October 2

Events
Up to 1900
829 Theophilus becomes Byzantine Emperor.
1187 Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.
1263 The Battle of Largs is fought between Scots and Norwegians.
1535 Jacques Cartier discovers Montreal, Quebec.
1552 Conquest of Kazan by Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
1780 American Revolutionary War: British spy John Andre is hanged by American forces for his role in Benedict Arnold's plot to sell West Point to the British Army.
1814 Battle of Rancagua: Spanish royalist troops under Mariano Osorio defeat rebel Chilean forces under Bernardo O'Higgins and Jose Miguel Carrera.
1835 Texas Revolution begins: Battle of Gonzales - Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas but encounter stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.
1836 Naturalist Charles Darwin returns to Falmouth, England aboard the HMS Beagle after a 5-year journey collecting biological data he will later use to develop his theory of evolution.
1864 American Civil War: Battle of Saltville - Union forces attack Saltville, Virginia but are defeated by Confederate troops.
1889 In Washington, DC, the first international Conference of American States begins.
1889 In Colorado, Nicolas Creede strikes it rich in silver during the last great silver boom of the American Old West.
1901 2000
1919 US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
1924 The Geneva Protocol is adopted as a means to strengthen the League of Nations.
1925 John Logie Baird performs the first test of a working television system.
1928 The "Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God", commonly known as Opus Dei, was founded by Saint Josemaria Escriva.
1935 Italy invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
1937 Dominican Republic leader Rafael Trujillo orders the execution of the Haitian population living within the borderlands. Around 20,000 are killed in the following few days.
1941 World War II: Operation Typhoon - Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.
1942 World War II: Ocean liner RMS Queen Mary accidentally hits and sinks her own escort ship HMS Curacoa off Ireland.
1944 Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
1950 The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven US newspapers.
1955 The ENIAC computer is deactivated at 11:45 PM.
1955 Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuts (last new episode aired on June 26, 1962).
1958 Guinea declares itself independent from France.
1959 The Twilight Zone pilot premieres.
1962 Johnny Carson debuts as host of The Tonight Show.
1967 Thurgood Marshall sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.
1968 A peaceful student demonstration in Mexico City ends in the Tlatelolco massacre.
1970 A plane carrying the Wichita State University football team, administrators andsupporters crashes in Colorado, killing 31 people.
1979 Pope John Paul II speaks at the UN.
1984 Elisabeth Kopp becomes the first woman to be elected to the Swiss Federal Council.
1988 The 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul come to an end.
1990 A Chinese airline Boeing 737-247 is hijacked; after landing at Guangzhou, crashes into an empty Boeing 707-3J6B and then a Boeing 757-21B on the ground killing 132
1992 Hero opens in theaters, starring Dustin Hoffman.
1992 The Carandiru Massacre takes place after a riot in the Carandiru prison system in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1993 The 1993 Moscow riots by Hardline Communists occur.
1996 The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
1996 An Aeroperu Boeing 757 crashes in Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff from Lima, Peru killing 70.
1997 In the European Union the Amsterdam Treaty is signed.
From 2001
2001 Bankruptcy of Swissair.
2002 The Beltway sniper attacks begin.
2004 American Samoa joins the North American Numbering Plan.
2005 The Ethan Allen tour boat capsizes on Lake George, Upstate New York, killing 20 people.
2006 Five schoolgirls are killed in a shooting at an Amish school in Pennsylvania, before the gunman commits suicide.
2007 President of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun walks across the Military Demarcation Line in North Korea, on his way to the inter-Korean summit meeting with Kim Jong-il.
2009 Rio de Janeiro is chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
2009 Voters in Ireland support the EU's Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum.
2016 Dozens of people are killed in a protest in Ethiopia's Oromia region.
2016 Voters in Colombia reject a peace deal between their government and FARC by a narrow margin.
2018 Nobel Prize in Physics: Donna Strickland becomes the 3rd woman to win the award for Physics, while Arthur Ashkin becomes the oldest-ever Nobel laureate, at age 96 (until John B. Goodenough wins the following year's Chemistry Prize at age 97); They share it with Gerard Mourou.
