Actually you can take advantage of the built-in Location service, which owns a "Back" API.

Here (in TypeScript):

import {Component} from '@angular/core';
import {Location} from '@angular/common';

@Component({
  // component's declarations here
})
class SomeComponent {

  constructor(private _location: Location) 
  {}

  backClicked() {
    this._location.back();
  }
}

Edit: As mentioned by @charith.arumapperuma Location should be imported from @angular/common so the import {Location} from '@angular/common'; line is important.

In the final version of Angular 2.x / 4.x - here's the docs https://angular.io/api/common/Location

/* typescript */

import { Location } from '@angular/common';
// import stuff here

@Component({
// declare component here
})
export class MyComponent {

  // inject location into component constructor
  constructor(private location: Location) { }

  cancel() {
    this.location.back(); // <-- go back to previous location on cancel
  }
}

<button backButton>BACK</button>

You can put this into a directive, that can be attached to any clickable element:

import { Directive, HostListener } from '@angular/core';
import { Location } from '@angular/common';

@Directive({
    selector: '[backButton]'
})
export class BackButtonDirective {
    constructor(private location: Location) { }

    @HostListener('click')
    onClick() {
        this.location.back();
    }
}

Usage:

<button backButton>BACK</button>