March 2

Events
Up to 1900
537 - Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under King Vitiges begins the siege of the city.
871 - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army at the Battle of Marton.
986 - Louis V becomes King of the Franks.
1127 - Assassination of Charles I, Count of Flanders.
1444 - Skanderbeg organizes a group of Albanian nobles to form the League of Lezhe.
1476 - Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy hands Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in the Canton of Neuchatel.
1484 - The College of Arms is formally incorporated by a Royal Charter, signed by King Richard III of England.
1498 - Vasco da Gama's fleet visits the Island of Mozambique.
1561 - Mendoza, Argentina, is founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro del Castillo.
1657 - Great Fire of Meireki: A fire in Edo (now Tokyo) kills 100,000 people and lasts three days.
1776 - American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units arrest the Royal Governor of Georgia, James Wright, and attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in the Battle of Rice Boats.
1791 - Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.
1797 - The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes.
1798 - The Swiss Canton of Thurgau is created.
1807 - United States Congress bans the importation of more slaves into the country.
1811 - Argentine War of Independence: A royalist fleet defeats a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolas.
1815 - Signing of the Kandyan Convention Treaty between the British and the King of Sri Lanka.
1818 - Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzani re-discovers the tomb in the Chephren Pyramid in Egypt, though he finds it empty.
1825 - Blida, in Algeria, is hit by an earthquake, killing 7,000 people.
1836 - The Republic of Texas declares its independence from Mexico.
1855 - Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.
1861 - The Dakota Territory is created, covering the current states of North Dakota, South Dakota and parts of Montana and Wyoming. Yankton, South Dakota is the territorial capital.
1877 - Rutherford B. Hayes is declared the winner of the 1876 US presidential election, despite Samuel J. Tilden winning the popular vote.
1882 - Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean in Windsor.
1885 - Sino-French War: French victory in the Battle of Hoa Moc, near Tuyen Quang, North Vietnam.
1899 - The Mount Rainier National Park in the State of Washington, is created.
1901 2000
1903 - In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel opens, the first hotel only to cater for women.
1917 - The Jones-Shafroth Act grants United States citizenship to people from Puerto Rico.
1919 - The first Communist International meets in Moscow.
1933 - The Sanriku earthquake in Japan, measuring at magnitude 8.4, kills almost 3,000 people.
1933 - The movie King Kong opens at New York City's Radio Music Hall.
1935 - Prajadhipok abdicates as King of Thailand, being succeeded by the 9-year-old Ananda Mahidol.
1939 - cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope on his 63rd birthday. He chooses to be known as Pope Pius XII.
1943 - World War II: In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, US and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh is elected President of North Vietnam.
1949 - Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II airplane at Fort Worth, Texas, after flying non-stop around the world in 94 hours and 1 minute.
1949 - The first automatic street light is installed in New Milford, Connecticut.
1955 - Norodom Sihanouk abdicates as King of Cambodia, in favour of his father, Norodom Suramarit.
1956 - Morocco declares independence from France.
1958 - Edmund Hillary and Vivian Fuchs complete their crossing of Antarctica.
1962 - In Burma, the Army, led by Ne Win, seizes power in a coup.
1962 - Basketball: Wilt Chamberlain sets an NBA record by scoring 100 points in a single game.
1965 - United States and South Vietnamese Air Forces begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
1969 - Soviet and Chinese forces clash at the border outpost on the Ussuri River.
1969 - In Toulouse, the first test flight of Concorde is carried out.
1970 - Rhodesia declares itself a Republic.
1972 - The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
1978 - Czechoslovakian Vladimir Remek becomes the first human in space who is neither Soviet or American.
1983 - Compact Discs and Compact Disc players are released in the United States, though they were already available in Japan.
1987 - The Chrysler Group takes over the American Motors Corporation.
1989 - 12 European Community nations agree to ban the production of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
1990 - Nelson Mandela is declared Deputy Head of the African National Congress.
1991 - Battle of Rumaila takes place at the end of the Gulf War.
