Iraq invades Kuwait

Born on This Day

Portrait Of James Baldwin

James Baldwin

1924 - 1987

Harlem-born essayist, playwright and novelist. Grandson of an enslaved man. Essential voice of the civil rights movement.

96th Annual Academy Awards - Arrivals

Lily Gladstone

1986 -

Actress who became the first Native American nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in "Killers of the Flower Moon."

Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende

1942 -

Chilean writer known for her magical realism style in the novels "The House of the Spirits" and "City of Beasts."

James BaldwinGetty Images

Lily GladstoneWireImage

Isabel AllendeGetty Images

1939

AUG2

Albert Einstein writes to President Franklin Roosevelt, suggesting uranium could be used to create “extremely powerful bombs of a new type.” Years later, he will call the letter the “one great mistake” of his life.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on August 2nd

Delegates sign Declaration of Independence

On August 2, 1776, members of Congress affix their signatures to an enlarged copy of the Declaration of Independence. Fifty-six congressional delegates in total signed the document, including some who were not present at the vote approving the declaration. The delegates signed by state from North to South, beginning with Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire […]

1:40m read read

The Declaration of Independence

CSS Shenandoah learns the war is over

The captain and crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, still prowling the waters of the Pacific in search of Yankee whaling ships, is finally informed by a British vessel that the South has lost the war. The Shenandoah was the last major Confederate cruiser to set sail. Launched as a British vessel in September 1863, it […]

1:24m read read

Wild Bill Hickok is murdered

“Wild Bill” Hickok, one of the greatest gunfighters of the American West, is murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota. Born in Illinois in 1837, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok first gained notoriety as a gunfighter in 1861 when he coolly shot three men who were trying to kill him. A highly sensationalized account of the gunfight […]

1:34m read read

Wild Bill Hickok, The Original Wild West Showdown

Mutiny breaks out on German battleship

On August 2, 1917, with British forces settling into new positions captured from the Germans in the much-contested Ypres Salient on the Western Front of World War I, Germany faces more trouble closer to home, as a mutiny breaks out aboard the German battleship Prinzregent Luitpold, anchored at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven. During […]

American troops land at Archangel

On August 2, 1918, United States troops land at Archangel, in northern Russia. The landing was part of an Allied intervention in the civil war raging in that country after revolution in 1917 led to the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in favor of a provisional government; the seizure of power by Vladimir Lenin and […]

2:28m read read

President Warren G. Harding dies before scandals break

In a hotel in San Francisco, President Warren G. Harding dies of a stroke at the age of 58. Harding was returning from a presidential tour of Alaska and the West Coast, a journey some believed he had embarked on to escape the rumors circulating in Washington of corruption in his administration. Harding, a relatively […]

1:28m read read

President Warren G. Harding.

Hitler becomes dictator of Germany

With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader.” The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany’s democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler’s Third Reich. The Fuhrer […]

Man murdered near L.A. reservoir

On August 2, 1942, Jose Diaz is murdered, and his body is found at the Sleepy Lagoon reservoir, near Los Angeles, California. Two days later, police began to round up and arrest 22 men of Mexican descent in the Los Angeles area for conspiring to kill Diaz. Despite a lack of evidence, the 22 men […]

2:10m read read

PT-109 sinks; Lieutenant Kennedy is instrumental in saving crew

In the early hours of August 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rams an American PT (patrol torpedo) boat, No. 109, slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive other American PT boats in the area assume the crew is dead. Two crewmen were, in fact, killed, but 11 survived, including Lt. John F. Kennedy. […]

2:02m read read

Potsdam Conference concludes

The last wartime conference of the “Big Three”—the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain—concludes after two weeks of intense and sometimes acrimonious debate. The conference failed to settle most of the important issues at hand and thus helped set the stage for the Cold War that would begin shortly after World War II […]

Sudden thunderstorm causes plane crash

On August 2, 1985, strong and sudden wind gusts cause a plane crash at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in Texas that kills 135 people. The rapid and unexpected formation of a supercell, an extremely violent form of thunderstorm, led to the tragedy. Delta Flight 191 left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the afternoon, headed for Dallas, […]

1:30m read read

Jackie Joyner-Kersee wins gold in heptathlon, again

On August 2, 1992, Jackie Joyner-Kersee becomes the first woman ever to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon. Born and raised in East St. Louis, Jackie Joyner overcame poverty and chronic asthma to win a scholarship to UCLA, where she starred on the basketball and track teams. (Jackie was not the only […]

2:20m read read

Track & Field, 1992 Summer Olympics

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