On this day in history

July 2

28 births · 17 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

1997 Asian financial crisis

29 years ago

Born this day

1877

Hermann Hesse

Would be 149

Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

Oldest record

1607th

Valentinian III

birth anniversary

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Famous births28

AD 419 · 1607 yrs

Valentinian III

Valentinian III (Latin: Placidus Valentinianus; 2 July 419 – 16 March 455) was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Starting in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by civil wars among powerful generals and the barbarian invasions.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 35

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1489 · 537 yrs

Thomas Cranmer

Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was an English theologian who was a leader of the English Reformation and served as Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a martyr in the Church of England.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 66

View profile Photo (modified): Gerlach Flicke · Public domain

1714 · 312 yrs

Christoph Willibald von Gluck

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck (German:; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire at the time, he gained prominence at the Habsburg court in Vienna.

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MusicDied aged 73

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1724 · 302 yrs

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (German:; 2 July 1724 – 14 March 1803) was a German poet. His best known works are the epic poem Der Messias ("The Messiah") and the poem Die Auferstehung ("The Resurrection"), with the latter set to music in the finale of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 78

View profile Photo (modified): Jens Juel · Public domain

1862 · 164 yrs

William Henry Bragg

Sir William Henry Bragg (2 July 1862 – 12 March 1942) was a British X-ray crystallographer who uniquely shared a Nobel Prize with his son Lawrence Bragg – the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays," an important step in the development of X-ray…

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ScienceDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel foundation · Public domain

1877 · 149 yrs

Hermann Hesse

Hermann Karl Hesse (German:; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet and novelist, and winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. His interest in Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis, helped shape his literary work.

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LiteratureWould be 149

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1903 · 123 yrs

Alec Douglas-Home

Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), known as Lord Dunglass from 1918 to 1951 and the Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963, was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1964.

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PoliticsWould be 123

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1903 · 123 yrs

Olav V of Norway

Olav V (born Prince Alexander of Denmark; 2 July 1903 – 17 January 1991) was King of Norway from 1957 until his death in 1991. Olav was born on the royal Sandringham Estate in England, the only child of Prince Carl of Denmark and Princess Maud of Wales.

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RoyaltyWould be 123

View profile Photo (modified): Unidentified photographer · Public domain

1906 · 120 yrs

Hans Bethe

Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe (German:; 2 July 1906 – 6 March 2005) was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.

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ScienceWould be 120

View profile Photo (modified): Los Alamos National Laboratory · Attribution

1916 · 110 yrs

Hans-Ulrich Rudel

Hans-Ulrich Rudel (2 July 1916 – 18 December 1982) was a German ground-attack pilot during World War II and a post-war neo-Nazi activist.

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AviationWould be 110

View profile Photo (modified): Video: Kameramann des Special Film Project 186 der United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) / Screenshot: Lewenstein · Public domain

1922 · 104 yrs

Pierre Cardin

Pietro Costante Cardin (2 July 1922 – 29 December 2020), known as Pierre Cardin, was an Italian-French fashion designer. He is known for what were his avant-garde style and Space Age designs.

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ArtWould be 104

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1923 · 103 yrs

Wisława Szymborska

Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska (Polish:; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent (now part of Kórnik in west-central Poland), she resided in Kraków until the end of her life.

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LiteratureWould be 103

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Showing 12 of 28

Famous deaths17

1778 · 248 yrs

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (UK:, US:; French:; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosophe, writer, and composer.

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LiteratureDied aged 66

View profile Photo (modified): Maurice Quentin de La Tour · Public domain

1843 · 183 yrs

Samuel Hahnemann

Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann ( HAH-nə-mən, German:; 10 April 1755 – 2 July 1843) was a German medical doctor, best known for creating the pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine called homeopathy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 88

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1850 · 176 yrs

Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–1835), and Home Secretary (1822–1827, 1828–1830).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 62

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1915 · 111 yrs

Porfirio Díaz

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (Spanish:; baptized 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915), commonly known as Porfirio Díaz, was a Mexican army general and politician who was the dictator of Mexico from 1876 until his overthrow in 1911.

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PoliticsDied aged 84

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1916 · 110 yrs

Élie Metchnikoff

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (15 May 1845 – 15 July 1916), gallicised and known in Western sources as Élie Metchnikoff, was a zoologist from the Russian Empire of Moldavian noble ancestry best known for his research in immunology (study of immune systems) and thanatology (study of death).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 71

View profile Photo (modified): Nadar · Public domain

1932 · 94 yrs

Manuel II of Portugal

Dom Manuel II (15 November 1889 – 2 July 1932), sometimes known as the Unfortunate (o Desaventurado) or the Patriot (o Patriota), was the last king of Portugal, reigning from 1908 until 1910. Manuel was born in the Palace of Belém, Lisbon, during the reign of his father, Carlos I. He was his third and youngest child.

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RoyaltyWould be 136

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1949 · 77 yrs

Georgi Dimitrov

Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov, also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician and revolutionary who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 to 1949, and the first leader of the Communist People's Republic…

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PoliticsWould be 144

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1961 · 65 yrs

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway ( HEM-ing-way; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 127

View profile Photo (modified): Lloyd Arnold · Public domain

1977 · 49 yrs

Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков; 22 April 1899 – 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (Владимир Сирин), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 127

View profile Photo (modified): Walter Mori (Mondadori Publishers) · Public domain

1989 · 37 yrs

Andrei Gromyko

Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (18 July 1909 – 2 July 1989) was a Soviet politician and diplomat during the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1957–1985) and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1985–1988).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 118

View profile Photo (modified): Mieremet, Rob / Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

1991 · 35 yrs

Lee Remick

Lee Ann Remick (December 14, 1935 – July 2, 1991) was an American actress.

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FilmWould be 90

View profile Photo (modified): Original photograph by Allan Warren · CC BY-SA 3.0

1994 · 32 yrs

Andrés Escobar

Andrés Escobar Saldarriaga (Spanish pronunciation:; 13 March 1967 – 2 July 1994) was a Colombian professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He played for Atlético Nacional, BSC Young Boys, and the Colombia national team.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 59

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Showing 12 of 17

Events5

1964 · 62 yrs

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub. L. 88–352, 78 Stat.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1972 · 54 yrs

Simla Agreement

The Simla Agreement, also spelled Shimla Agreement, is a bilateral peace treaty and framework agreement signed between India and Pakistan on 2 July 1972 in Shimla, the capital of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1997 · 29 yrs

1997 Asian financial crisis

The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

2005 · 21 yrs

Live 8

Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 2005.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Culture

2016 · 10 yrs

July 2016 Baghdad bombings

On 3 July 2016, Islamic State (IS) militants carried out coordinated bomb attacks in Baghdad that killed up to 1,000 civilians and injured hundreds more.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

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