2 August Events

August 2 is the 214th day of the year (215th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 151 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Friday or Saturday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Wednesday (56).

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 – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae.
70 – The armies of Titus destroy the Second Temple as the final blow of the Siege of Jerusalem.
461 – Majorian is arrested near Tortona (northern Italy) and deposed by the Suebian general Ricimer as puppet emperor.
1274 – Edward I of England returns from the Ninth Crusade and is crowned King seventeen days later.
1343 – After the execution of her husband, Jeanne de Clisson sells her estates and raises a force of men with which to attack French shipping and ports.
1377 – Russian troops are defeated in the Battle on Pyana River.
1415 – Thomas Grey, conspirator against King Henry V, beheaded.
1610 – During Henry Hudson's search for the Northwest Passage, he sails into what is now known as Hudson Bay.
1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.
1790 – The first United States 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 Edo society class system is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.
1870 – Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom.
1873 – The Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating the first cable car in San Francisco's famous cable car system.
1897 – Anglo-Afghan War: The Siege of Malakand ends when a relief column is able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand states.
1903 – The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Ottoman Empire begins.
1914 – The German occupation of Luxembourg during World War I begins.
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 – Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes U.S. President upon the death of President Warren G. Harding.
1932 – The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.
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 Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.
1943 – Jewish prisoners stage a revolt at Treblinka, one of the deadliest of Nazi death camps where approximately 900,000 persons were murdered in less than 18 months.
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.
1944 – World War II: The largest trade convoy of the world wars arrives safely in the Western Approaches.
1945 – World War II: End of the Potsdam Conference.
1947 – A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian airliner crashes into a mountain during a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. The wreckage would not be found until 1998.
1964 – Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident: North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox.
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 restored 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.
1998 – The Second Congo War begins.
1999 – The Gaisal train disaster claims 285 lives in Assam, India.
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.
2014 – At least 146 people were killed and more than 114 injured in an explosion at a factory near Shanghai.

Holidays and observances

Airmobile Forces Day (Ukraine)
Christian feast day:
Basil Fool for Christ (Russian Orthodox Church)
Blessed Justin Russolillo
Eusebius of Vercelli
Peter Faber
Peter Julian Eymard
Pope Stephen I
Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula (Franciscan Order)
Samuel David Ferguson (Episcopal Church)
August 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Azerbaijani cinema (Azerbaijan)
Our Lady of the Angels Day (Costa Rica)
Paratroopers Day (Russia)
Republic Day (Republic of Macedonia)

Source: wikipedia