October 2

2024 Calendar

October 2 is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 90 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

829 – Theophilus becomes Byzantine Emperor.
1187 – Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.
1263 – The Battle of Largs is fought between Scots and Norwegians.
1535 – Jacques Cartier discovers Montreal, Quebec.
1552 – Conquest of Kazan by Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: British spy John Andre is hanged by American forces for his role in Benedict Arnold's plot to sell West Point to the British Army.
1814 – Battle of Rancagua: Spanish royalist troops under Mariano Osorio defeat rebel Chilean forces under Bernardo O'Higgins and Jose Miguel Carrera.
1835 – Texas Revolution begins: Battle of Gonzales – Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas but encounter stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.
1836 – Naturalist Charles Darwin returns to Falmouth, England aboard the HMS Beagle after a 5-year journey collecting biological data he will later use to develop his theory of evolution.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Saltville – Union forces attack Saltville, Virginia but are defeated by Confederate troops.
1889 – In Washington, DC, the first international Conference of American States begins.
1889 – In Colorado, Nicolas Creede strikes it rich in silver during the last great silver boom of the American Old West.

1901 – 2000

1919 – US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
1924 – The Geneva Protocol is adopted as a means to strengthen the League of Nations.
1925 – John Logie Baird performs the first test of a working television system.
1928 – The "Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God", commonly known as Opus Dei, was founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá.
1935 – Italy invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
1937 – Dominican Republic leader Rafael Trujillo orders the execution of the Haitian population living within the borderlands. Around 20,000 are killed in the following few days.
1941 – World War II: Operation Typhoon – Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.
1942 – World War II: Ocean liner RMS Queen Mary accidentally hits and sinks her own escort ship HMS Curacoa off Ireland.
1944 – Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
1950 – The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven US newspapers.
1955 – The ENIAC computer is deactivated at 11:45 PM.
1955 – Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuts (last new episode aired on June 26, 1962).
1958 – Guinea declares itself independent from France.
1959 – The Twilight Zone pilot premieres.
1962 – Johnny Carson debuts as host of The Tonight Show.
1967 – Thurgood Marshall sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.
1968 – A peaceful student demonstration in Mexico City ends in the Tlatelolco massacre.
1970 – A plane carrying the Wichita State University football team, administrators andsupporters crashes in Colorado, killing 31 people.
1979 – Pope John Paul II speaks at the UN.
1984 – Elisabeth Kopp becomes the first woman to be elected to the Swiss Federal Council.
1988 – The 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul come to an end.
1990 – A Chinese airline Boeing 737-247 is hijacked; after landing at Guangzhou, crashes into an empty Boeing 707-3J6B and then a Boeing 757-21B on the ground killing 132
1992 – Hero opens in theaters, starring Dustin Hoffman.
1992 – The Carandiru Massacre takes place after a riot in the Carandiru prison system in São Paulo, Brazil.
1993 – The 1993 Moscow riots by Hardline Communists occur.
1996 – The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
1996 – An Aeroperu Boeing 757 crashes in Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff from Lima, Peru killing 70.
1997 – In the European Union the Amsterdam Treaty is signed.

From 2001

2001 – Bankruptcy of Swissair.
2002 – The Beltway sniper attacks begin.
2004 – American Samoa joins the North American Numbering Plan.
2005 – The Ethan Allen tour boat capsizes on Lake George, Upstate New York, killing 20 people.
2006 – Five schoolgirls are killed in a shooting at an Amish school in Pennsylvania, before the gunman commits suicide.
2007 – President of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun walks across the Military Demarcation Line in North Korea, on his way to the inter-Korean summit meeting with Kim Jong-il.
2009 – Rio de Janeiro is chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
2009 – Voters in Ireland support the EU's Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum.
2016 – Dozens of people are killed in a protest in Ethiopia's Oromia region.
2016 – Voters in Colombia reject a peace deal between their government and FARC by a narrow margin.
2018 – Nobel Prize in Physics: Donna Strickland becomes the 3rd woman to win the award for Physics, while Arthur Ashkin becomes the oldest-ever Nobel laureate, at age 96 (until John B. Goodenough wins the following year's Chemistry Prize at age 97); They share it with Gérard Mourou.
2018 – Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is murdered in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Births

