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.

Events

1500-1899

• 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 U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

1900-1999

• 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.

2000-2099

• 2000 - Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) after more than 70 years of continious rule from the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).
• 2002 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.

Births

400-1899

• 419 - Valentinian III, Roman Emperor (d. 455)
• 1489 - Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1556)
• 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)

1900-1999

• 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)
• 1923 - Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet (Nobel Prize, 1996)
• 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
• 1940 - Larry Jacober , teacher, principal & superintendent of Carbondale Elementary Schools
• 1942 - Vicente Fox, president of Mexico
• 1946 - Richard Axel, Nobel prize winning scientist
• 1947 - Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld
• 1955 - Andrew Divoff, actor
• 1956 - Jerry Hall, actress/model, ex-wife of Mick Jagger
• 1957 - Bret "Hitman" Hart, pro wrestler
• 1958 - Thomas Bickerton, United Methodist Bishop
• 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

800-1899

• 862 - St. Swithun, bishop of Winchester
• 1566 - Michel de Nostradame, seer
• 1778 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher (b. 1712)
• 1833 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine leader

1900-1999

• 1912 - Tom Richardson, great fast bowler and record-breaking wicket-taker for Surrey between 1893 and 1897 (b. 1870).
• 1932 - King Manuel II of Portugal
• 1937 - Amelia Earhart, aviator, disappears
• 1961 - Ernest Hemingway, author, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature (1954)
• 1964 - Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, NASCAR race car driver (b. 1929)
• 1966 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (b. 1900)
• 1972 - Joseph Fielding Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1876)
• 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 (b. 1920)

2000-2099

• 2004 - Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Portuguese writer and poet

Holidays and observances

• Feast of the Visitation in the Roman Catholic Church
• Palio di Provenzano in Siena

External links

• BBC: On This Day

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