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 has the same day of week as new year's day (of
non-leap year) and new year's eve.

Events

   * 1578 - Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island.
   * 1613 - First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia - led
     by Samuel Argall.
   * 1679 - Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of
     Mississippi - led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.
   * 1808 - Simon Fraser reaches Pacific near New Westminster.
   * 1839 - Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves
     led by Joseph CinquŽ take over the slave ship Amistad.
   * 1863 - Second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
   * 1881 - Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President
     James Garfield, who eventually dies from infection on September 19,
     1881.
   * 1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the
     Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight
     at the equator
   * 1973 - James R. Schlesinger was sworn in as the 12th United States
     Secretary of Defense.
   * 1976 - North and South Vietnam united to form the Socialist Republic of
     Vietnam.
   * 1992 - Canadian Government closes Cdn$700m northern cod fishery for two
     years, to conserve stocks.

Births

   * 419 - Valentinian III, Roman Emperor
   * 1644 - Abraham a Santa Clara, court vicar (+ 1709)
   * 1714 - Christoph Willibald Gluck, composer (+ 1787)
   * 1724 - Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, poet (+ 1803)
   * 1821 - Sir Charles Tupper, Father of Canadian Confederation, sixth
     Prime Minister of Canada
   * 1862 - William Henry Bragg, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in
     physics 1915 (+ 1942)
   * 1865 - Lily Braun, writer (+ 1916)
   * 1877 - Hermann Hesse, writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in
     literature 1946 (+ 1962)
   * 1884 - Alfons Maria Jakob, neurologist
   * 1900 - Tyrone Guthrie, actor, Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford
     Festival, (+ 1971)
   * 1903 - Olav V, King of Norway (+ 1991)
   * 1903 - Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the UK (+ 1995)
   * 1908 - Thurgood Marshall, US Supreme Court Justice (+ 1993)
   * 1925 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo (Leopoldville) (+ 1961)
   * 1925 - Medgar Evers, civil rights activist (+ 1963)
   * 1927 - Ruth Berghaus, choreographer, film director (+ 1996)
   * 1929 - Imelda Marcos, shoe collector
   * 1931 - Robert Ito, actor, ballet dancer
   * 1932 - Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's International
   * 1937 - Richard Petty, NASCAR driver
   * 1947 - Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld
   * 1956 - Jerry Hall, actress, wife of Mick Jagger

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