July 2

July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining.

It is the middle day of a non-leap year, because there are 182 days before and 182 days after. It falls on the same day of the week as New Year's Day (of non-leap years) and New Year's Eve.

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Events

• 1578 – Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island.
• 1613 – First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia – led by Samuel Argall.
• 1644 – Battle of Marston Moor in the English Civil War.
• 1679 – Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi – led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.
• 1776 – The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with Great Britain, though a formal Declaration of Independence is not adopted until July 4.
• 1777 – Vermont becomes the first state to abolish slavery.
• 1808 – Simon Fraser reaches Pacific near New Westminster.
• 1819 – The Factory Act is passed in Britain, creating restrictions on child labor.
• 1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinque take over the slave ship Amistad.
• 1850 – The self-contained gas mask is patented by Benjamin J. Lane.
• 1853 – The Russian Army invades Turkey, beginning the Crimean War.
• 1863 – Second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
• 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from infection on September 19.
• 1890 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
• 1900 – First zeppelin flight on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
• 1917 – 48 die in rioting in East St. Louis, Illinois, as lower-paid black laborers clash with whites.
• 1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator.
• 1940 – The Battle of Britain begins.
• 1947 – An object speculated to be a UFO crashes near Roswell, New Mexico, though the United States Air Force claims it is a weather balloon.
• 1950 – Henri Queuille becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law.
• 1973 – James R. Schlesinger is sworn in as the 12th United States Secretary of Defense.
• 1976 – North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
• 1978 – Charon, a satellite of the planet Pluto, is discovered.
• 1979 – The first U.S. coin to honor a woman, the Susan B. Anthony dollar, is introduced.
• 1982 – Larry Walters uses 45 helium balloons and a lawnchair to propel himself to 16,000 feet.
• 1985 – Andrei Gromyko is appointed President of the Soviet Union.
• 2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) after more than 70 years of continious rule from the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).
• 2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.

Births

• 419 – Valentinian III, Roman Emperor (d. 455)
• 1262 – Arthur II, Duke of Brittany (d. 1312)
• 1489 – Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1556)
• 1644 – Abraham a Santa Clara, court vicar (d. 1709)
• 1714 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (d. 1787)
• 1724 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (d. 1803)
• 1821 – Sir Charles Tupper, sixth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1915)
• 1862 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics (d. 1942)
• 1865 – Lily Braun, German writer (d. 1916)
• 1877 – Hermann Hesse, German writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature (d. 1962)
• 1884 – Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist (d. 1931)
• 1900 – Tyrone Guthrie, English actor (d. 1971)
• 1903 – King Olav V of Norway (d. 1991)
• 1903 – Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
• 1906 – Hans Bethe, Nobel Prize-winning German-born nuclear physicist
• 1908 – Thurgood Marshall, U. S. Supreme Court justice (d. 1993)
• 1923 – Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature
• 1925 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (d. 1961)
• 1925 – Medgar Evers, American civil rights activist (d. 1963)
• 1927 – Ruth Berghaus, choreographer and film director (d. 1996)
• 1929 – Imelda Marcos, First Lady of the Philippines
• 1930 – Carlos Menem, President of Argentina
• 1931 – Robert Ito, actor and ballet dancer
• 1932 – Dave Thomas, American fast food entrepreneur (d. 2002)
• 1937 – Richard Petty, American race car driver
• 1942 – Vicente Fox, President of Mexico
• 1946 – Richard Axel, Nobel Prize-winning American scientist
• 1947 – Larry David, American television producer
• 1955 – Andrew Divoff, Venezuelan actor
• 1956 – Jerry Hall, American actress and model
• 1957 – Bret "Hitman" Hart, Canadian professional wrestler
• 1958 – Thomas Bickerton, American Methodist bishop
• 1959 – Mike Hallett, English snooker player
• 1964 – Jose Canseco, Cuban-born baseball player
• 1964 – Andrea Pia Yates, American mother who drowned her five children
• 1970 – Yancy Butler, American actress
• 1971 – Evelyn Lau, Canadian author
• 1974 – Matthew Reilly, Australian author
• 1976 – Tomas Vokoun, Czech hockey player
• 1981 – Alex Koroknay-Palicz, American youth rights activist
• 1983 – Michelle Branch, American popular musician
• 1986 – Lindsay Lohan, American actress

Deaths

• 862 – St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester
• 1298 – Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg
• 1566 – Michel de Nostradame, French seer (b. 1503)
• 1778 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher (b. 1712)
• 1833 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine leader
• 1912 – Tom Richardson, English cricketer (b. 1870)
• 1932 – King Manuel II of Portugal (b. 1889)
• 1937 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator (disappeared) (b. 1897)
• 1961 – Ernest Hemingway, American author, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature (b. 1899)
• 1964 – Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, American race car driver (b. 1929)
• 1966 – Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (b. 1900)
• 1972 – Joseph Fielding Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1876)
• 1973 – Betty Grable, American actress (b. 1916)
• 1977 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born writer (b. 1899)
• 1989 – Andrei Gromyko, Soviet foreign minister (b. 1909)
• 1991 – Lee Remick, American actress (b. 1935)
• 1997 – James Stewart, American actor (b. 1908)
• 1999 – Mario Puzo, American author (b. 1920)
• 2004 – Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Portuguese writer and poet (b. 1919)

Holidays and observances

• Feast of the Visitation in the Roman Catholic Church
• Palio di Provenzano in Siena

External links

• BBC: On This Day

July 1 – July 3 – June 2 – August 2 — listing of all days