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
• 706 The bodies of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Empress Wu Zetian were interred in the Qianling Mausoleum. Wikipedia
• 1494 Age of Discovery: The Treaty of Tordesillas is ratified by Spain. Wikipedia
• 1644 First English Civil War: The combined forces of Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians defeated Royalist troops at the Battle of Marston Moor. 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
• 1816 The French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of present-day Mauritania, with the survivors escaping on a makeshift raft, depicted in Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa. 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
• 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
• 1934 The Night of the Long Knives ends after three days of killings. 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 The Civil Rights Act was signed into law, outlawing segregation in schools, at the workplace, and other facilities that served the general public in the United States. 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
• 1990 Singing Revolution: The Soviet economic blockade of Lithuania was lifted when the Lithuanian parliament agreed to suspend the effects of their act to re-establish Lithuania as a state. Wikipedia
• 1994 USAir Flight 1016 crashes near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, killing 37 of the 57 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1997 The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis. Wikipedia
• 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling, the second novel of the Harry Potter series, was published. Wikipedia
• 2005 The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. 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 The International Astronomical Union announced that the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto to be discovered would be named Kerberos and Styx, respectively. Wikipedia
• 2020 A landslide at a jade mine in Hpakant killed 175–200 miners, the deadliest mining accident in Burmese history. 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
• 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
• 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
• 1922 Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer (died 2020) 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
• 1978 Jüri Ratas, Estonian politician, 42nd Mayor of Tallinn Wikipedia
• 1985 Ashley Tisdale, American actress, singer, and producer Wikipedia
• 1986 Lindsay Lohan, American actress and singer Wikipedia
• 1989 Alex Morgan, American soccer player Wikipedia
• 1990 Margot Robbie, Australian actress and producer Wikipedia

Died on July 2

• 936 Henry the Fowler, German king (born 876) Wikipedia
• 1566 Nostradamus, French astrologer and author (born 1503) Wikipedia
• 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and composer (born 1712) Wikipedia
• 1843 Samuel Hahnemann, German physician and academic (born 1755) 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
• 1989 Andrei Gromyko, Soviet economist and politician, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1909) Wikipedia
• 1997 James Stewart, American actor (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 1999 Mario Puzo, American author and screenwriter (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 2011 Itamar Franco, Brazilian engineer and politician, 33rd President of Brazil (born 1930) Wikipedia
• 2013 Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist, invented the computer mouse (born 1925) 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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “July 2” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/July 2” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

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 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for July 2 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.