July 2

This date marks the halfway point of the year. In common years, the midpoint of the year occurs at noon on this date, while in leap years, it occurs at midnight (start of the day).

Events

Pre-1600

* 437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome.
* 626 – Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident.
* 706 – In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang inters the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang'an.
* 866 – Battle of Brissarthe: The Franks led by Robert the Strong are defeated by a joint Breton-Viking army.
* 936 – King Henry the Fowler dies in his royal palace in Memleben. He is succeeded by his son Otto I, who becomes the ruler of East Francia.
* 963 – The Byzantine army proclaims Nikephoros II Phokas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
* 1298 – The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
* 1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas is ratified by Spain.
* 1504 – Bogdan III the One-Eyed becomes Voivode of Moldavia.
* 1555 – Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola.
*1561 – Menas, emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz.
* 1582 – Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.

1601–1900

* 1613 – The first English expedition (from Virginia) against Acadia led by Samuel Argall takes place.
*1644 – English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor.
* 1645 – Battle of Alford: Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
* 1698 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.
* 1723 – Bach's Magnificat is first performed.
* 1724 – On the Feast of the Visitation, Bach leads the first performance of his ', BWV10, the fifth cantata of his chorale cantata cycle.
*1776 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress adopts the Lee Resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain, although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not adopted until July 4.
* 1816 – The strikes the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board have to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting '' The Raft of the Medusa''.
*1822 – Thirty-five slaves, including Denmark Vesey, are hanged in South Carolina after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion.
* 1823 – Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.
*1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutiny and take over the slave ship '' Amistad''.
*1840 – A 7.4 earthquake strikes present-day Turkey and Armenia; combined with the effects of an eruption on Mount Ararat, kills 10,000 people.
*1853 – The Russian Army crosses the Prut river into the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia), providing the spark that will set off the Crimean War.
*1864 – Dimitri Atanasescu founds the first Romanian school in the Balkans for the Aromanians in Trnovo, in the Ottoman Empire (now in North Macedonia).
* 1871 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States.
* 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James A. Garfield (who will die of complications from his wounds on September 19).
*1890 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act.
*1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
*1900 – An airship designed and constructed by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany made its first flight on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen.
* 1900 – Jean Sibelius' ''Finlandia'' receives its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus.

1901–present

*1921 – World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany.
*1934 – The Night of the Long Knives ends after three days of killings.
* 1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
*1940 – Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta.
* 1940 – World War II: The SS ''Arandora Star'' is sunk by U-47 in the North Atlantic with the loss of over 800 lives, mostly civilians.
*1962 – The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
*1964 – Civil rights movement: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
*1966 – France conducts its first nuclear weapon test in the Pacific, on Moruroa Atoll.
*1976 – End of South Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam annexes the former South Vietnam to form the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
* 1986 – Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
* 1986 – Aeroflot Flight 2306 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Syktyvkar Airport in Syktyvkar, in present-day Komi Republic, Russia, killing 54 people.
* 1988 – Marcel Lefebvre and the four bishops he consecrated were excommunicated by the Holy See.
*1990 – In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca.
*1994 – USAir Flight 1016 crashes near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, killing 37 of the 57 people on board.
*1997 – The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis.
*2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
*2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted.
*2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
*2005 – The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.
*2008 – Colombian conflict: Íngrid Betancourt, a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, is released from captivity after being held for six and a half years by FARC.
*2010 – The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people.
*2013 – The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.
* 2013 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.
*2024 – A stampede during a religious event in Uttar Pradesh, India, leaves at least 121 people dead and 150 others injured.

Births

Pre-1600

* 419 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (died 455)
* 1363 – Maria, Queen of Sicily (died 1401)
* 1478 – Louis V, Elector Palatine (died 1544)
*1486 – Jacopo Sansovino, Italian sculptor and architect (died 1570)
* 1489 – Thomas Cranmer, English archbishop, theologian, and saint (died 1556)
*1492 – Elizabeth Tudor, English daughter of Henry VII of England (died 1495)
* 1500 – Federico Cesi (cardinal), Italian cardinal (died 1565)
* 1575 – Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Derby, English noblewoman and head of state of the Isle of Man (died 1627)
* 1597 – Theodoor Rombouts, Flemish painter (died 1637)

