August 2



Events

Up to 1940 
338 BC  Rise of Macedon: Philip II of Macedon crushes Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea.
216 BC  Punic Wars: In the Battle of Cannae, Hannibal destroys the Roman army of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro in what is considered one of the great masterpieces of the tactical art.
AD 461  Majorian resigns as Western Roman Emperor; shortly afterwards Libius Severus is declared western Roman emperor by Ricimer.
1274  Edward I of England returns from the Ninth Crusade and is crowned King 17 days later.
1377  Russian troops are defeated at the Battle of Pyana River because of drunkenness.
1610  Henry Hudson sails into what is now Hudson Bay, thinking he had reached the Pacific Ocean through the Northwest Passage.
1776  Delegates to the Continental Congress begin to sign the United States Declaration of Independence.
1790  First US Census; records are missing for five states: Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey and Virginia. Destroyed somewhere between that date and 1830.
1798  Second Coalition: End of the Battle of the Nile between French and British navies; France defeated.
1830  Charles X of France leaves the throne to his grandson Henri, Count of Chambord, who is, disputedly, King of France until August 9.
1832  Battle of Bad Axe: US troops defeat Native American Chief Black Hawk.
1858  British Columbia becomes a British colony.
1869  Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869).
1870  Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London.
1873  The Clay Street Railroad begins operating the first cable car in San Francisco's famous cable car system.
1874  Iceland celebrates 1,000 years of settlement.
1876  In Deadwood, South Dakota, Jack McCall shoots and kills American Western figure Wild Bill Hickok, who was playing a game of cards at the time. The combination of cards he held at the time is now referred to as Dead Man's Hand.
1897  Anglo-Afghan War: The Siege of Malakand ends.
1903  Fall of the Ottoman Empire: Unsuccessful uprising of the Bulgarians against Ottoman Turkey, also known as the Ilinden uprising.
1909  The 'Tragic Week' uprising in Barcelona against Spain's colonial politics in Morocco is violently crushed by police. Over 100 people are killed.
1916  World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.
1918  Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.
1918  The first General Strike in Canadian history takes place in Vancouver.
1922  A typhoon hits Shantou, Republic of China, killing over 50,000 people.
1923  After the death of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge becomes President of the United States.
1934  Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
1937  Marijuana is made illegal in the United States.
1939  Leó Szilárd and Albert Einstein sign a letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning of the dangers posed by Nazi Germany and calling for the development of a nuclear weapon.

From 1941 
1943  PT-109, with future president of the United States Lieutenant John F. Kennedy aboard, sinks. He manages to save most of the crew.
1944  The Socialist Republic of Macedonia is created.
1944  Beginning of the Treblinka uprising.
1945  World War II: Potsdam Conference, in which the Allied Powers discuss the future of defeated Germany, concludes.
1947  A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian airliner crashes into a mountain on a flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago de Chile. The wreckage disappears under a glacier and only reappears over 50 years later. The meaning of its last message, "STENDEC", remains a mystery.
1950  The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures was published on Yankee Stadium, New York.
1955  Velcro is patented.
1964  North Vietnam fires on a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
1967  The second Blackwall Tunnel opened in Greenwich, London.
1967  Turkish sports club Trabzonspor is founded in Trabzon.
1968  An earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines, killing over 270 people.
1970  Powder Ridge Rock Festival
1973  A flash fire kills 51 people at the Summerland amusement centre in Douglas, Isle of Man.
1975  In New Orleans, Louisiana, the Superdome officially opens with an American football game between the New Orleans Saints and Houston Oilers.
1976  An intruder breaks into Priscilla Davis's Mockingbird Lane mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. Priscilla Davis and a friend are injured while Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr are killed. T. Cullen Davis is tried and found innocent of the crime.
1980  A terrorist bombing at the railway station in Bologna, Italy kills 85 people and wounds more than 200.
1980  Hard rock band AC/DC release Back in Black, their first album with lead singer Brian Johnson and their best-selling
1985  A Delta Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, killing 137.
1989  Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations.
1989  A massacre is carried out by an Indian Peacekeeping Force in Sri Lanka, killing 64 ethnic Tamil civilians.
1990  On the orders of Saddam Hussein, Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
1994  Popular Japanese television and movie actor Beat Takeshi is seriously injured in a motorcycle accident.
1997  Australian ski instructor Stuart Diver is rescued as the sole survivor from the Thredbo landslide in New South Wales, Australia, in which 18 lives were lost.
1998  The Second Congo War begins.
2003  A 65th anniversary edition of The Beano is released.
2005  Air France Flight 358 lands at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and runs off the runway, causing the plane to burst into flames. All on board survive, with 12 injured.
2007  Crews from the Russian submarines Mir 1 and Mir 2 plant the Flag of Russia in the seabed beneath the North Pole.
2014  A factory explosion near Shanghai kills 146 people.
2018  Apple Inc. becomes the first company to reach a worth of a trillion United States dollars.
2018  The first multi-sport European Championships, co-hosted by Glasgow (Scotland) and Berlin (Germany), begin.

