On this day: September 2

Events on September 2

• 44 BC Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion. Wikipedia
• 31 BC Final War of the Roman Republic: Battle of Actium: Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Wikipedia
• 1192 The Treaty of Jaffa is signed between Richard I of England and Saladin, leading to the end of the Third Crusade. Wikipedia
• 1666 A large fire began in London's Pudding Lane and burned for five days, destroying St Paul's Cathedral and the homes of 70,000 of the city's 80,000 inhabitants. Wikipedia
• 1789 The United States Department of the Treasury was founded following financial concerns in the new nation. Wikipedia
• 1792 French Revolution: Due to an overwhelming fear that foreign armies would attack Paris and prisoners would revolt, revolutionaries began the summary execution of more than a thousand prisoners. Wikipedia
• 1807 Napoleonic Wars: The British Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon. Wikipedia
• 1859 The Carrington Event is the strongest geomagnetic storm on record. Wikipedia
• 1862 American Civil War: United States President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Wikipedia
• 1870 Franco-Prussian War: Prussian forces captured Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan, which led to the collapse of the Second French Empire within days. Wikipedia
• 1885 White miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, attacked Chinese-American immigrants, killing at least 28 Chinese miners and causing approximately $150,000 in property damage. Wikipedia
• 1898 Battle of Omdurman: British and Egyptian troops defeat Sudanese tribesmen and establish British dominance in Sudan. Wikipedia
• 1901 U.S. vice president Theodore Roosevelt first publicly used the phrase "speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair, describing his philosophy of negotiating peacefully while simultaneously threatening to use military force. Wikipedia
• 1912 Arthur Rose Eldred became the first person to attain the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. Wikipedia
• 1939 World War II: Following the start of the invasion of Poland the previous day, the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed by Nazi Germany. Wikipedia
• 1945 On the deck of the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, representatives from the Empire of Japan and the Allied powers signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender , formally ending World War II. Wikipedia
• 1946 The interim government of India, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, was formed to assist the transition of India from British rule to independence. Wikipedia
• 1957 South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm began an official visit to Australia, the first by a foreign incumbent head of state to the country. Wikipedia
• 1967 Paddy Roy Bates proclaimed HM Fort Roughs, a former World War II Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk, England, as an independent sovereign state: the Principality of Sealand. Wikipedia
• 1985 Hurricane Elena, an unpredictable and damaging tropical cyclone that affected eastern and central portions of the United States Gulf Coast, made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, as a Category 3 major hurricane. Wikipedia
• 1987 In Moscow, the trial begins for 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna airplane into Red Square in May. Wikipedia
• 1992 An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw off the coast of Nicaragua became the first tsunami earthquake to be captured on modern broadband seismic networks. Wikipedia
• 1998 A fire in the cockpit on Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to Geneva, caused the aircraft to crash into the Atlantic Ocean near Canada, killing all 229 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2008 Google launches its Google Chrome web browser. Wikipedia
• 2011 Bad weather caused a Chilean Air Force aircraft to crash into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 21 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2019 Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 hurricane, devastates the Bahamas, killing at least five. Wikipedia

Born on September 2

• 1778 Louis Bonaparte, French-Dutch king (died 1846) Wikipedia
• 1838 Liliʻuokalani, Last sovereign monarch of Hawaiʻi (died 1917) Wikipedia
• 1839 Henry George, American economist and author (died 1897) Wikipedia
• 1852 Paul Bourget, French author and critic (died 1935) Wikipedia
• 1853 Wilhelm Ostwald, Latvian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1932) Wikipedia
• 1877 Frederick Soddy, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1956) Wikipedia
• 1894 Joseph Roth, Austrian journalist and author (died 1939) Wikipedia
• 1913 Bill Shankly, Scottish footballer and manager (died 1981) Wikipedia
• 1922 Arthur Ashkin, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1924 Daniel arap Moi, Kenyan educator and politician, 2nd President of Kenya (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1933 Mathieu Kérékou, Beninese soldier and politician, President of Benin (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1934 Chuck McCann, American actor and screenwriter (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1952 Jimmy Connors, American tennis player, coach, and sportscaster Wikipedia
• 1953 Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghan commander and politician, Afghan Minister of Defense (died 2001) Wikipedia
• 1954 Andrej Babiš, Czech politician, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Wikipedia
• 1961 Carlos Valderrama, Colombian footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1962 Keir Starmer, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Wikipedia
• 1964 Keanu Reeves, Canadian actor, singer, and producer Wikipedia
• 1966 Salma Hayek, Mexican-American actress, director, and producer Wikipedia
• 1988 Javi Martínez, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Alexandre Pato, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia
• 1992 Emiliano Martínez, Argentine footballer Wikipedia

Died on September 2

• 421 Constantius III, Roman emperor Wikipedia
• 1651 Kosem Sultan, Ottoman Valide sultan and regent (born 1589) Wikipedia
• 1865 William Rowan Hamilton, Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (born 1805) Wikipedia
• 1910 Henri Rousseau, French painter (born 1844) Wikipedia
• 1937 Pierre de Coubertin, French historian and educator, founded the International Olympic Committee (born 1863) Wikipedia
• 1969 Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese politician, 1st President of Vietnam (born 1890) Wikipedia
• 1973 J. R. R. Tolkien, English novelist, short story writer, poet, and philologist (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1991 Alfonso García Robles, Mexican politician and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 1992 Barbara McClintock, American geneticist and botanist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 1997 Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (born 1905) Wikipedia
• 2001 Christiaan Barnard, South African surgeon and academic (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 2013 Ronald Coase, English-American economist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 2016 Islam Karimov, Uzbek politician, 1st President of Uzbekistan (born 1938) Wikipedia
• 2021 Mikis Theodorakis, Greek composer (born 1925) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Acepsimas of Hnaita and companions (Syriac Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Agricola of Avignon Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Antoninus of Pamiers Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Brocard Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Diomedes Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eleazar Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Hieu (abbess) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Holy September Martyrs Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ingrid of Sweden Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Justus of Lyon Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Margaret of Louvain Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maxima of Rome Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nonnosus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: William of Roskilde Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: September 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Democracy Day (Tibet) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Transnistria, unrecognized) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Artsakh, unrecognized) Wikipedia
• National Blueberry Popsicle Day (United States) Wikipedia
• National Day, celebrates the independence of Vietnam from Japan and France in 1945 Wikipedia
• Victory over Japan Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Sedantag (German Empire) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “September 2” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/September 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 “September 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 September 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. The 1945 entry comes first in the one-line summary: a short list, checked by hand, names the event a date is best known for where the order above would put a lesser one first. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.