1992 - San Marino joins the UN, along with the former Soviet States of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
1993 - The 1993 Storm of the Century begins to form in the North Atlantic Ocean.
1998 - Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has an ocean of liquid water under a thick crust of ice.
1998 - In Austria, 10-year-old Natascha Kampusch is kidnapped by Wolfgang Priklopil and is held in captivity until her escape in 2006, after which Priklopil commits suicide.
2000 - Former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet is allowed to return home after the United Kingdom refused to extradite him to Spain on torture charges.
From 2001
2002 - As part of the US invasion of Afghanistan, Operation Anaconda is launched.
2004 - Iraq War: Al-Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Kerbala, killing 270 people.
2004 - In the US, John Kerry becomes the Democrats' candidate for the US presidential election, which he loses to George W. Bush eight months later.
2006 - The Nintendo DS goes on sale in Japan.
2008 - Dmitry Medvedev is elected President of Russia, due to Vladimir Putin's term limits, though Putin becomes Prime Minister.
2009 - President of Guinea-Bissau Joao Bernardo Vieira is killed in an armed attack on his home.
2012 - 27 people are killed as tornadoes sweep across the States of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
2017 - Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are held after the collapse of the power-sharing government.
2019 - The SpX-DM1 space mission is launched; it is the first United States-launched manned mission since 2011.
Births
Up to 1900
959 - Emperor En'yu of Japan (d. 991)
1241 - Isabella of France, Queen of Navarre (d. 1271)
1316 - King Robert II of Scotland (d. 1390)
1459 - Pope Adrian VI (d. 1523)
1544 - Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and library founder (d. 1613)
1760 - Camille Desmoulins, French lawyer and journalist (d. 1794)
1769 - DeWitt Clinton, 6th Governor of New York (d. 1828)
1779 - Joel Roberts Poinsett, American statesman (d. 1851)
1793 - Sam Houston, President and Governor of Texas (d. 1863)
1800 - Yevgeny Baratynsky, Russian poet (d. 1844)
1810 - Pope Leo XIII (d. 1903)
1816 - Alexander Bullock, 26th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1882)
1820 - Multatuli, Dutch writer (d. 1887)
1824 - Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer (d. 1884)
1829 - Carl Schurz, German politician and revolutionary (d. 1906)
1836 - John W. Foster, United States Secretary of State (d. 1917)
1842 - Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer (d. 1914)
1843 - Princess Maria Clotilde of Saxony (d. 1911)
1851 - Franz von Liszt, German jurist (d. 1919)
1859 - Sholom Aleichem, Russian novelist (d. 1916)
1860 - Susanna M. Salter, American politician (d. 1961)
1862 - Boris Borisovich Galitzine, Russian physicist (d. 1916)
1868 - Edmund Schulthess, Swiss politician (d. 1944)
1876 - Pope Pius XII (d. 1958)
1878 - Wander Johannes de Haas, Dutch physicist and mathematician (d. 1960)
1880 - Ivar Kreuger, Swedish industrialist, known for the match stick monopoly (d. 1932)
1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (d. 1957)
1885 - Victor Houteff, Bulgarian religious reformer and writer (d. 1955)
1886 - Leo Gehr von Schweppenburg, German general (d. 1974)
1894 - Alexander Oparin, Soviet biochemist (d. 1980)
1900 - Kurt Weill, German-born American composer (d. 1950)
1901 1950
1901 - Grete Hermann, German mathematician (d. 1984)
1902 - Edward Condon, American physicist (d. 1974)
1904 - Dr. Seuss, American writer (d. 1991)
1905 - Marc Blitzstein, American composer (d. 1964)
1905 - Roberto Francisco Chiari Remon, 31st President of Panama (d. 1981)
1908 - Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov, Soviet sniper (d. 1968)