1601–1900

*1647 – Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, English politician, Lord President of the Council (died 1730)
* 1648 – Arp Schnitger, German organ builder (died 1719)
* 1665 – Samuel Penhallow, English-American soldier and historian (died 1726)
* 1667 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal and art collector (died 1740)
* 1714 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (died 1787)
* 1724 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet and author (died 1803)
* 1797 – Francisco Javier Echeverría, Mexican businessman and politician. President of Mexico (1841) (died 1852)
* 1819 – Charles-Louis Hanon, French pianist and composer (died 1900)
*1820 – George Law Curry, American publisher and politician, 5th Governor of the Oregon Territory (died 1878)
* 1820 – Juan N. Méndez, Mexican general and interim president, 1876-1877 (died 1894)
* 1821 – Charles Tupper, Canadian physician and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Canada (died 1915)
* 1825 – Émile Ollivier, French statesman (died 1913)
* 1834 – Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack, Dutch economist and historian (died 1917)
*1849 – Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (died 1919)
*1862 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1942)
*1865 – Lily Braun, German author and publicist (died 1916)
* 1869 – Liane de Pougy, French-Swiss dancer and author (died 1950)
*1876 – Harriet Brooks, Canadian physicist and academic (died 1933)
* 1876 – Wilhelm Cuno, German businessman and politician, Chancellor of Germany (died 1933)
*1877 – Hermann Hesse, German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1962)
* 1877 – Rinaldo Cuneo, American artist ("the painter of San Francisco") (died 1939)
* 1881 – Royal Hurlburt Weller, American lawyer and politician (died 1929)
* 1884 – Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist and author (died 1931)
* 1893 – Ralph Hancock, Welsh gardener and author (died 1950)
*1900 – Tyrone Guthrie, English actor and director (died 1971)
* 1900 – Sophie Harris, English costume and scenic designer for theatre and opera (died 1966)

1901–present

* 1902 – K. Kanapathypillai, Sri Lankan author and academic (died 1968)
* 1903 – Alec Douglas-Home, English cricketer and politician, 66th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1995)
* 1903 – Olav V of Norway (died 1991)
* 1904 – René Lacoste, French tennis player and businessman, created the polo shirt (died 1996)
*1906 – Hans Bethe, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2005)
* 1906 – Károly Kárpáti, Hungarian Jewish wrestler (died 1996)
* 1906 – Séra Martin, French middle-distance runner (died 1993)
* 1908 – Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and civil rights activist, 32nd Solicitor General of the United States, and former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1993)
*1911 – Reg Parnell, English race car driver and manager (died 1964)
*1913 – Max Beloff, Baron Beloff, English historian and academic (died 1999)
*1914 – Frederick Fennell, American conductor and educator (died 2004)
* 1914 – Ethelreda Leopold, American actress (died 1988)
* 1914 – Mário Schenberg, Brazilian physicist and engineer (died 1990)
* 1914 – Erich Topp, German admiral (died 2005)
* 1915 – Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, British peer, politician and soldier (died 2014)
* 1916 – Ken Curtis, American actor and singer (died 1991)
* 1916 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German colonel and pilot (died 1982)
* 1916 – Reino Kangasmäki, Finnish wrestler (died 2010)
* 1916 – Zélia Gattai, Brazilian author and photographer (died 2008)
*1917 – Leonard J. Arrington, American author and academic, founded the Mormon History Association (died 1999)
*1918 – Athos Bulcão, Brazilian painter and sculptor (died 2008)
* 1918 – Indumati Bhattacharya, Indian politician (died 1990)
* 1919 – Jean Craighead George, American author (died 2012)
* 1920 – John Kneubuhl, Samoan-American historian, screenwriter, and playwright (died 1992)
* 1922 – Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer (died 2020)
* 1922 – Paula Valenska, Czech actress (died 1994)
*1923 – Cyril M. Kornbluth, American soldier and author (died 1958)
* 1923 – Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012)
* 1924 – Chia-ying Yeh, Chinese-born Canadian poet and sinologist (died 2024)
*1925 – Medgar Evers, American soldier and activist (died 1963)
* 1925 – Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (died 1961)
* 1925 – Marvin Rainwater, American singer-songwriter (died 2013)
*1926 – Octavian Paler, Romanian journalist and politician (died 2007)
*1927 – Lee Allen, American saxophone player (died 1994)
* 1927 – James Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern, Scottish lawyer and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
* 1927 – Brock Peters, American actor (died 2005)
* 1929 – Imelda Marcos, Filipino politician; 10th First Lady of the Philippines
* 1930 – Ahmad Jamal, American jazz musician (died 2023)
* 1930 – Carlos Menem, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 50th President of Argentina (died 2021)
* 1931 – Mohammad Yazdi, Iranian cleric (died 2020)
*1932 – Dave Thomas, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy's (died 2002)
*1933 – Peter Desbarats

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