September 2

September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years). There are 120 days remaining.

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Events

• 31 BC – Roman Civil War: Battle of Actium – Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
• 1649 – The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.
• 1666 – The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral.
• 1752 – The United Kingdom adopts the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.
• 1789 – United States Department of the Treasury was founded.
• 1807 – British Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon. 70% of the city was destroyed and 2000 citizens were killed.
• 1862 – American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George McClellan to full command after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Second Bull Run.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Union forces under General William T. Sherman enter Atlanta, Georgia a day after the Confederate defenders fled the city.
• 1867 – Mutsuhito, the Meiji Emperor of Japan marries Ichijo Masako. The Empress consort is thereafter known as Lady Haruko.
• 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan – Prussian forces defeat the French armies and take emperor Napoleon III and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner at Sedan.
• 1885 – In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
• 1898 – Battle of Omdurman – British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan.
• 1901 – Vice President Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.
• 1935 – Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: A large hurricane hit the Florida Keys killing 423.
• 1939 – Following the invasion of Poland, Freie Stadt Danzig Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) ruled by Nazi leader Forster is annexed to Nazi Germany.
• 1944 – Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
• 1945 – World War II ends: The final official surrender of Japan was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
• 1945 – Vietnam declares its independence forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).
• 1963 – CBS Evening News becomes network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.
• 1967 – The microstate Principality of Sealand unilaterally declared its independence.
• 1969 – The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.
• 1987 – In Moscow, the trial of 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna airplane into Red Square in May 1987, begins.
• 1991 – The United States recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
• 1995 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio.
• 1998 – In Canada, pilots for Air Canada launch the first strike in company's history.
• 1998 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 airliner carrying Swissair Flight 111 crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia after taking off from New York City en-route to Geneva. All 229 people on board are killed.
• 1998 – A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.

Births

• 1830 – William P. Frye, American politician
• 1838 – Liliuokalani of Hawaii, Queen of Hawaii (d. 1917)
• 1850 – Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer
• 1853 – Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
• 1866 – Hiram Johnson, Governor of California and political activist
• 1877 – Frederick Soddy, British chemist
• 1884 – Dr. Frank C. Laubach, Christian missionary
• 1917 – Cleveland Amory, author
• 1923 – Rene Thom, French mathematician
• 1924 – Daniel arap Moi, President of Kenya
• 1929 – Hal Ashby, film director
• 1934 – Dominic Chianese, actor
• 1936 – Andrew Grove, American computer chip manufacturer
• 1944 – Al Matthews, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1948 – Terry Bradshaw, American football player
• 1948  – Christa McAuliffe, American schoolteacher and astronaut (d. 1986)
• 1951 – Mark Harmon, actor
• 1952 – Jimmy Connors, American tennis player
• 1953 – John Zorn, American musician
• 1961 – Eric Dickerson, American football player
• 1961 – Carlos Valderrama, Colombian footballer
• 1964 – Keanu Reeves, American actor
• 1965 – Lennox Lewis, Canadian-British boxer
• 1966 – Salma Hayek, Mexican actress
• 1969 – Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey, singer
• 1971 – Tommy Maddox, American football player
• 1972 – Sergei Zholtok, hockey player

Deaths

• 421 – Constantius III, Roman Emperor
• 1274 – Prince Munetaka, 6th Kamakura shogun in Japan (b. 1242)
• 1540 – Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia
• 1764 – Revd Nathaniel Bliss, Astronomer Royal
• 1832 – Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, Scientific Editor, Astronomer
• 1834 – Thomas Telford, British civil engineer
• 1898 – Wilford Woodruff, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1807)
• 1921 – Anthony Francis Lucas Croatian-American oil exploration pioneer (b.1855)
• 1921 – Henry Austin Dobson, poet (b. 1840)
• 1934 – Alcide Nunez, jazz musician (b. 1884)
• 1937 – Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games (b. 1863)
• 1953 – US General Jonathan Wainwright, Medal of Honor recipient
• 1964 – Alvin York, most decorated American soldier of World War I
• 1981 – Andrija Maurovic, Croat illustrator (b.1901)
• 1973 – J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer (b. 1892)
• 1973 – Carl Dudley,American movie director (b. 1910)
• 1976 – Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist (b. 1934)
• 1992 – Barbara McClintock, American geneticist
• 1997 – Rudolph Bing, opera manager
• 1998 – Allen Drury, author
• 2000 – Elvera Sanchez, Puertorican dancer
• 2000 – Curt Siodmak, science fiction author
• 2001 – Christiaan Barnard, South African heart surgeon
• 2001 – Troy Donahue, actor
• 2004 – Joan Oró, Scientist.

Holidays and observances

• Mauritius – Ganesh Chaturthi

External links

• BBC: On This Day

September 1 – September 3 – August 2 – October 2 – more historical anniversaries