Tigerfish torpedoes from HMS Conqueror and sunk. The sinking of The Belgrano is controversial because the ship was outside the 200-mile total exclusion zone. The Belgrano had a complement of about 1,000 men and 368 lives were lost in the sinking.

Barack Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan in an operation carried out by United States Navy Seals. He announced the raid on Bin Laden's compound had lasted about forty minutes, four other people had been killed in the raid, and that Bin Laden's body was buried at sea according to Islamic standards. The death of the man many believed to be responsible for the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks was celebrated across the United States and many other parts of the world.