Up to 1900

1452 – King Richard III of England (d. 1485)
1470 – Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (d. 1498)
1470 – Isabella of Naples, Duchess of Milan (d. 1524)
1538 – Charles Borromeo, Italian Catholic Saint (d. 1584)
1718 – Elizabeth Montagu, English social reformer, patron of the arts, literary critic and writer (d. 1800)
1722 – Leopold Widhalm, Austrian instrument maker (d. 1776)
1724 – Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald, French philosopher and statesman (d. 1840)
1737 – Francis Hopkinson, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1791)
1768 – William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (d. 1854)
1781 – William Wyatt Bibb, Governor of Missouri (d. 1820)
1798 – Charles Albert of Sardinia (d. 1849)
1800 – Nat Turner, American revolutionary (d. 1831)
1815 – James Agnew, Irish-Australian politician, 16th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1901)
1821 – Nino Bixio, Italian freedom fighter (d. 1873)
1828 – Charles Floquet, 55th Prime Minister of France (d. 1896)
1832 – Edward Burnett Tylor, British anthropologist (d. 1917)
1833 – William Corby, American Catholic priest (d. 1897)
1839 – Hans Thoma, German painter (d. 1924)
1847 – Paul von Hindenburg, German politician and military officer (d. 1934)
1851 – Ferdinand Foch, French soldier (d. 1929)
1852 – William Ramsay, Scottish chemist (d. 1916)
1854 – Patrick Geddes, Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer and town planner (d. 1932)
1864 – Alfred Roller, Austrian painter (d. 1935)
1867 – Theodore F. Green, Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1966)
1869 – Mahatma Gandhi, Indian spiritual leader and advocate of non-violent resistance (d. 1948)
1871 – Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State (d. 1955)
1871 – Martha Brookes Hutcheson, American landscape architect (d. 1959)
1879 – Wallace Stevens, American poet (d. 1955)
1882 – Boris Shaposhnikov, Russian military commander (d. 1945)
1890 – Groucho Marx, American actor and comedian (d. 1977)
1893 – Leroy Shield, American movie score and radio composer (d. 1962)
1895 – Bud Abbott, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Alice Prin, French singer and artist (d. 1953)
1902 – Leopold Figl, Austrian politician (d. 1965)
1904 – Graham Greene, English writer (d. 1991)
1904 – Lal Bahadur Shastri, 2nd Prime Minister of India (d. 1966)
1905 – Enchi Fumiko, Japanese writer (d. 1986)
1907 – Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Bolivian politician (d. 2001)
1907 – Alexander Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist (d. 1997)
1909 – Alex Raymond, American comic artist (d. 1956)
1910 – Aldo Olivieri, Italian footballer (d. 2001)
1911 – Tilly Fleischer, German javelin thrower (d. 2005)
1913 – Annette Rogers, American athlete (d. 2006)
1914 – Yuri Levitan, Soviet radio announcer (d. 1983)
1914 – John Whiteside Parsons, American rocket scientist, writer and occultist (d. 1952)
1915 – Chubby Wise, American bluegrass fiddler (d. 1996)
1916 – Angel Suquia Goicoechea, Spanish archbishop (d. 2006)
1917 – Christian de Duve, English-born Belgian biologist and Nobel Prize winner (d. 2013)
1919 – John W. Duarte, British composer, guitarist and writer (d. 2004)
1920 – Stefan Kovacs, Romanian footballer (d. 1995)
1921 – Albert Scott Crossfield, American test pilot (d. 2006)
1921 – Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 2000)
1924 – Tex Coulter, American football player (d. 2007)
1924 – Gilbert Simondon, French philosopher (d. 1989)
1926 – Jan Morris, British historian and writer
1927 – Uta Ranke-Heinemann, German theologian and writer
1928 – Wolfhart Pannenberg, German theologian (d. 2014)
1928 – George "Spanky" McFarland, American actor (d. 1993)
1929 – Cesare Maestri, Italian mountaineer
1930 – Dave Barrett, Canadian politician (d. 2018)
1933 – John Gurdon, British scientist and Nobel Prize winner
1933 – Giuliano Sarti, Italian footballer (d. 2017)
1933 – Michel Blasson, French conductor
1935 – Peter Frankl, Hungarian-born pianist
1935 – Omar Sívori, Argentine footballer (d. 2005)
1936 – Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Filipino lawyer and politician
1938 – Rex Reed, American movie critic and actor
1940 – Gheorghe Gruia, Romanian handball player
1940 – Pantelis Voulgaris, Greek actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1943 – Anna Ford, English journalist and newsreader
1943 – Paul Van Himst, Belgian footballer and coach
1944 – Ton Koopman, Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist.
1945 – Don McLean, American singer
1946 – Peter Kellner, English journalist, President of YouGov
1946 – Marie-Georges Pascal, French actress (d. 1985)
1947 – Dieter Pfaff, German actor (d. 2013)
1948 – Donna Karan, American fashion designer
1948 – Trevor Brooking, English footballer
1948 – Siim Kallas, Estonian politician, European Commissioner and former Prime Minister of Estonia
1949 – Annie Leibovitz, American photographer
1949 – Richard Hell, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1950 – Ian McNeice, British actor
1950 – Mike Rutherford, British musician

