On this day: July 2

Events on July 2

• 311 Beginning of the papacy of Pope Miltiades. Wikipedia
• 626 Li Shimin led his forces to assassinate his rival brothers in a coup for the imperial throne of Tang China. Wikipedia
• 866 Battle of Brissarthe: The Franks led by Robert the Strong are defeated by a joint Breton-Viking army. Wikipedia
• 1724 On the Feast of the Visitation, Bach led the first performance of his Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, based on the German Magnificat. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolution: The Continental Congress adopts the Lee Resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain. The wording of the formal Declaration of Independence was agreed upon and publicly released two days later, on July 4. Wikipedia
• 1779 American Revolutionary War: French troops landed near St. George's, Grenada, and began their capture of the island. Wikipedia
• 1823 Bahia Independence Day: The Siege of Salvador ends Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia. Wikipedia
• 1840 A Ms 7.4 earthquake strikes present-day Turkey and Armenia; combined with the effects of an eruption on Mount Ararat, kills 10,000 people. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg - the Battle of Little Round Top takes place and results in a Union victory after the Confederate troops unsuccessfully try to assault the Union left flank. Wikipedia
• 1881 U.S. president James A. Garfield was fatally shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C. Wikipedia
• 1881 Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James A. Garfield (who will die of complications from his wounds on September 19). Wikipedia
• 1890 The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act. Wikipedia
• 1917 In the leadup to the Battle of Aqaba, T. E. Lawrence and his Arab forces defeat a battalion of Ottomans at Abu al-Lissan. Wikipedia
• 1921 World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany. Wikipedia
• 1937 Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean and disappear while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight. Wikipedia
• 1941 A German SS unit arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, and began the systematic execution of up to 100,000 people over the next three years. Wikipedia
• 1964 Civil rights movement: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places. Wikipedia
• 1976 More than a year after the end of the Vietnam War, North and South Vietnam officially merged under communist rule to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Wikipedia
• 1976 End of South Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam annexes the former South Vietnam to form the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Wikipedia
• 1986 Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile in the Quemados case. Wikipedia
• 1986 Aeroflot Flight 2306 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Syktyvkar Airport in Syktyvkar, in present-day Komi Republic, Russia, killing 54 people. Wikipedia
• 1990 In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca. Wikipedia
• 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling, the second novel of the Harry Potter series, was published. Wikipedia
• 2013 In the Indonesian province of Aceh on the northern end of Sumatra, a Mw 6.1 strike-slip earthquake killed at least 35 people and injured 276 others. Wikipedia
• 2013 A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others. Wikipedia
• 2024 A stampede during a religious event in Uttar Pradesh, India, leaves at least 121 people dead and 150 others injured. Wikipedia

Born on July 2

• 419 Valentinian III, Roman emperor (died 455) Wikipedia
• 1489 Thomas Cranmer, English archbishop, theologian, and Protestant martyr (died 1556) Wikipedia
• 1492 Elizabeth Tudor, English daughter of Henry VII of England (died 1495) Wikipedia
• 1714 Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (died 1787) Wikipedia
• 1724 Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet and author (died 1803) Wikipedia
• 1862 William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1942) Wikipedia
• 1876 Wilhelm Cuno, German businessman and politician, Chancellor of Germany (died 1933) Wikipedia
• 1877 Hermann Hesse, German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1962) Wikipedia
• 1903 Alec Douglas-Home, English cricketer and politician, 66th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1903 Olav V, Norwegian king, 1957–1991 (died 1991) Wikipedia
• 1906 Hans Bethe, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1908 Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and civil rights activist, 32nd Solicitor General of the United States, and former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1993) Wikipedia
• 1923 Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1925 Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (died 1961) Wikipedia
• 1929 Imelda Marcos, Filipino politician; 10th First Lady of the Philippines Wikipedia
• 1930 Carlos Menem, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 50th President of Argentina (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1942 Vicente Fox, Mexican businessman and politician, 35th President of Mexico Wikipedia
• 1946 Richard Axel, American neuroscientist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1947 Larry David, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1985 Ashley Tisdale, American actress, singer, and producer Wikipedia
• 1986 Lindsay Lohan, American actress and singer Wikipedia
• 1990 Margot Robbie, Australian actress and producer Wikipedia

Died on July 2

• 866 Robert the Strong, Frankish nobleman Wikipedia
• 1566 Nostradamus, French astrologer and author (born 1503) Wikipedia
• 1591 Vincenzo Galilei, Italian lute player and composer (born 1520) Wikipedia
• 1743 Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1673) Wikipedia
• 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and composer (born 1712) Wikipedia
• 1850 Robert Peel, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1788) Wikipedia
• 1915 Porfirio Díaz, Mexican general and politician, 29th President of Mexico (born 1830) Wikipedia
• 1961 Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1977 Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born novelist and critic (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1997 James Stewart, American actor (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 1999 Mario Puzo, American author and screenwriter (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 2013 Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist, invented the computer mouse (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2016 Patrick Manning, 4th & 6th Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (born 1946) Wikipedia
• 2016 Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, activist, and author (born 1928) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Aberoh and Atom (Coptic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bernardino Realino Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Eugénie Joubert Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Feast of the Visitation (Anglicanism; Levoča at Mariánska hora) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Monegundis Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Oudoceus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Martinian and Processus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pishoy (Coptic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Stephen III of Moldavia (Romanian Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: July 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Flag Day (Curaçao) Wikipedia
• Palio di Provenzano (Siena, Italy) Wikipedia
• Police Day (Azerbaijan) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “July 2” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.