1908 - Walter Bruch, German electrical engineer (d. 1990)
1909 - Mel Ott, American baseball player (d. 1958)
1912 - Henry Katzman, American composer and pianist (d. 2001)
1912 - William Thayer Tutt, American ice hockey executive (d. 1989)
1913 - Celedonio Romero, Spanish guitarist (d. 1996)
1914 - Martin Ritt, American movie director (d. 1990)
1917 - Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born actor, musician and bandleader (d. 1986)
1918 - Michael Rye, American voice actor (d. 2012)
1919 - Jennifer Jones, American actress (d. 2009)
1919 - Tamara Toumanova, Russian ballerina and actress (d. 1996)
1921 - Cornelius Edward Gallagher, American politician (d. 2018)
1921 - Kazimierz Gorski, Polish footballer (d. 2006)
1921 - Ernst Haas, Austrian photojournalist (d. 1986)
1922 - Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, American jazz tenor saxophonist (d. 1986)
1923 - Masao Ono, Japanese footballer (d. 2001)
1923 - Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster (d. 1999)
1923 - Orrin Keepnews, American songwriter and producer (d. 2015)
1923 - Dave Strack, American basketball coach (d. 2014)
1923 - Robert H. Michel, American soldier and politician (d. 2017)
1924 - Cal Abrams, American baseball player (d. 1997)
1926 - Murray Rothbard, American economist and philosopher (d. 1995)
1926 - George Patrick Leonard Walker, British volcanologist (d. 2005)
1926 - Bernard Agre, Ivorian cardinal (d. 2014)
1930 - John Cullum, American actor and singer
1930 - Pat Arrowsmith, British author and peace campaigner
1930 - Tom Wolfe, American writer (d. 2018)
1930 - Sergei Kovalev, Russian dissident and politician
1931 - Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
1931 - Jean Perimony, French actor and theatre director (d. 2017)
1932 - Gun Hagglund, Swedish television journalist (d. 2011)
1934 - Howard Cassady, American football player (d. 2019)
1937 - Abdelaziz Bouteflika, former President of Algeria (d. 2021)
1937 - Denny Crum, American basketball coach
1938 - Aleksandar Kostov, Bulgarian footballer (d. 2019)
1938 - Ricardo Lagos, former President of Chile
1939 - Irina Bogacheva, Russian mezzo-soprano (d. 2019)
1939 - Takako Shimazu, Japanese royal
1940 - Billy McNeill, Scottish footballer (d. 2019)
1940 - Mamnoon Hussain, 12th President of Pakistan
1940 - Lothar de Maiziere, German lawyer and politician
1941 - John Cornell, Australian actor, director, producer and businessman
1941 - David Satcher, 16th Surgeon General of the United States
1942 - Kwang Jo Choi, Korean taekwondo champion
1942 - Lou Reed, American singer and guitarist (d. 2013)
1942 - Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Iranian politician
1942 - John Irving, American writer
1943 - Zygfryd Blaut, Polish footballer (d. 2005)
1943 - Tony Meehan, British musician (d. 2005)
1943 - B. Subhashan Reddy, Indian judge (d. 2019)
1944 - Uschi Glas, German actress
1947 - Harry Redknapp, English football manager
1947 - Yuri Matiyasevich, Russian mathematician
1947 - Glenn O'Brien, American journalist, editor and television presenter (d. 2017)
1948 - Larry Carlton, American musician
1948 - Jeff Kennett, Australian politician, 43rd Premier of Victoria
1948 - Rory Gallagher, Irish musician, songwriter and bandleader (d. 1995)
1949 - Alain Chamfort, French singer
1949 - Gates McFadden, American actress
1949 - J. P. R. Williams, Welsh rugby player
1950 - Karen Carpenter, American singer (d. 1983)
1951 1975
1951 - Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize
1952 - Laraine Newman, American actress, comedienne and writer
1953 - Russ Feingold, American politician
1954 - Eddie Johnstone, Canadian ice hockey player
1955 - Jay Osmond, American drummer and singer
1955 - Ken Salazar, American politician
1955 - Shoko Asahara, Japanese cult leader (Aum Shinrikyo)