Births

Up to 1900 
1455  John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1499)
1533  Theodor Zwinger, medical scholar (d. 1588)
1612  Saskia van Uylenburgh, wife of Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (d. 1642)
1627  Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten, Dutch painter and writer (d. 1678)
1672  Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss scholar (d. 1733)
1674  Philip II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France (d. 1723)
1696  Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1754)
1702  Dietrich of Anhalt-Dessau (d. 1769)
1703  Lorenzo Ricci, General of the Society of Jesus (d. 1775)
1754  Pierre Charles L'Enfant, architect, city planner (d. 1825)
1780  Marie-Anne Gaboury, French-Canadian settler in Manitoba (d. 1875)
1788  Leopold Gmelin, German chemist (d. 1853)
1802  Nicholas Wiseman, English theologian, cardinal and archbishop (d. 1865)
1808  Augustus French, 9th Governor of Illinois (d. 1864)
1815  Adolf Friedrich von Schack, writer (d. 1894)
1820  John Tyndall, British physicist (d. 1893)
1824  Princess Francisca of Brazil (d. 1898)
1825  J. Neely Johnson, 4th Governor of California (d. 1872)
1827  Manuel Pavía y Rodríguez de Albuquerque, Spanish general (d. 1895)
1834  Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor (d. 1904)
1835  Elisha Gray, American inventor and founder of Western Electric (d. 1901)
1849  Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (d. 1882)
1854  Milan I, King of Serbia (d. 1901)
1858  Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Regent of the Netherlands (d. 1934)
1862  Duncan Campbell Scott, Canadian writer (d. 1947)
1865  Irving Babbitt, American literary critic (d. 1933)
1865  John Radecki, Australian stained glass artist (d. 1955)
1866  Adrien de Gerlache, Belgian explorer (d. 1934)
1866  Charles Francis Adams III, American politician, United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1954)
1867  Ernest Dowson, English poet (d. 1900)
1868  King Constantine I of Greece (d. 1923)
1870  Marianne Weber, German sociologist (d. 1954)
1871  John French Sloan, artist (d. 1951)
1875  Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Russian general (d. 1957)
1876  Pingali Venkayya, designer of the Flag of India (d. 1963)
1877  Ravishankar Shukla, Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (d. 1956)
1878  Aino Kallas, Finnish-Estonian writer (d. 1956)
1880  Arthur Dove, American artist (d. 1946)
1882  Albert Bloch, American painter, writer and translator (d. 1961)
1882  Red Ames, American baseball player (d. 1936)
1883  Jonathan Wainwright, American general (d. 1953)
1884  Romulo Gallegos, 46th President of Venezuela (d. 1969)
1886  John Alexander Douglas McCurdy, Canadian aviator (d. 1961)
1891  Arthur Bliss, English composer and conductor (d. 1975)
1891  Viktor Zhirmunsky, Russian literary historian and linguist (d. 1971)
1892  Jack Warner, Canadian movie producer (d. 1978)
1894  Carlo Galimberti, Italian weightlifter (d. 1939)
1897  Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1974)
1897  Karl Otto Koch, German SS officer (d. 1945)
1899  Charles Bennett, English director and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1900  Helen Morgan, American actress (d. 1941)