2018 Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is murdered in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Births
Up to 1900
1452 King Richard III of England (d. 1485)
1470 Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (d. 1498)
1470 Isabella of Naples, Duchess of Milan (d. 1524)
1538 Charles Borromeo, Italian Catholic Saint (d. 1584)
1718 Elizabeth Montagu, English social reformer, patron of the arts, literary critic and writer (d. 1800)
1722 Leopold Widhalm, Austrian instrument maker (d. 1776)
1724 Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald, French philosopher and statesman (d. 1840)
1737 Francis Hopkinson, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1791)
1768 William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (d. 1854)
1781 William Wyatt Bibb, Governor of Missouri (d. 1820)
1798 Charles Albert of Sardinia (d. 1849)
1800 Nat Turner, American revolutionary (d. 1831)
1815 James Agnew, Irish-Australian politician, 16th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1901)
1821 Nino Bixio, Italian freedom fighter (d. 1873)
1828 Charles Floquet, 55th Prime Minister of France (d. 1896)
1832 Edward Burnett Tylor, British anthropologist (d. 1917)
1833 William Corby, American Catholic priest (d. 1897)
1839 Hans Thoma, German painter (d. 1924)
1847 Paul von Hindenburg, German politician and military officer (d. 1934)
1851 Ferdinand Foch, French soldier (d. 1929)
1852 William Ramsay, Scottish chemist (d. 1916)
1854 Patrick Geddes, Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer and town planner (d. 1932)
1864 Alfred Roller, Austrian painter (d. 1935)
1867 Theodore F. Green, Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1966)
1869 Mahatma Gandhi, Indian spiritual leader and advocate of non-violent resistance (d. 1948)
1871 Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State (d. 1955)
1871 Martha Brookes Hutcheson, American landscape architect (d. 1959)
1879 Wallace Stevens, American poet (d. 1955)
1882 Boris Shaposhnikov, Russian military commander (d. 1945)
1890 Groucho Marx, American actor and comedian (d. 1977)
1893 Leroy Shield, American movie score and radio composer (d. 1962)
1895 Bud Abbott, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
1901 1950
1901 Alice Prin, French singer and artist (d. 1953)
1902 Leopold Figl, Austrian politician (d. 1965)
1904 Graham Greene, English writer (d. 1991)
1904 Lal Bahadur Shastri, 2nd Prime Minister of India (d. 1966)
1905 Enchi Fumiko, Japanese writer (d. 1986)
1907 Victor Paz Estenssoro, Bolivian politician (d. 2001)
1907 Alexander Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist (d. 1997)
1909 Alex Raymond, American comic artist (d. 1956)
1910 Aldo Olivieri, Italian footballer (d. 2001)
1911 Tilly Fleischer, German javelin thrower (d. 2005)
1913 Annette Rogers, American athlete (d. 2006)
1914 Yuri Levitan, Soviet radio announcer (d. 1983)
1914 John Whiteside Parsons, American rocket scientist, writer and occultist (d. 1952)
1915 Chubby Wise, American bluegrass fiddler (d. 1996)
1916 Angel Suquia Goicoechea, Spanish archbishop (d. 2006)
1917 Christian de Duve, English-born Belgian biologist and Nobel Prize winner (d. 2013)
1919 John W. Duarte, British composer, guitarist and writer (d. 2004)
1920 Stefan Kovacs, Romanian footballer (d. 1995)
1921 Albert Scott Crossfield, American test pilot (d. 2006)
1921 Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 2000)
1924 Tex Coulter, American football player (d. 2007)
1924 Gilbert Simondon, French philosopher (d. 1989)
1926 Jan Morris, British historian and author
1927 Uta Ranke-Heinemann, German theologian and author
1928 Wolfhart Pannenberg, German theologian (d. 2014)
1928 George "Spanky" McFarland, American actor (d. 1993)
1929 Cesare Maestri, Italian mountaineer
1930 Dave Barrett, Canadian politician (d. 2018)
1933 John Gurdon, British scientist and Nobel Prize winner
1933 Giuliano Sarti, Italian footballer (d. 2017)
1933 Michel Blasson, French conductor
1935 Peter Frankl, Hungarian-born pianist
1935 Omar Sivori, Argentine footballer (d. 2005)
1936 Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Filipino lawyer and politician
1938 Rex Reed, American movie critic and actor
1940 Gheorghe Gruia, Romanian handball player
1940 Pantelis Voulgaris, Greek actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1943 Anna Ford, English journalist and newsreader
