July 2

July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining.

It is the middle day of a non-leap year, because there are 182 days before and 182 days after. It falls on the same day of the week as New Year's Day (of non-leap years) and New Year's Eve.

Jun - July - Aug
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
2004 day arrangement
All days

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances

Events

1578 - Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island.
1613 - First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia - led by Samuel Argall.
1644 - Battle of Marston Moor in the English Civil War.
1679 - Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi - led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.
1776 - The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with Great Britain, though a formal Declaration of Independence is not adopted until July 4.
1777 - Vermont becomes the first state to abolish slavery.
1808 - Simon Fraser reaches Pacific near New Westminster.
1819 - The Factory Act is passed in Britain, creating restrictions on child labor.
1839 - Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinque take over the slave ship Amistad.
1850 - The self-contained gas mask is patented by Benjamin J. Lane.
1853 - The Russian Army invades Turkey, beginning the Crimean War.
1863 - Second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
1865 - The Salvation Army is founded in London, England.
1881 - Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from infection on September 19.
1890 - The United States Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
1900 - First zeppelin flight on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
1917 - 48 die in rioting in East St. Louis, Illinois, as lower-paid black laborers clash with whites.
1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator.
1940 - The Battle of Britain begins.
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.
1950 - Henri Queuille becomes Prime Minister of France.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law.
1973 - James R. Schlesinger is sworn in as the 12th United States Secretary of Defense.
1976 - North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
1978 - Charon, a satellite of the planet Pluto, is discovered.
1979 - The first U.S. coin to honor a woman, the Susan B. Anthony dollar, is introduced.
1982 - Larry Walters uses 45 helium balloons and a lawnchair to propel himself to 16,000 feet.
1985 - Andrei Gromyko is appointed President of the Soviet Union.
2002 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.

Births

419 - Valentinian III, Roman Emperor (d. 455)
1644 - Abraham a Santa Clara, court vicar (d. 1709)
1714 - Christoph Willibald Gluck, composer (d. 1787)
1724 - Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, poet (d. 1803)
1821 - Sir Charles Tupper, Father of Canadian Confederation, sixth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1915)
1862 - William Henry Bragg, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1915 (d. 1942)
1865 - Lily Braun, writer (d. 1916)
1877 - Hermann Hesse, writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1946 (d. 1962)
1884 - Alfons Maria Jakob, neurologist (d. 1931)
1900 - Tyrone Guthrie, actor, Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival, (d. 1971)
1903 - Olav V, King of Norway (d. 1991)
1903 - Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the UK (d. 1995)
1906 - Hans Bethe, Nobel-winning nuclear physicist
1908 - Thurgood Marshall, US Supreme Court Justice (d. 1993)
1925 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo (Leopoldville) (d. 1961)
1925 - Medgar Evers, civil rights activist (d. 1963)
1927 - Ruth Berghaus, choreographer/film director (d. 1996)
1929 - Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines
1930 - Carlos Menem, former President of Argentina
1931 - Robert Ito, actor, ballet dancer
1932 - Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's International (d. 2002)
1937 - Richard Petty, NASCAR driver
1942 - Vicente Fox, president of Mexico
1947 - Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld
1956 - Jerry Hall, actress/model, ex-wife of Mick Jagger
1959 - Mike Hallett, English snooker player
1964 - Jose Canseco, baseball player
1964 - Andrea Pia Yates, mother who drowned her five children
1970 - Yancy Butler, actress
1971 - Evelyn Lau, pop author
1974 - Matthew Reilly, Australian author
1976 - Tomas Vokoun, NHL hockey player
1981 - Alex Koroknay-Palicz, youth rights activist
1983 - Michelle Branch, popular musician
1986 - Lindsay Lohan, actress

Deaths

1566 - Michel de Nostradame (AKA Nostradamus), seer
1833 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine leader
1932 - King Manuel II of Portugal
1937 - Amelia Earhart, aviator, disappears
1961 - Ernest Hemingway, author, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature (1954)
1973 - Betty Grable, actress
1977 - Vladimir Nabokov, writer
1989 - Andrei Gromyko, Soviet foreign minister
1991 - Lee Remick, actress
1997 - James Stewart, actor
1999 - Mario Puzo, author
2004 - Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Portuguese writer and poet

Holidays and observances

July 1 - July 3 - June 2 - August 2 -- listing of all days