1901  1950 
1902  Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria, Egyptian Coptic Church Patriarch (d. 1971)
1905  Karl Amadeus Hartmann, composer (d. 1963)
1905  Myrna Loy, American actress (d. 1993)
1905  Rudolf Prack, Austrian actor (d. 1981)
1912  Vladimir Zerjavic, Croatian statistician (d. 2001)
1912  Ann Dvorak, American actress (d. 1979)
1914  Beatrice Straight, American actress (d. 2001)
1915  Gary Merrill, American actor (d. 1990)
1919  Carlo Savina, Italian movie score composer (d. 2002)
1919  Nehemiah Persoff, Israeli-American actor
1920  François Flohic, French admiral (d. 2018)
1921  Ruth Barcan Marcus, American philosopher and logician (d. 2012)
1921  Alan Whicker, British journalist and broadcaster (d. 2013)
1922  Paul Laxalt, American politician, 22nd Governor of Nevada (d. 2018)
1923  Shimon Peres, 9th President of Israel (d. 2016)
1924  James Baldwin, American writer (d. 1987)
1924  Carroll O'Connor, American actor (d. 2001)
1925  John McCormack, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2017)
1925  Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentinian dictator (d. 2013)
1928  Luigi Colani, German industrial designer (d. 2019)
1929  Irwin Fridovich, American biochemist (d. 2019)
1929  Ursula Karusseit, German actress (d. 2019)
1929  K.M. Peyton, English writer
1929  David Waddington, Baron Waddington, British Governor of Bermuda (d. 2017)
1929  Vidya Charan Shukla, Indian politician (d. 2013)
1931  Karl Miller, British literary editor, critic and writer (d. 2014)
1932  Peter O'Toole, Irish-British actor (d. 2013)
1932  Lamar Hunt, American sportsman (d. 2006)
1933  Lorenzo Milam, writer and broadcaster
1934  Valery Bykovsky, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (d. 2019)
1935  Alex Parker, Scottish footballer
1937  Garth Hudson, Canadian musician, organist/keyboardist with The Band
1937  Gundula Janowitz, Austrian soprano
1937  Jim McLean, Scottish footballer
1938  Timo Konietzka, German-Swiss footballer and manager (d. 2012)
1938  Paul Jenkins, American actor (d. 2013)
1939  Wes Craven, American movie director (d. 2015)
1939  Benjamin Barber, American theorist, author and academic (d. 2017)
1939  John W. Snow, American politician
1941  Jules Hoffmann, Luxembourg-French biologist and Nobel Prize winner
1941  François Weyergans, Belgian writer and director (d. 2019)
1941  Doris Coley, singer (Shirelles) (d. 2000)
1941  Fabio Testi, Italian actor
1942  Isabel Allende, Chilean-American writer
1942  Leo Beenhakker, Dutch football coach
1942  Juan Formell, Cuban musician and composer (d. 2014)
1943  Jon R. Cavaiani, American soldier (d. 2014)
1943  Max Wright, American actor
1943  Rose Tremain, British writer
1944  Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer, and songwriter (Traffic) (d. 2005)
1944  Naná Vasconcelos, Brazilian singer and musician (d. 2016)
1945  Joanna Cassidy, American actress
1947  Massiel, Spanish singer, actress and television presenter
1948  Dennis Prager, radio talk show host and writer
1949  Mario Illien, Swiss engineer
1950  Jussi Adler-Olsen, Danish writer
1950  Lance Ito, American judge
1950  Mathieu Carrière, German actor
1950  Ken Kutaragi, Japanese businessman, founder of PlayStation

