September 2

September 2 is the 245th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (246th in leap years). There are 120 days remaining.

Events

• 44 BC - Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.
• 44 BC - The first of Cicero’s Philippics (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He will make 14 of them over the next several months.
• 31 BC - Roman Civil War: Battle of Actium - Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
• 1649 - The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.
• 1666 - The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral.
• 1752 - The United Kingdom adopts the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.
• 1789 - The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.
• 1792 - During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic Church bishops and more than two hundred priests.
• 1807 - British Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon.
• 1833 - Oberlin College is founded by John Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart.
• 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 enter Atlanta, Georgia a day after the Confederate defenders flee the city.
• 1867 - Mutsuhito, the Meiji Emperor of Japan marries Ichijo Masako. The Empress consort is thereafter known as Lady Haruko.
• 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan - Prussian forces take French Emperor Napoleon III and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner.
• 1885 - In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners attack their Chinese fellow workers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
• 1898 - Battle of Omdurman - British and Egyptian troops defeat Sudanese tribesmen and establishing British dominance in the Sudan.
• 1901 - Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.
• 1935 - Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: A large hurricane hits the Florida Keys killing 423.
• 1939 - Following the invasion of Poland, Freie Stadt Danzig Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.
• 1944 - Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving three days later.
• 1945 - World War II ends: The final official surrender of Japan is accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
• 1945 - Vietnam declares its independence, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).
• 1946 - Ayn Rand began writing Atlas Shrugged.
• 1963 - CBS Evening News becomes U.S. 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 declares its independence.
• 1969 - The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Center, New York.
• 1987 - In Moscow, the trial begins of 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna aircraft into Red Square in May 1987.
• 1990 - Transnistria unilaterally proclaimed as Soviet republic; the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev declares the decision null and void.
• 1991 - The United States recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
• 1995 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio.
• 1996 - A peace agreement is signed between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front in Malacañang Palace.
• 1998 - In Canada, pilots for Air Canada launch the first strike in company's history.
• 1998 - Swissair Flight 111 crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia. All 229 people on board are killed.
• 1998 - The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide.

Births

• 1243 - Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, English politician (d. 1295)
• 1548 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (d. 1616)
• 1661 - Georg Böhm, German organist (d. 1733)
• 1675 - William Somervile, English poet (d. 1742)
• 1805 - Esteban Echeverría, Argentine writer (d. 1851)
• 1810 - William Seymour Tyler, American educator and historian
• 1830 - William P. Frye, American politician
• 1838 - Liliuokalani of Hawaii, Queen of Hawaii (d. 1917)
• 1850 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (d. 1915)
• 1850 - Woldemar Voigt, German physicist (d. 1919)
• 1853 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
• 1854 - Hans Jæger, Norwegian writer and political activist (d. 1910)
• 1862 - Franjo Krežma, Croatian violinist (d. 1881)
• 1877 - Frederick Soddy, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1956)
• 1879 - An Jung-geun, assassin of the Japanese politician Ito Hirobumi (d. 1910)
• 1884 - Dr. Frank C. Laubach, Christian missionary (d. 1970)
• 1914 - Tom Glazer, American folk singer and songwriter (d. 2003)
• 1917 - Cleveland Amory, author (d. 1998)
• 1923 - Rene Thom, French mathematician (d. 2002)
• 1924 - Daniel arap Moi, President of Kenya
• 1929 - Hal Ashby, American film director (d. 1988)
• 1936 - Andrew Grove, American computer chip manufacturer
• 1938 - Clarence Felder, American actor
• 1941 - David Bale, South African-born activist (d. 2003)
• 1944 - Al Matthews, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1948 - Terry Bradshaw, American football player
• 1948 - Christa McAuliffe, American schoolteacher and astronaut (d. 1986)
• 1950 - Rosanna DeSoto, American actress
• 1950 - Yuen Wah, Chinese actor and stuntman
• 1951 - Mark Harmon, American actor
• 1952 - Jimmy Connors, American tennis player
• 1953 - John Zorn, American musician
• 1960 - Sue Foley, American writer
• 1961 - Eric Dickerson, American football player
• 1961 - Carlos Valderrama, Colombian footballer
• 1964 - Keanu Reeves, American actor
• 1965 - Lennox Lewis, Canadian-British boxer
• 1966 - Salma Hayek, Mexican actress
• 1968 - Cynthia Watros, American actress
• 1969 - Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey, American singer
• 1971 - Tommy Maddox, American football player
• 1972 - Sergei Zholtok, Latvian hockey player
• 1976 - Phil Lipscomb, American bassist (Taproot)
• 1982 - Joey Barton, English footballer

