02 May History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.

  • 02 May Birthdays

  • 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.
  • 1903    -    Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, author and activist.
  • 1921    -    Satyajit Ray, Indian film director (Aparajito, The World of Apu).