1956 - Mark Evans, Australian musician (AC/DC)
1956 - John Cowsill, American musician
1956 - Eduardo Rodriguez, former President of Bolivia
1957 - Mark Dean, American computer scientist
1958 - Ian Woosnam, Welsh golfer
1958 - Kevin Curren, South African tennis player
1959 - Larry Stewart, American singer
1960 - Debra Marshall, American wrestler, manager and actress
1961 - Simone Young, Australian conductor
1962 - Raimo Summanen, Finnish ice hockey player and coach
1962 - Morioka Hiroyuki, Japanese writer
1962 - Jon Bon Jovi, American musician (Bon Jovi)
1963 - Anthony Albanese, Australian politician
1963 - Henry Bolton, British politician, former leader of UKIP
1965 - Lembit Opik, British politician
1968 - Daniel Craig, British actor
1970 - Alexander Armstrong, British comedian and television presenter
1970 - James Purnell, British politician
1971 - Dave Gorman, British comedian
1971 - Lisa Lackey, Australian actress
1971 - Amber Smith, American actress and model
1971 - Method Man, American rapper, producer and actor
1971 - Norbert Hofer, Austrian politician
1972 - Mauricio Pochettino, Argentine footballer
1973 - Trevor Sinclair, English footballer
1973 - Dejan Bodiroga, Serbian basketball player
From 1976
1976 - Franca, Brazilian footballer
1977 - Chris Martin, English musician (Coldplay)
1977 - Andrew Strauss, English cricketer
1979 - Sergei Davydov, Belarussian figure skater
1979 - Damien Duff, Irish footballer
1979 - Francesco Tavano, Italian footballer
1979 - Nicky Weaver, English footballer
1980 - Rebel Wilson, Australian actress
1981 - Bryce Dallas Howard, American actress, writer and director
1981 - Lance Cade, American professional wrestler (d. 2010)
1982 - Henrik Lundqvist, Swedish ice hockey player
1982 - Kevin Kuranyi, German footballer
1982 - Ben Roethlisberger, American football player
1982 - Pilou Asbaek, Danish actor
1982 - Jade Galbraith, Canadian ice hockey player
1983 - Ryan Shannon, American ice hockey player
1983 - Lisandro Lopez, Argentine footballer
1984 - Elizabeth Jagger, English model and actress
1985 - Suso Santana, Spanish footballer
1985 - Luke Pritchard, British singer (The Kooks)
1986 - Babacar Gueye, French-Senegalese footballer
1988 - Matthew Mitcham, Australian diver
1988 - James Arthur, British singer
1988 - Dexter Pittman, American basketball player
1989 - Toby Alderweireld, Belgian footballer
1989 - Marcel Hirscher, Austrian alpine skier
1990 - Rauno Alliku, Estonian footballer
1990 - Lee Hongki, South Korean singer and actor
1993 - Mariya Yaremchuk, Ukrainian singer
1997 - Becky G, American rapper
1998 - Tua Tagovailoa, American football player
2016 - Prince Oscar, Duke of Skane, Swedish royal
Deaths
Up to 1900
672 - Chad of Mercia, Anglo-Saxon abbot
855 - Lothair I, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor (b. 795)
1127 - Charles I, Count of Flanders
1316 - Marjorie Bruce, died shortly after giving birth to Robert II of Scotland, (b. 1296)
1589 - Alessandro Farnese, Italian cardinal (b. 1520)
1619 - Anne of Denmark, Queen Consort of Scotland, England and Ireland (b. 1574)
1729 - Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and scientist (b. 1662)
1791 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (b. 1703)
1797 - Horace Walpole, English politician and writer (b. 1717)
1829 - Karl Gottfried Hagen, German polymath (b. 1749)
1835 - Francis, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1768)
1840 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, German physician and astronomer (b. 1758)
1855 - Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (b. 1796)
1895 - Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)
1895 - Isma'il Pasha, Governor of Egypt (b. 1830)
1901 2000
1919 - Melchora Aquino, Filipino national hero (b. 1812)
1921 - Nicholas I of Montenegro (b. 1841)
1930 - D. H. Lawrence, British writer (b. 1885)
