• 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage).
• 1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery.
• 1568 - Queen Elizabeth I of England has Mary Queen of Scots arrested.
• 1643 - Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.
• 1649 - An Act declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.
• 1749 - King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
• 1780 - New England's Dark Day: A combination of thick smoke and heavy cloud cover causes complete darkness to fall on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 10:30 A.M.
• 1802 - The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte.
• 1828 - U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.
• 1848 - Mexican-American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of five other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for $15 million USD.
• 1864 - American Civil War: the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
• 1897 - Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.
• 1919 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what was later termed the Turkish War of Independence. The anniversary of this event is the official date of commemoration of the Pontic Greek Genocide in Greece and Cyprus.
• 1921 - The U.S. Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration.
• 1922 - The Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union is established.
• 1943 - World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the cross-English Channel landing (D-Day would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather).
• 1961 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and didn't send back any data).
• 1962 - A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday.
• 1971 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
• 1991 - Croatian's vote for independence at their independence referendum.
• 2008 - Malaysian ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigns from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

Births