What are the important events that happened on August 2? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

August 2: Facts & Myths About This Day

August 2 is the 215^th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 151 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is July 20, 2024 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 28,709,280 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘dihectadecapentagon’ day.

Leo is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Peridot is the modern birthstone for this month. Diamond is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 180 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,242 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

August 2 Historical Events

• 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.
• 1798 –
  French Revolutionary Wars: the Battle of the Nile concludes in a British victory.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1964 –
  Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident – North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy.
• 1968 –
  An earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing more than 270 people and wounding 261.
• 1989 –
  Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restoring democracy for the first time since 1972.
• 2011 –
  Three Rapid City, South Dakota officers stop a group of suspicious people on Anamosa Street. One man pulls out a revolver and fires six shots, killing one officer, mortally wounding another, and injuring the third.

Who were born on August 2?

• 1871 –
  John French Sloan, American artist (d. 1951)
• 1899 –
  Charles Bennett, British screenwriter (d. 1995)
• 1914 –
  Beatrice Straight, American actress (d. 2001)
• 1930 –
  Vali Myers, Australian painter (d. 2003)
• 1931 –
  Eddie Fuller, South African cricketer (d. 2008)
• 1935 –
  Hank Cochran, American country music singer and songwriter (d. 2010)
• 1950 –
  Jussi Adler-Olsen, Danish author
• 1954 –
  James Charles Kopp, American anti-abortion militant, murderer of Barnett Slepian
• 1966 –
  M.V. Sridhar, Indian cricketer
• 1968 –
  John Stanier, American drummer Helmet

Who died on August 2?

• 1316 –
  Louis of Burgundy, Prince of Achaea (b. 1297)
• 1611 –
  Katō Kiyomasa, Japanese warlord and samurai (b. 1562)
• 1776 –
  Louis François I, Prince of Conti, French military leader (b. 1717)
• 1815 –
  Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, French marshal (b. 1763)
• 1922 –
  Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born Canadian inventor (b. 1847)
• 1967 –
  Walter Terence Stace, British philosopher (b. 1886)
• 1973 –
  Jean-Pierre Melville, French film director (b. 1917)
• 1974 –
  Douglas Hawkes, British racing driver (b. 1893)
• 1986 –
  Roy Cohn, American politician (b. 1927)
• 1990 –
  Edwin Richfield, British actor (b. 1921)