2nd July - Definition and Overview

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.

Events

1500-1899

• 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.
• 1865 - The Salvation Army is founded in London, England.
• 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.

1900-1999

• 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.

2000-2099

• 2002 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.

Births

400-1899

• 419 - Valentinian III, Roman Emperor (d. 455)
• 1644 - Abraham a Santa Clara, court vicar (d. 1709)
• 1714 - Christoph Willibald Gluck, composer (d. 1787)
• 1724 - Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, poet (d. 1803)
• 1821 - Sir Charles Tupper, Father of Canadian Confederation, sixth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1915)
• 1862 - William Henry Bragg, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1915 (d. 1942)
• 1865 - Lily Braun, writer (d. 1916)
• 1877 - Hermann Hesse, writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1946 (d. 1962)
• 1884 - Alfons Maria Jakob, neurologist (d. 1931)

1900-1999

• 1900 - Tyrone Guthrie, actor, Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival, (d. 1971)
• 1903 - Olav V, King of Norway (d. 1991)
• 1903 - Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the UK (d. 1995)
• 1906 - Hans Bethe, Nobel-winning nuclear physicist
• 1908 - Thurgood Marshall, US Supreme Court Justice (d. 1993)
• 1923 - Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet (Nobel Prize, 1996)
• 1925 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo (Leopoldville) (d. 1961)
• 1925 - Medgar Evers, civil rights activist (d. 1963)
• 1927 - Ruth Berghaus, choreographer/film director (d. 1996)
• 1929 - Imelda Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippines
• 1930 - Carlos Menem, former President of Argentina
• 1931 - Robert Ito, actor, ballet dancer
• 1932 - Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's International (d. 2002)
• 1937 - Richard Petty, NASCAR driver
• 1942 - Vicente Fox, president of Mexico
• 1946 - Richard Axel, Nobel prize winning scientist
• 1947 - Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld
• 1956 - Jerry Hall, actress/model, ex-wife of Mick Jagger
• 1958 - Thomas Bickerton, United Methodist Bishop
• 1959 - Mike Hallett, English snooker player
• 1964 - Jose Canseco, baseball player
• 1964 - Andrea Pia Yates, mother who drowned her five children
• 1970 - Yancy Butler, actress
• 1971 - Evelyn Lau, pop author
• 1974 - Matthew Reilly, Australian author
• 1976 - Tomas Vokoun, NHL hockey player
• 1980 - Gaurav Dhup, Very Famous Personality
• 1981 - Alex Koroknay-Palicz, youth rights activist
• 1983 - Michelle Branch, popular musician
• 1986 - Lindsay Lohan, actress
• 1957 - Bret "Hitman" Hart, Pro Wrestler

Deaths

1500-1899

• 1566 - Michel de Nostradame (AKA Nostradamus), seer
• 1778 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher (b. 1712)
• 1833 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine leader

1900-1999

• 1932 - King Manuel II of Portugal
• 1937 - Amelia Earhart, aviator, disappears
• 1961 - Ernest Hemingway, author, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature (1954)
• 1964 - Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, NASCAR 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, actress
• 1977 - Vladimir Nabokov, writer
• 1989 - Andrei Gromyko, Soviet foreign minister
• 1991 - Lee Remick, actress
• 1997 - James Stewart, actor
• 1999 - Mario Puzo, author (b. 1920)

2000-2099

• 2004 - Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Portuguese writer and poet

Holidays and observances

July 1 - July 3 - June 2 - August 2 -- listing of all days