1951  1975 
1951  Per Westerberg, Swedish politician
1951  Joe Lynn Turner, American singer
1951  Marcel Iures, Romanian actor
1952  Alain Giresse, French footballer and manager
1953  Donnie Munro, Scottish musician and singer, formerly of the band Runrig
1953  Butch Patrick, American actor
1954  Ken MacLeod, Scottish writer
1954  Sammy McIlroy, Irish footballer
1954  Enrique Saura, Spanish footballer
1956  Fulvio Melia, Italian-American physicist, astrophysicist and writer
1956  Isabel Pantoja, Spanish singer
1957  Mojo Nixon, musician and actor
1958  Elaine C. Smith, Scottish actress and comedienne
1959  Johnny Kemp, Bahamian singer (d. 2015)
1960  Olivier Gruner, French actor
1961  Linda Fratianne, American figure skater
1961  Mike Ross, American politician
1963  Laura Bennett, American fashion designer
1964  Mary-Louise Parker, American actress
1965  Hisanobu Watanabe, Japanese baseball player and coach
1965  Joe Hockey, Australian politician
1967  Marco Giampaolo, Italian footballer and manager
1967  Aaron Krickstein, American tennis player
1968  Chrystia Freeland, Canadian politician
1968  Stefan Effenberg, German footballer
1968  Russell Latapy, Trinidadian footballer
1969  Fernando Couto, Portuguese footballer
1969  Angélica Rivera, Mexican actress and First Lady
1970  Tony Amonte, American ice hockey player
1970  Kevin Smith, American actor, director, comedian and writer
1972  Muriel Bowser, American politician, 8th Mayor of the District of Columbia
1972  Corinne Rey-Bellet, Swiss ski racer (d. 2006)
1972  Justyna Steczkowska, Polish singer
1972  Carol Monaghan, Scottish politician
1972  Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabian footballer
1973  Miguel Mendonça, Anglo-Azorean writer
1973  Susie O'Neill, Australian swimmer
1974  Jeremy Castle, singer and songwriter
1975  Xu Huaiwen, Chinese-born German badminton player
1975  Mineiro, Brazilian footballer

From 1976 
1976  Sam Worthington, Australian actor
1976  Kati Wilhelm, German biathlete
1977  Edward Furlong, American actor
1978  Deividas Semberas, Lithuanian footballer
1982  Hélder Postiga, Portuguese footballer
1983  Laura Bassett, English footballer
1983  Michel Bastos, Brazilian footballer
1984  Giampaolo Pazzini, Italian footballer
1985  Stephen Ferris, Irish rugby player
1985  Britt Nicole, American singer
1985  David Hart Smith, Canadian professional wrestler
1986  Alisha Annas, musician
1986  Mathieu Razanakolona, Malagasy skier
1987  Yura Movsisyan, Armenian footballer
1989  Nacer Chadli, Belgian footballer
1990  Skylar Diggins, American basketball player
1991  Skyler Day, American actress
1991  Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir, Icelandic swmmer
1992  Charli XCX, English singer and songwriter
1992  Hallie Kate Eisenberg, American actress
1997  Christina Robinson, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 640  Pope Severinus
 686  Pope John V
 924  King Ælfweard of Wessex (b. 904)
 1100  King William II of England (b. 1056)
 1222  Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse (b. 1156)
 1316  Louis of Burgundy (b. 1297)
 1332  King Christopher II of Denmark (b. 1276)
 1512  Alessandro Achillini, Italian physician and philosopher (b. 1463)
 1546  Peter Faber, Jesuit priest (b. 1506)
 1589  King Henry III of France (b. 1551)
 1611  Kato Kiyomasa, Japanese warlord and samurai (b. 1562)
 1644  Bernardo Strozzi, Italian Baroque painter (b. 1581)
 1667  Francesco Borromini, Swiss architect (b. 1599)
 1788  Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (b. 1727)
 1799  Pope Pius VI (b. 1717)
 1823  Lazare Carnot, French general, politician and mathematician (b. 1753)
 1849  Muhammad Ali of Egypt, Egyptian military officer and statesman (b. 1769)
 1859  Horace Mann, American educator and abolitionist (b. 1796)
 1876  Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (b. 1837)

