2nd July, on this day

311 St Militiades begins his reign as Catholic Pope
626 In fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Incident at Xuanwu Gate. On September 4, Shimin's father abdicated to him, and so Shimin became Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor of China.
706 In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had the remains of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, his wife and recently-deceased ruling empress Wu Zetian, her son Li Xian, her grandson Li Chongrun, and granddaughter Li Xianhui all interred in a new tomb complex outside Chang'an known as the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang.
963 The imperial army proclaims Nicephorus Phocas to be Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
1298 The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
1561 Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia defeats a revolt in Emfraz.
1578 Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island.
1582 Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.
1613 First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia - led by Samuel Argall.
1644 English Civil War: The Battle of Marston Moor. The first victory of the war for the Parliamentary forces with Cromwell's Roundhead Army defeating the Royalist Cavaliers, commanded by Prince Rupert
1698 Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine
1679 Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi - led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.
1776 Continental Congress resolves "these United Colonies are and of right
ought to be Free and Independent States" wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not approved until July 4.
1777 Vermont becomes 1st American colony to abolish slavery
1787 de Sade shouts from Bastille that prisoners are being slaughtered
1808 Simon Fraser completes his trip down Fraser R, BC, lands at Musqueam
1819 Britain passes the Factory Act - banning the employment of children under 9 in textiles factories and limiting children under 16 from working more than 12 hours a day
1823 "Bahia Independence Day" - the end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the diehard Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.
1839 Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinque take over the slave ship Amistad.
1843 An alligator falls from the sky during a Charleston, SC thunderstorm
1850 The self-contained gas mask is patented by Benjamin J. Lane.
1853 Russian troops invade Turkey - starting the Crimean War
1858 Partial emancipation of Russian serfs
1862 Lincoln signs act granting land for state agricultural colleges
1863 Battle of Gettysburg (2nd day)
1864 General Early and Confederate forces reach Winchester
1864 Statuary Hall in US Capitol established
1865 In Britain, religious leader William Booth begins the Salavation Army with a revival meeting at Whitechapel in London
1867 1st US elevated railroad begins service, NYC
1878 The Brighton Beach Line opens in the then-city of Brooklyn.
1881 President Garfield shot by Charles J Guiteau a disappointed office-seeker
1885 Canada's North-west Insurrection ends with surrender of Big Bear
1890 Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits industrial monopolies
1900 Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin 1st airship LZ-1, flies
1900 Opening of the 2nd Olympic Games in Paris
1917 Forty-eight die in rioting in East St. Louis, Illinois, as lower-paid black laborers clash with whites.
1921 American boxer Jack Dempsey defeats Georges Carpentier in Jersey City, USA in the first fight to take more than one million dollars from entrance fees
1927 1st American to win Wimbeldon in 20 years (Helen Wills Moody)
1932 FDR makes 1st presidential nominating conventional acceptance speech
1934 The end of the Night of the Long Knives, with the death of the German Military Officer Ernst Röhm
1937 American aviators Amelia Earhart Putnam and co-pilot Fred Noonan disappear near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean during their attempt to fly round the world
1938 Helen Wills Moody (US) wins her 8th and final Wimbeldon singles
1940 Adolf Hitler orders German military commanders to draw up plans for the invasion of England
1940 The liner Arandora Star is torpedoed by a German submarine while ferrying German and Italian prisoners of war to Canada. More than 750 prisoners and crew are killed
1940 Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose arrested and detained in Calcutta.
1941 Nazi massacre of Jews in Lutsk, Ukraine. Jewish men were summoned for work, about 2000 of them were taken to the Lubart Fortress and murdered. German soldiers from rearguard units stationed in the city participated in the murder.
1943 Lt Charles Hall, becomes 1st black pilot to shoot down Nazi plane
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.
1948 Champion English golfer Henry Cotton wins the British Open Golf Championship for the third time
1950 Korean War: US troops arrive in Korea
1950 Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan was burned down.
1956 Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel"
1957 1st sub powered by liquid metal cooled reactor completed-The Seawolf
1957 1st submarine designed to fire guided missiles launched, Grayback
1962 The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
1964 American President Lyndon Johnson signs the US Civil Rights Bill prohibiting racial discrimination
1966 Billie Jean King wins her 1st of 6 Wimbeldon single titles
1966 The French military explode their nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.
1976 Formal reunification of North and South Vietnam
1976 Supreme Court ruled death penalty not inherently cruel or unusual
1977 Sweden's Bjorn Borg won Wimbeldon men's singles over Jimmy Connors
1980 Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Mickey Hart are arrested for incitement
1982 Larry Walters using lawn chair and 42 helium balloons, rose to 16,000'
1982 Soyuz T-6 returns to Earth
1985 Andrei Gromyko becomes President of the Soviet Union
1985 European Space Agency launches Giotto to Halley's Comet
1985 Proto launched to Halley's Comet
1988 Steffi Graf beats Martina Navratilova for Wimbeldon crown
1990 More than 1,000 Muslim pilgrims are killed in a human stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca
1990 Imelda Marcos and Adnan Khashoggi found not guilty of racketeering
1996 Weather experts predict global warming will have the effect of moving Britain 100 miles south in the next 25 years bringing summer droughts and winter rainstorms
1997 Six IRA terrorists who plotted to blow up electricity supply stations in the Home counties were each jailed for 35 years
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 continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).
2001 AbioCor self contained artificial heart created.
2002 Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.