1951 – 1975

1951 – Romina Power, American singer
1951 – Sting, English musician
1953 – Ernest Bai Koroma, former President of Sierra Leone
1953 – Muhammad Abdul Bari, Bangladeshi-English physicist
1954 – Lorraine Bracco, American actress
1955 – Philip Oakey, English singer (The Human League)
1956 – Viatcheslav Mukhanov, Russian-German cosmologist and physicist
1957 – Janry, Belgian comic artist
1957 – Dave Faulkner, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1958 – Robbie Nevil, American musician
1960 – Glenn Anderson, Canadian ice hockey player
1960 – Terence Winter, American screenwriter and producer
1960 – Tom Schweich, American politician (d. 2015)
1960 – Derek Whittenburg, American basketball player and coach
1962 – Sigtryggur Baldursson, Icelandic musician
1962 – Jeff Bennett, American actor
1965 – Ferhan and Ferzan Önder, Turkish-Austrian pianists
1966 – Rodney Adnoa'i, Samoan-American professional wrestler (d. 2000)
1967 – Frankie Fredericks, Namibian athlete
1967 – Keith Bradshaw, Australian cricketer
1967 – Thomas Muster, Austrian tennis player
1967 – Dave Goldberg, American businessman (d. 2015)
1968 – Victoria Derbyshire, English journalist and radio presenter
1968 – Jana Novotna, Czech tennis player
1969 – Jun Akiyama, Japanese professional wrestler
1970 – Kelly Ripa, American actress
1970 – Eddie Guardado, American baseball player
1971 – Tiffany, American singer
1971 – James Root, American guitarist (Slipknot)
1971 – Xavier Naidoo, German singer
1973 – Lene Nystrom Rasted, Norwegian singer (Aqua)
1973 – Proof, American rapper (d. 2006)
1973 – Verka Serduchka, Ukrainian comedian and singer
1973 – Maria Wetterstrand, Swedish politician
1974 – Simon Gregson, British actor

From 1976

1977 – Didier Défago, Swiss skier
1978 – Ayumi Hamasaki, Japanese singer
1978 – Matt Hancock, English politician
1979 – Francisco Fonseca, Mexican footballer
1979 – Maja Ivarsson, Swedish singer
1981 – Luke Wilkshire, Australian footballer
1982 – Stephen Pearson, Scottish footballer
1982 – George Pettit, Canadian singer
1982 – Tyson Chandler, American basketball player
1984 – Marion Bartoli, French tennis player
1985 – Ciprian Marica, Romanian footballer
1986 – Camilla Belle, American actress
1987 – Ruan Lufei, Chinese chess player
1987 – Keith Earls, Irish rugby player
1988 – Kiko Casilla, Spanish footballer
1989 – Marta Gastini, Italian actress
1990 – Christopher Drazan, Austrian footballer
1990 – Samantha Barks, Manx actress and singer
1991 – Roberto Firmino, Brazilian footballer
1993 – Tara Lynne Barr, American actress
1994 – Brendan Meyer, Canadian actor

Deaths

Up to 1900

534 – Athalaric, King of the Ostrogoths (b. 516)
939 – Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine (b. 890)
1264 – Pope Urban IV
1559 – Jacquet of Mantua, French-Italian composer (b. 1483)
1629 – Antonio Cifra, Italian composer (b. 1584)
1764 – William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1720)
1775 – Chiyo-ni, Japanese poet (b. 1703)
1782 – Charles Lee, British and U.S. general (b. 1732)
1786 – Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, English admiral and politician (b. 1725)
1803 – Samuel Adams, American patriot, revolutionary and statesman (b. 1722)
1817 – Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov, Russian naval commander and admiral (b. 1744)
1850 – Sarah Biffen, English painter (b. 1784)
1853 – François Jean Dominique Arago, French mathematician (b. 1786)
1892 – Ernest Renan, French writer, historian, archaeologist and theologian (b. 1823)
1895 – Eugen Langen, German entrepreneur, engineer and inventor (b. 1833)

