May 2
1670   The Hudson Bay Company is founded.
1598   Henry IV signs Treaty of Vervins, ending Spain's interference in France.
1668   Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of Devolution in France.
1776   France and Spain agree to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.
1797   A mutiny in the British navy spreads from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.
1798   The black General Toussaint L'ouverture forces British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.
1808   The citizens of Madrid rise up against Napoleon.
1813   Napoleon defeats a Russian and Prussian army at Grossgorschen.
1863   Stonewall Jackson smashes Hooker's flank at Chancellorsville, Virginia.
1865   President Andrew Johnson offers a $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President
1885   King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State.
1890   The Territory of Oklahoma is created.
1919   The first U.S. air passenger service starts.
1923   Lieutenants Okaley Kelly and John Macready take off from New York for the West Coast on what will become the first successful nonstop transcontinental flight.
1941   Hostilities break out between British forces in Iraq and that country's pro-German faction.
1942   Admiral Chester J. Nimitz, convinced that the Japanese will attack Midway Island, visits the island to review its readiness.
1945   Russian forces take Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting.
1946   Prisoners revolt at California's Alcatraz prison.
1968   The U.S. Army attacks Nhi Ha in South Vietnam and begins a fourteen-day battle to wrestle it away from Vietnamese Communists.
1970   Student anti-war protesters at Ohio's Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard takes control of campus.

Born on May 2
1729   Catherine II, Czarina of Russia.
1837   Henry Martyn Roberts, parlimentarian (Robert's Rules of Order).
1860   William Maddock Bayliss, British physiologist, co-discoverer of hormones.
1866   Jesse Lazear, American physician and researcher of yellow fever.
1877   Vernon Castle, ballroom dancer.
1892   Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), German fighter ace of World War I.
1895   Lorenz Milton Hart, lyricist, collaborator with Richard Rodgers.
1901   Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor.
1903   Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, author and activist.
1921   Satyajit Ray, Indian film director (Aparajito, The World of Apu).