1943 Paul Van Himst, Belgian footballer and coach
1944 Ton Koopman, Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist.
1945 Don McLean, American singer
1946 Peter Kellner, English journalist, President of YouGov
1946 Marie-Georges Pascal, French actress (d. 1985)
1947 Dieter Pfaff, German actor (d. 2013)
1948 Donna Karan, American fashion designer
1948 Trevor Brooking, English footballer
1948 Siim Kallas, Estonian politician, European Commissioner and former Prime Minister of Estonia
1949 Annie Leibovitz, American photographer
1949 Richard Hell, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1950 Ian McNeice, British actor
1950 Mike Rutherford, British musician
1951 1975
1951 Romina Power, American singer
1951 Sting, English musician
1953 Ernest Bai Koroma, former President of Sierra Leone
1953 Muhammad Abdul Bari, Bangladeshi-English physicist
1954 Lorraine Bracco, American actress
1955 Philip Oakey, English singer (The Human League)
1956 Viatcheslav Mukhanov, Russian-German cosmologist and physicist
1957 Janry, Belgian comic artist
1957 Dave Faulkner, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1958 Robbie Nevil, American musician
1960 Glenn Anderson, Canadian ice hockey player
1960 Terence Winter, American screenwriter and producer
1960 Tom Schweich, American politician (d. 2015)
1960 Derek Whittenburg, American basketball player and coach
1962 Sigtryggur Baldursson, Icelandic musician
1962 Jeff Bennett, American actor
1966 Rodney Adnoa'i, Samoan-American professional wrestler (d. 2000)
1967 Frankie Fredericks, Namibian athlete
1967 Keith Bradshaw, Australian cricketer
1967 Thomas Muster, Austrian tennis player
1967 Dave Goldberg, American businessman (d. 2015)
1968 Victoria Derbyshire, English journalist and radio presenter
1968 Jana Novotna, Czech tennis player
1969 Jun Akiyama, Japanese professional wrestler
1970 Kelly Ripa, American actress
1970 Eddie Guardado, American baseball player
1971 Tiffany, American singer
1971 James Root, American guitarist (Slipknot)
1971 Xavier Naidoo, German singer
1973 Lene Nystrom Rasted, Norwegian singer (Aqua)
1973 Proof, American rapper (d. 2006)
1973 Verka Serduchka, Ukrainian comedian and singer
1973 Maria Wetterstrand, Swedish politician
1974 Simon Gregson, British actor
From 1976
1977 Didier Defago, Swiss skier
1978 Ayumi Hamasaki, Japanese singer
1978 Matt Hancock, English politician
1979 Francisco Fonseca, Mexican footballer
1979 Maja Ivarsson, Swedish singer
1981 Luke Wilkshire, Australian footballer
1982 Stephen Pearson, Scottish footballer
1982 George Pettit, Canadian singer
1982 Tyson Chandler, American basketball player
1984 Marion Bartoli, French tennis player
1985 Ciprian Marica, Romanian footballer
1986 Camilla Belle, American actress
1987 Ruan Lufei, Chinese chess player
1987 Keith Earls, Irish rugby player
1988 Kiko Casilla, Spanish footballer
1989 Marta Gastini, Italian actress
1990 Christopher Drazan, Austrian footballer
1990 Samantha Barks, Manx actress and singer
1991 Roberto Firmino, Brazilian footballer
1993 Tara Lynne Barr, American actress
1994 Brendan Meyer, Canadian actor
Deaths
Up to 1900
534 Athalaric, King of the Ostrogoths (b. 516)
939 Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine (b. 890)
1264 Pope Urban IV
1559 Jacquet of Mantua, French-Italian composer (b. 1483)
1629 Antonio Cifra, Italian composer (b. 1584)
1764 William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1720)
1775 Chiyo-ni, Japanese poet (b. 1703)
1782 Charles Lee, British and U.S. general (b. 1732)
1786 Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, English admiral and politician (b. 1725)
1803 Samuel Adams, American patriot, revolutionary and statesman (b. 1722)
1817 Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov, Russian naval commander and admiral (b. 1744)
1850 Sarah Biffen, English painter (b. 1784)
1853 Francois Jean Dominique Arago, French mathematician (b. 1786)
1892 Ernest Renan, French writer, historian, archaeologist and theologian (b. 1823)
1895 Eugen Langen, German entrepreneur, engineer and inventor (b. 1833)
