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 Macedonians and Aromanians against Ottoman, 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 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 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 – Rómulo 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 
 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.
 Republic Day (North Macedonia)
 Emancipation Day (Bahamas)

August 02