2 August 2024 (MIA)

338 BC – A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean.

216 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army under command of consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro.

461 – Majorian is arrested near Tortona (Northern Italy) and deposed by the Suebian general Ricimer as puppet emperor.

1343 – Olivier de Clisson is found guilty of treason and beheaded at Les Halles in Paris. As a result, his wife, Jeanne de Clisson, sold their holding, bought a fleet of ships, and took to the sea as a pirate to seek revenge against the French King and nobility.

1377 – Russian troops are defeated in the Battle on Pyana River.

1610 – Henry Hudson sails into what is now known as Hudson Bay thinking he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.

1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.

1790 – The first United States Census is conducted.

1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: the Battle of the Nile concludes in a British victory.

1830 – Charles X of France abdicates the throne in favor of his grandson Henri.

1869 – Japan’s samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869).

1870 – Tower Subway, the world’s first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom.

1873 – The Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating the first cable car in San Francisco’s famous cable car system.

1897 – Anglo-Afghan War: The Siege of Malakand ends when a relief column is able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand states adjacent to India’s North West Frontier Province.

1903 – The Ilinden Uprising is organized against the Ottoman Empire. This event is considered a milestone in Macedonian history.

1916 – World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.

1918 – Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.

1918 – The first general strike in Canadian history takes place in Vancouver.

1922 – A typhoon hits Shantou, Republic of China killing more than 50,000 people.

1937 – The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, the effect of which is to render marijuana and all its by-products illegal.

1939 – Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.

1943 – Rebellion in the Nazi death camp of Treblinka.

1943 – World War II: the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.

1944 – The first General Assembly of ASNOM (Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People’s Liberation of Macedonia) took place at St. Prohor Pcinski monastery near Kumanovo. 122 delegates attended the meeting. The decision for the Republic of Macedonia to become a member of Yugoslavia was confirmed in the meeting. ASNOM was designated as the highest legislative body of the Macedonian people, and the Macedonian language became the official language in Macedonia.

1944 – World War II: The largest trade convoy of the world wars arrives safely in the Western Approaches.

1947 – A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian airliner crashes into a mountain during a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. The wreckage would not be found for over 50 years.

1964 – Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident – North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox.

1968 – An earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing more than 270 people and wounding 261.

1973 – A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.

1980 – A bomb explodes at the railway station in Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200.

1985 – Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport killing 137.

1989 – Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restoring democracy for the first time since 1972.

1989 – A massacre is carried out by an Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 64 ethnic Tamil civilians.

1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

1998 – The Second Congo War begins.

2005 – Air France Flight 358, lands at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and runs off the runway causing the plane to burst into flames leaving 12 injuries and no fatalities.

2014 – At least 146 people were killed and more than 114 injured in an explosion at a factory near Shanghai.