2nd July 2006

EADS and Airbus bosses both quit

Israel to 'intensify' Gaza action

Saddam daughter 'safe in Jordan'

2nd July 2007

Bush woos Putin with home visit

Yemen bomb kills Spanish tourists

US links Iran to attack in Iraq

2nd July 2008

Deadly Jerusalem bulldozer attack

Fatal clashes in Mongolia capital

Calm urged after Turkey arrests

2nd July 2009

Afghan rebels capture US soldier

US opens 'major Afghan offensive'

Gay sex decriminalised in India

2nd July 2010

US spy suspects 'admit they are Russians'

Afghan suicide raid on US office

Blast kills one in Kosovo town

Birthdates which occurred on 2nd July :

419 Valentinian III Roman emperor (425-55)
1489 Thomas Cranmer England, archbishop/reformer/martyr
1714 Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck Erasbach Germany, composer
1821 Charles Tupper (C) 6th Canadian PM (1896)
1865 Lili Braun Prussia, feminist/socialist writer (Im Schatten Titanen)
1877 Hermann Hesse Switzerland, novelist/poet (Steppenwolf, Nobel 1946)
1884 Dr Otto B”hm Prussia, scientist (helped create England Radar)
1887 Marcel Tabuteau CompiŠgne France, oboist (Phila Orch 1915-54)
1894 Walter Brennan Swampscott Mass, actor (Real McCoys)
19-- Agneta Eckemyr Karlsborg Sweden, actress (Broken Sky)
19-- Kenneth McMillian Bkln NY, actor (Jack-Rhoda, Our Family Honor)
19-- Larry David Brooklyn NY, comedian (Fridays)
19-- Millie Slavin NYC, actress (Rafferty, Struck by Lightning)
1903 Lord Alex Douglas-Home (C) British PM (1963-64)
1903 Olav V England, King of Norway (1957)
1905 Jean-Rene Lacoste France, tennis champ/alligator shirt designer
1906 Hans Bethe physicist (Nobel 1967), peace worker
1908 Thurgood Marshall Md, 1st black Supreme Court justice (1967-91)
1914 Frederick Fennell Cleveland Ohio, conductor (Time & the Winds)
1916 Barry Gray radio personality (started call-in radio)
1916 Ken Curtis Lamar Colo, actor (Ripcord, Festus-Gunsmoke)
1919 Johnny Bradford Long Branch NJ, actor (Ransom Sherman Show)
1922 Dan Rowan Beggs Okla, comedian (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in)
1925 Marvin Rainwater Wichita Ks, country singer (Ozark Jubilee)
1925 Patrice Lumumba Zaire, revolutionary
1926 Lee Allen Pittsburg, Ks, tenor sax (Walkin' With Mr Lee)
1927 Brock Peters actor/singer (Carmen Jones, To Kill a Mockingbird)
1927 Cornelius "Kees" Broekman Holland, speed skater (Olympic-silver-1952)
1928 Pavel Kohout Czech, author (Poor Murderer)
1931 Robert Ito Vancouver BC, actor (Sam-Quincy ME)
1932 Sammy Turner Paterson NJ, vocalist (Lavender Blue)
1935 Gilbert Kalish Brooklyn NY, pianist/professor (SUNY Stony Brook)
1937 Polly Holliday Jasper Ala, actress (Flo-Alice, Flo-Flo)
1937 Richard Petty auto race driver (Daytona 500-1979,81)
1939 John Sununu US Secretary of State (1989-91)
1940 Georgi Ivan Ivanov 1st Bulgarian space traveler (Soyuz 33)
1946 Ron Silver NYC, actor (Gary-Rhoda, Dear Detective, Baker's Dozen)
1947 Luci Baines Johnson Nugent Turpin daughter of Pres LBJ
1952 Linda M Godwin Cape Girardeau Missouri, PhD/astronaut (STS 37)
1954 Wendy Schaal Chicago Ill, actress (It's a Living, Julie-Fantasy Is)
1956 Jeffrey Cooper guitarist (Midnight Star-No Parking)
1956 Jerry Hall Mesquite Tx, model/Mrs Mick Jagger
1956 Julie Montgomery KC Mo, actress (Samantha-1 Life to Live, Kindred)
1957 Mike Anger rocker (The Blow Monkeys-Wicked Ways)
1959 Wendy B Lawrence Jacksonville Fla, USN Lt Commander/astronaut
1961 Jimmy McNichol LA Calif, actor (Fitzpatricks, California Fever)
1964 Dave Parsons rocker (Transvision Vamp, Sham 69-That's Life)
1964 Jos‚ Canseco Havana Cuba, Oakland As (1986 Rookie Year, 1988 AL MVP)
1967 Debee Ashby Coventry England, topless model

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Deaths which occurred on July 2nd:
1566 Nostradamus French astrologer/physician/prophet, dies in Salon
1644 William Gascoigne introduced telescopic sights, is killed at 24
1798 John Fitch American inventor, clockmaker, etc, dies
1822 Denmark Vesey & 5 aides hanged at Blake's Landing, Charleston, SC
1882 James Garfield assassinated by "job-seeker"
1946 Anthony Overton publisher/cosmetics manufacturer/banker, dies at 81
1961 Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death in Ketchum Idaho
1964 Glenn "Fireball" Roberts biggest NASCAR money winner, dies in crash
1969 Brian Jones founder of the Rolling Stones, drowns
1970 Jessie Street Australian civil rights activist, dies
1973 George Macready actor (Martin Peyton-Peyton Place), dies at 73
1973 Swede Savage dies from injuries at Indianapolis 500
1987 Karl Linnas accused Nazi, dies of heart failure in Russia
1987 Michael Bennet Chorus Line director, dies of AIDS at 44
1991 Lee Remick actress, dies at 55 from cancer

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