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 Fuhrer of Germany.
1937 Marijuana is made illegal in the United States.
1939 Leo Szilard 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 people died.
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 Orleans, 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 Pavia y Rodriguez de Albuquerque, Spanish general (d. 1895)
1834 Frederic 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 Francois 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 Francois 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 Nana 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 Carriere, 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 Angelica 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 Mendonca, 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 Helder 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 Luthersdottir, 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 AElfweard 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 Bleriot, 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 Lepine, 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 Noghes, 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 Francois Craenhals, Belgian comics artist (b. 1926)
2004 Jose 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
The Catholic Church celebrates on August 2, starting at noon of the preceding day, the "Perdono di Assisi", the plenary indulgence related to Saint Francis of Assisi.