Deaths

• 421 - Constantius III, Roman Emperor
• 1031 - Saint Emeric of Hungary
• 1274 - Prince Munetaka, Japanese shogun (b. 1242)
• 1397 - Francesco Landini, Italian composer
• 1540 - Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1501)
• 1680 - Per Brahe (the younger), Swedish soldier and statesman (b. 1602)
• 1688 - Robert Viner, Lord Mayor of London (b. 1631)
• 1690 - Philipp Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (b. 1615)
• 1764 - Nathaniel Bliss, English Astronomer Royal (b. 1700)
• 1765 - Henry Bouquet, Swiss-born British army officer (b. 1719)
• 1768 - Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (b. 1703)
• 1790 - Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, German historian and theologian (b. 1701)
• 1813 - Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (mortally wounded in battle) (b. 1763)
• 1820 - Jiaqing, Emperor of China (b. 1760)
• 1832 - Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, Austrian astronomer (b. 1854)
• 1834 - Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (b. 1757)
• 1865 - William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician (b. 1805)
• 1872 - Nicolai Grundtvig, Danish writer and philosopher (b. 1783)
• 1898 - Wilford Woodruff, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1807)
• 1910 - Henri Rousseau, French painter (b. 1844)
• 1921 - Henry Austin Dobson, English poet (b. 1840)
• 1921 - Anthony Francis Lucas Croatian-born oil exploration pioneer (b.1855)
• 1934 - Alcide Nunez, American musician (b. 1884)
• 1937 - Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games (b. 1863)
• 1948 - Sylvanus Morley, U.S. archaeologist and spy (b. 1883)
• 1953 - Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, U.S. general (b. 1883)
• 1964 - Alvin York, most decorated American soldier of World War I (b. 1887)
• 1965 - Johannes Bobrowski, German lyricist, narrative writer, adaptor and essayist (b. 1917)
• 1969 - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese president and prime minister (b. 1890)
• 1973 - Carl Dudley, American movie director (b. 1910)
• 1973 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer (b. 1892)
• 1976 - Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist (b. 1934)
• 1985 - Abe Lenstra, Dutch footballer (b. 1920)
• 1991 - Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1911)
• 1992 - Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1902)
• 1997 - Rudolph Bing, Austrian-born opera manager (b. 1902)
• 1997 - Viktor Frankl, Italian neurologist (b. 1905)
• 1998 - Jackie Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1933)
• 1998 - Allen Drury, American author (b. 1918)
• 2000 - Elvera Sanchez, Puerto Rican dancer (d. 1905)
• 2000 - Curt Siodmak, German-born author (b. 1907)
• 2001 - Christiaan Barnard, South African heart surgeon (b. 1922)
• 2001 - Troy Donahue, American actor (b. 1936)
• 2002 - Dick Reynolds, Australian footballer and coach (b. 1915)
• 2004 - Joan Oró, Catalan scientist (b. 1923)
• 2005 - Bob Denver, American actor (b. 1935)

Holidays and observances

also see September 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• RC Saints - Saint Sophia
• Mauritius - Ganesh Chaturthi
• Transnistria - Independence day, note Transnistria is not an internationally recognized independent state
• Sedan Day (Sedantag) - traditional national German holiday (see Sedan, France) that commemorates Prussia's victory over France in 1870, making the German Empire a reality.
• Vietnam - Independence Day (from France, 1945)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

September 1 - September 3 - August 2 - October 2 - more historical anniversaries