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May 2
1670. Charles II grants a royal charter to the Hudson Bay Company to open up fur trading in North America.
1885. King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State. This is colonialism taken to its ultimate absurdity -- a government which is actually a corporation established by King Leopold and owned by him individually for his sole benefit. Some of the worst international scandals of the early 20th century result. Wars, slavery, mutilations, racial incidents -- it's effectively impossible to overstate the horrific results of Leopold's greed -- a greed well fed by the Congo's plentiful rubber production at a time when rubber demand was starting to boom. Two famous authors took notable aim at him -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame) in "the Crime of the Congo", which was widely read in early 1900, and Mark Twain in "King Leopold's Soliloquy". In 1908, the government of Belgium took over the administration of the country and annexed it, in reaction to worldwide condemnation.
1945. Soviet forces raise their flag over the Reichstag building in Berlin.
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