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 Josemaría Escrivá.
 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 São 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 Gérard 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 – Víctor 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 writer
 1927 – Uta Ranke-Heinemann, German theologian and writer
 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 Sívori, 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
 1965 –  Ferhan and Ferzan Önder, Turkish–Austrian pianists
 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 Défago, 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 – François 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 Rüssmann, German footballer (b. 1950)
 2013 – Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician and inventor (b. 1919)
 2014 – Vaughn O. Lang, American general (b. 1927)
 2014 – Pedro Peña, 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 Sábat, 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