2nd September
September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years). There are 120 days remaining.
Events
- 31 BC - Roman Civil War: Battle of Actium - Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
- 1666 - Great Fire of London: A large fire breaks out in London in the house of Charles II's baker on Pudding Lane near London Bridge. The fire burns for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died.
- 1752 - The United Kingdom adopts the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.
- 1789 - United States Department of the Treasury was founded.
- 1862 - American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George McClellan to full command after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Second Bull Run.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Union forces under General William T. Sherman enter Atlanta, Georgia a day after the Confederate defenders fled the city.
- 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan - Prussian forces defeat the French armies and take emperor Napoleon III and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner at Sedan.
- 1885 - In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
- 1898 - Battle of Omdurman - British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan.
- 1935 - Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: A large hurricane hit the Florida Keys killing 423.
- 1944 - Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
- 1945 - World War II ends: The final official surrender of Japan was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. But in Japan August 14 is well recognized as the final day of the Pacific War.
- 1945 - Vietnam declares its independence forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).
- 1963 - CBS Evening News becomes network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.
- 1967 - The microstate Principality of Sealand unilaterally declared its independence.
- 1987 - In Moscow, the trial of 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna airplane into Red Square in May 1987, begins.
- 1995 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio.
- 1998 - In Canada, pilots for Air Canada launch the first strike in company's history.
- 1998 - A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 airliner carrying Swissair Flight 111 crashes near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia after taking off from New York City en-route to Geneva. All 229 people on board are killed.
- 1998 - A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.
Births
- 1850 - Albert Spalding, American baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer
- 1853 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist
- 1866 - Hiram Johnson, former Governor of California and political activist
- 1877 - Frederick Soddy, British chemist
- 1884 - Dr. Frank C. Laubach, Christian missionary and founder of Laubach Literacy
- 1917 - Cleveland Amory, author
- 1923 - Rene Thom, French mathematician
- 1929 - Hal Ashby, film director
- 1936 - Andrew Grove, co-founder and chairman of Intel
- 1948 - Christa McAuliffe, American teacher, astronaut
- 1948 - Terry Bradshaw, American football player
- 1951 - Mark Harmon, actor
- 1952 - Jimmy Connors, American tennis player
- 1961 - Carlos Valderrama, Colombian football player
- 1964 - Keanu Reeves, American actor
- 1965 - Lennox Lewis, Canadian/British boxer
- 1968 - Salma Hayek, Mexican actress
Deaths
- 1764 - Revd Nathaniel Bliss, Astronomer Royal
- 1832 - Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, Scientific Editor, Astronomer
- 1834 - Thomas Telford, British civil engineer
- 1937 - Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games
- 1953 - US General Jonathan Wainwright, Medal of Honor recipient
- 1964 - Alvin York, most decorated American soldier of World War I
- 1969 - Ho Chi Minh, president of North Vietnam
- 1981 - Andrija Maurovic, Croatian illustrator
- 1973 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer
- 1992 - Barbara McClintock, American geneticist
- 1998 - Allen Drury, author
- 2000 - Curt Siodmak, science fiction author
- 2001 - Christiaan Barnard, South African heart surgeon
- 2001 - Troy Donahue, actor
September 1 - September 3 - August 2 - October 2 - more historical anniversaries
See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
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