1901 – 2000

1920 – Max Bruch, German composer and conductor (b. 1838)
1927 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
1931 – Thomas Lipton, British trader and yacht owner (b. 1850)
1938 – Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (b. 1859)
1943 – John Evans, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1855)
1947 – P. D. Ouspensky, Russian philosopher (b. 1878)
1950 – John F. Fitzgerald, Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts and maternal grandfather of John F. Kennedy (b. 1863)
1962 – Boris Y. Bukreev, Soviet mathematician (b. 1859)
1968 – Marcel Duchamp, French artist (b. 1887)
1973 – Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (b. 1897)
1973 – Paul Hartman, American actor, singer and dancer (b. 1904)
1974 – Vasily Shukshin, Russian writer, actor, screenwriter and director (b. 1929)
1975 – Kumaraswami Kamaraj, Indian political leader (b. 1903)
1981 – Hazel Scott, singer (b. 1920)
1981 – Harry Golden, American journalist (b. 1902)
1985 – Rock Hudson, American actor (b. 1925)
1987 – Peter Medawar, British scientist, born in Brazil but registered as British (b. 1915)
1987 – Madeleine Carroll, British-born actress (b. 1906)
1988 – Alec Issigonis, British engineer (b. 1906)
1991 – Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios I of Constantinople (b. 1914)
1994 – Harriet Nelson, American actress and singer (b. 1909)
1996 – Andrey Lukanov, Bulgarian politician (b. 1938)
1996 – Robert Bourassa, 22nd Premier of Quebec (b. 1933)
1998 – Gene Autry, American singer, actor, and entrepreneur (b. 1907)

From 2001

2001 – Franz Biebl, German composer (b. 1906)
2002 – Heinz von Foerster, physicist and philosopher (b. 1911)
2003 – John T. Dunlop, U.S. Secretary of Labor (b. 1914)
2006 – Tamara Dobson, American actress (b. 1944)
2006 – Paul Halmos, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1916)
2006 – Charles Carl Roberts, American murderer (b. 1973)
2007 – Tex Coulter, American football player (b. 1924)
2007 – Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark (b. 1913)
2008 – Choi Jin-sil, South Korean actress (b. 1968)
2009 – Marek Edelman, Polish social and political activist (b. 1919)
2009 – Rolf Rüssmann, German footballer (b. 1950)
2013 – Abraham Nemeth, American mathematician and inventor (b. 1919)
2014 – Vaughn O. Lang, American general (b. 1927)
2014 – Pedro Peña, Spanish actor (b. 1925)
2014 – Robert Flower, Australian Rules Football player (b. 1955)
2015 – Brian Friel, Irish dramatist (b. 1929)
2015 – Eric Arturo Delvalle, former President of Panama (b. 1937)
2016 – Neville Marriner, English conductor (b. 1924)
2017 – Evangelina Elizondo, Mexican actress, singer and writer (b. 1929)
2017 – Robert Elsie, Canadian linguist and translator (b. 1950)
2017 – Solly Hemus, American baseball player (b. 1923)
2017 – Kim Un-yong, South Korean sports administrator (b. 1931)
2017 – Klaus Huber, Swiss composer and academic (b. 1924)
2017 – Paul Otellini, American businessman (b. 1950)
2017 – Tom Petty, American musician (b. 1950)
2017 – Robert Yates, American racing team owner (b. 1943)
2018 – Smilja Avramov, Serbian law academic (b. 1918)
2018 – Balabhaskar, Indian violinist, composer and record producer (b. 1978)
2018 – Geoff Emerick, English recording engineer (b. 1945)
2018 – Dorothy Hukill, American politician (b. 1946)
2018 – Roman Kartsev, Russian actor and comedian (b. 1939)
2018 – Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist (b. 1958)
2018 – Hermenegildo Sábat, Uruguayan-Argentine political cartoonist and journalist (b. 1933)
2019 – Bill Bidwill, American businessman (b. 1931)
2019 – Tiny Hill, New Zealand rugby union player (b. 1927)
2019 – Giya Kancheli, Georgian composer (b. 1935)
2019 – Jafar Kashani, Iranian footballer (b. 1944)
2019 – John Kirby, American lawyer (b. 1939)
2019 – Isaac Promise, Nigerian footballer (b. 1987)
2019 – Kim Shattuck, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1963)
2019 – Hargovind Laxmishanker Trivedi, Indian nephrologist (b. 1932)

Observances

Feast of the Saint Guardian Angels
Gandhi Jayanti (India) and International Day of Non-Violence (birthday of Mahatma Gandhi)
Independence Day (Guinea)