1939 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (b. 1874)
1943 - Gisela Januszewska, Austrian physicist (b. 1867)
1945 - Emily Carr, Canadian artist (b. 1871)
1949 - Pietro Ferrero, Italian businessman and confectioner (b. 1898)
1953 - James Lightbody, American athlete (b. 1882)
1960 - Stanislaw Taczak, Polish general (b. 1874)
1962 - Charles Jean de la Vallee-Poussin, Belgian mathematician (b. 1866)
1965 - Mikheil Tsereteli, Georgian historian and diplomat (b. 1878)
1967 - Jose Martinez Ruiz, Spanish poet and writer (b. 1873)
1975 - Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, Kenyan politician and opposition activist (b. 1929) (unsolved murder)
1982 - Philip K. Dick, American writer (b. 1928)
1987 - Randolph Scott, American actor and director (b. 1898)
1987 - Lolo Soetoro, Indonesian stepfather of Barack Obama (b. 1935)
1991 - Serge Gainsbourg, French singer (b. 1928)
1994 - Maurice Bambier, French politician (b. 1925)
1994 - Anita Morris, American actress and singer (b. 1943)
1999 - Dusty Springfield, English singer (b. 1939)
2000 - Sandra Schmirler, Canadian curler (b. 1963)
From 2001
2003 - Hank Ballard, American singer (b. 1927)
2004 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (b. 1918)
2007 - Henri Troyat, French writer (b. 1911)
2008 - Jeff Healey, Canadian musician (b. 1966)
2009 - Joao Bernardo Vieira, President of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1939)
2009 - Ernst Benda, German politician (b. 1925)
2010 - Winston Spencer-Churchill, British politician (b. 1940)
2011 - Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistani politician (b. 1968)
2011 - Thor Vilhjalmsson, Icelandic writer (b. 1925)
2013 - Hans Schnitger, Dutch field hockey player (b. 1915)
2014 - Ryhor Baradulin, Belarussian painter (b. 1935)
2014 - Molly Bobak, Canadian writer, painter and printmaker (b. 1922)
2014 - Peter Bares, German composer (b. 1936)
2015 - Francisco Gonzalez Ledesma, Spanish novelist, comics writer, and journalist (b. 1927)
2015 - Dave Mackay, Scottish footballer (b. 1934)
2015 - Dean Hess, American minister and air force colonel (b. 1917)
2016 - Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern, German royal and art historian (b. 1932)
2016 - Aubrey McClendon, American energy and basketball executive (b. 1959)
2016 - Janusz Bolonek, Polish Roman Catholic prelate and diplomat (b. 1938)
2016 - Marion Patrick Jones, Trinidadian writer (b. 1931)
2016 - Paul Webley, English educator (b. 1953)
2017 - Tommy Gemmell, Scottish footballer (b. 1943)
2017 - Simon Hobday, South African golfer (b. 1940)
2017 - Howard Schmidt, American cybersecurity advisor (b. 1950)
2017 - Andres Ocana, Spanish politician (b. 1954)
2018 - Gillo Dorfles, Italian art critic, painter and philosopher (b. 1910)
2018 - Ota Filip, Czech novelist and journalist (b. 1930)
2018 - Brandon Jenkins, American singer-songwriter (b. 1969)
2018 - Carlo Ripa di Meana, Italian politician (b. 1929)
2019 - Arnulf Baring, German political scientist and historian (b. 1932)
2019 - Keith Davis, New Zealand rugby union player (b. 1930)
2019 - Fred Hill, American baseball coach (b. 1934)
2019 - Med Hondo, Mauritanian-French film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1936)
2019 - Francisco Macri, Italian-Argentine businessman (b. 1930)
2019 - Keith Harvey Miller, American politician, 3rd Governor of Alaska (b. 1925)
2019 - Ogden R. Reid, American politician and diplomat (b. 1925)
2019 - Werner Schneyder, Austrian director and actor (b. 1937)
2019 - Rafael Torija de la Fuente, Spanish Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1927)
Observances
Independence Day (Morocco)
Texas Independence Day
Read Across America Day in the United States (Birthday of Dr. Seuss)
Victory at Adwa Day (Ethiopia)
Peasants Day (Burma)
March 02