August
2
Events
338 BC –
A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces
of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian
hegemony in Greece and the Aegean.
216 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – The Carthaginian
army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army
under command of consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius
Varro.
461 – Majorian is arrested near Tortona (Northern Italy) and
deposed by the Suebian general Ricimer as puppet emperor.
1377 – Russian troops are defeated in the Battle on Pyana River
because of drunkenness.
1610 – Henry Hudson sails into what is now known as Hudson Bay
thinking he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached
the Pacific Ocean.
1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence
took place.
1790 – The first US Census is conducted.
1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: the Battle of the Nile concludes
in a British victory.
1830 – Charles X of France abdicates the throne in favor of
his grandson Henri.
1869 – Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system
(Shinōkōshō) 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 Hill Railroad begins operating the first
cable car in San Francisco's famous cable car system.
1897 – Anglo-Afghan wars: The Siege of Malakand ends when a
relief column is able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand
region of colonial India's North West Frontier Province.
1903 – Fall of the Ottoman Empire: an unsuccessful uprising
led by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization
against Ottoman Turkey, also known as the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie
Uprising, takes place.
1916 – World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of
the 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 more
than 50,000 people.
1923 – As vice president, Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th President
of the United States after the death of Warren G. Harding
1932 – The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered
by Carl D. Anderson.
1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
1937 – The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, the
effect of which is to render marijuana and all its by-products
illegal.
1939 – Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd write a letter to Franklin
D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan project to develop
a nuclear weapon.
1943 – Rebellion in the Nazi death camp of Treblinka.
1943 – World War II: the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed
by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy,
future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.
1944 – ASNOM: birth of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia,
celebrated as Day of the Republic in the Republic of Macedonia.
1945 – World War II: the Potsdam Conference, at which the Allied
Powers discuss the future of defeated Germany, is concluded.
1964 – Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident – North Vietnamese
gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and
USS Turner Joy.
1968 – An earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing
more than 270 people and wounding 261.
1973 – A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre
at Douglas, Isle of Man.
1980 – A bomb explodes at the railway station in Bologna, Italy,
killing 85 people and wounding more than 200.
1985 – Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport killing 137.
1989 – Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations
after having restoring democracy for the first time since 1972.
1989 – A massacre is carried out by an Indian Peace Keeping
Force in Sri Lanka killing 64 ethnic Tamil civilians.
1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
2005 – Air France Flight 358, lands at Toronto Pearson International
Airport, and runs off the runway causing the plane to burst
into flames leaving 12 injuries and no fatalities.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Alphonsus Mary de Ligouri
Basil Fool for Christ (Russian Orthodox Church)
Eusebius of Vercelli
Pope Stephen I
August 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Airborne Forces (Russia and Ukraine)
Day of Azerbaijani cinema (Azerbaijan)
Our Lady of the Angels Day (Costa Rica)
Republic Day, also known as Ilinden. (Republic of Macedonia)
For details, contact Datacentre
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