1901  2000 
 1913  Ferenc Pfaff, Hungarian architect (b. 1861)
 1921  Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)
 1922  Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-American inventor (b. 1847)
 1923  Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (b. 1865)
 1929  Mae Costello, American actress (b. 1882)
 1932  Ignaz Seipel, Chancellor of Austria (b. 1876)
 1934  Paul von Hindenburg, German military figure and President (b. 1847)
 1936  Louis Blériot, French aviator (b. 1872)
 1938  Yakov Yurovsky, Russian Bolshevik, led the execution of the family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1878)
 1945  Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer (b. 1863)
 1955  Alfred Lépine, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1901)
 1973  Jean-Pierre Melville, French movie director (b. 1917)
 1976  Fritz Lang, Austrian movie director (b. 1890)
 1978  Antony Noghès, French businessman (b. 1890)
 1979  Thurman Munson, American baseball player (b. 1947)
 1988  Raymond Carver, American writer (b. 1938)
 1992  Michel Berger, French singer-songwriter and songwriter (b. 1947)
 1996  Mohamed Farah Aidid, Somali warlord (b. 1934)
 1996  Obdulio Varela, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1917)
 1997  Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician (b. 1938)
 1997  William S. Burroughs, American writer (b. 1914)
 1998  Shari Lewis, American television host and puppeteer (b. 1933)

From 2001 
 2004  François Craenhals, Belgian comics artist (b. 1926)
 2004  José Pastoriza, Argentine footballer (b. 1942)
 2005  Jay Hammond, former Governor of Alaska (b. 1922)
 2007  Holden Roberto, Angolan rebel and activist (b. 1923)
 2007  Kay Dotrice, British actress (b. 1929)
 2011  Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-born immunologist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1920)
 2012  Mihaela Ursuleasa, Romanian pianist (b. 1978)
 2014  Barbara Prammer, Austrian politician (b. 1954)
 2014  James Thompson, American-Finnish author (b. 1964)
 2014  Pete van Wieren, American sports broadcaster (b. 1944)
 2015  Piet Fransen, Dutch footballer (b. 1936)
 2015  Forrest Bird, American aviator and inventor (b. 1921)
 2015  Giovanni Conso, Italian jurist and politician (b. 1922)
 2015  Natalia Molchanova, Russian freediver (b. 1962)
 2016  Jonathan Borwein, Scottish mathematician (b. 1951)
 2016  Forbes Carlile, Australian swimming coach and modern pentathlete (b. 1921)
 2016  Franciszek Macharski, Polish cardinal (b. 1927)
 2016  Ahmed Zewail, Egyptian chemist (b. 1946)
 2017  Wanda Chotomska, Polish writer (b. 1929)
 2017  John Graham, New Zealand rugby player (b. 1935)
 2017  Judith Jones, American cookbook author (b. 1924)
 2017  Daniel Licht, American composer and musician (b. 1957)
 2017  Jim Marrs, American newspaper journalist and author (b. 1943)
 2017  Ara Parseghian, American football player and coach (b. 1923)
 2017  Shen Daren, Chinese politician (b. 1928)
 2017  Santosh Mohan Dev, Indian politician (b. 1934)
 2018  Neil Argo, American composer (b. 1947)
 2018  Armand de Las Cuevas, French cyclist (b. 1968)
 2018  Herbert King, Colombian actor (b. 1963)
 2018  Winston Ntshona, South African actor and playwright (b. 1941)
 2018  Daan Schrijvers, Dutch footballer (b. 1941)
 2019  Vahakn Dadrian, Armenian-American sociologist and historian (b. 1926)
 2019  Deepak Obhrai, Canadian politician (b. 1950)
 2019  Jocelyne Roy-Vienneau, Canadian politician (b. 1955)
 2019  Alexandra Strelchenko, Russian folk singer (b. 1937)

Observances 
 Republic Day (North Macedonia)
 Emancipation Day (Bahamas)

August 02