1901 2000
1920 Max Bruch, German composer and conductor (b. 1838)
1927 Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
1931 Thomas Lipton, British trader and yacht owner (b. 1850)
1938 Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (b. 1859)
1943 John Evans, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1855)
1947 P. D. Ouspensky, Russian philosopher (b. 1878)
1950 John F. Fitzgerald, Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts and maternal grandfather of John F. Kennedy (b. 1863)
1962 Boris Y. Bukreev, Soviet mathematician (b. 1859)
1968 Marcel Duchamp, French artist (b. 1887)
1973 Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (b. 1897)
1973 Paul Hartman, American actor, singer and dancer (b. 1904)
1974 Vasily Shukshin, Russian writer, actor, screenwriter and director (b. 1929)
1975 Kumaraswami Kamaraj, Indian political leader (b. 1903)
1981 Hazel Scott, singer (b. 1920)
1981 Harry Golden, American journalist (b. 1902)
1985 Rock Hudson, American actor (b. 1925)
1987 Peter Medawar, British scientist, born in Brazil but registered as British (b. 1915)
1987 Madeleine Carroll, British-born actress (b. 1906)
1988 Alec Issigonis, British engineer (b. 1906)
1991 Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios I of Constantinople (b. 1914)
1994 Harriet Nelson, American actress and singer (b. 1909)
1996 Andrey Lukanov, Bulgarian politician (b. 1938)
1996 Robert Bourassa, 22nd Premier of Quebec (b. 1933)
1998 Gene Autry, American singer, actor, and entrepreneur (b. 1907)
From 2001
2001 Franz Biebl, German composer (b. 1906)
2002 Heinz von Foerster, physicist and philosopher (b. 1911)
2003 John T. Dunlop, U.S. Secretary of Labor (b. 1914)
2006 Tamara Dobson, American actress (b. 1944)
2006 Paul Halmos, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1916)
2006 Charles Carl Roberts, American murderer (b. 1973)
2007 Tex Coulter, American football player (b. 1924)
2007 Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark (b. 1913)
2008 Choi Jin-sil, South Korean actress (b. 1968)
2009 Marek Edelman, Polish social and political activist (b. 1919)
2009 Rolf Russmann, German footballer (b. 1950)
2013 Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician and inventor (b. 1919)
2014 Vaughn O. Lang, American general (b. 1927)
2014 Pedro Pena, Spanish actor (b. 1925)
2014 Robert Flower, Australian Rules Football player (b. 1955)
2015 Brian Friel, Irish dramatist (b. 1929)
2015 Eric Arturo Delvalle, former President of Panama (b. 1937)
2016 Neville Marriner, English conductor (b. 1924)
2017 Evangelina Elizondo, Mexican actress, singer and writer (b. 1929)
2017 Robert Elsie, Canadian linguist and translator (b. 1950)
2017 Solly Hemus, American baseball player (b. 1923)
2017 Kim Un-yong, South Korean sports administrator (b. 1931)
2017 Klaus Huber, Swiss composer and academic (b. 1924)
2017 Paul Otellini, American businessman (b. 1950)
2017 Tom Petty, American musician (b. 1950)
2017 Robert Yates, American racing team owner (b. 1943)
2018 Smilja Avramov, Serbian law academic (b. 1918)
2018 Balabhaskar, Indian violinist, composer and record producer (b. 1978)
2018 Geoff Emerick, English recording engineer (b. 1945)
2018 Dorothy Hukill, American politician (b. 1946)
2018 Roman Kartsev, Russian actor and comedian (b. 1939)
2018 Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist (b. 1958)
2018 Hermenegildo Sabat, Uruguayan-Argentine political cartoonist and journalist (b. 1933)
2019 Bill Bidwill, American businessman (b. 1931)
2019 Tiny Hill, New Zealand rugby union player (b. 1927)
2019 Giya Kancheli, Georgian composer (b. 1935)
2019 Jafar Kashani, Iranian footballer (b. 1944)
2019 John Kirby, American lawyer (b. 1939)
2019 Isaac Promise, Nigerian footballer (b. 1987)
2019 Kim Shattuck, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1963)
2019 Hargovind Laxmishanker Trivedi, Indian nephrologist (b. 1932)
Observances
Feast of the Saint Guardian Angels
Gandhi Jayanti (India) and International Day of Non-Violence (birthday of Mahatma Gandhi)
Independence Day (Guinea)
October 02