July 2 holidays in 2020

Historical Events on July 2

• 1644: The Battle of Marston Moor begins during the English Civil War.
• 1645: The Battle of Alford begins during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
• 1698: The first steam engine is patented by Thomas Savery.
• 1776: A resolution that severs the ties between the United States and Great Britain is adopted by the Continental Congress. However, the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence won’t be published for another 2-days.
• 1816: On this date, a French frigate named Meduse strikes the Banc d’Arguin and over 150 people had to be put on an improvised raft to save them from drowning. This event would eventually be immortalized in “The Raft of the Medusa;” a painting by Théodore Géricault.
• 1822: A being accused of a slave rebellion, 35 slaves are hanged to death in South Carolina. Among the hanged is Denmark Vesey.
• 1839: The slave ship the Amistad is takend over by Joseph Cinque and 53 rebelling African slaves just 20 miles from the coast of Cuba.
• 1881: United States President James Garfield is shot and fatally wounded by Charles J. Guiteau. Garfield would eventually dies from his wound on the 19^th of September.
• 1890: The Sherman Antitrust Act is passed by the United States Congress.
• 1900: From Lake Constance in Germany, the first Zeppelin flight is launched.
• 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed by United States’ President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• 1966: The French conduct their first nuclear test in the Pacific on Maruroa. It’s code named Aldebaran.
• 1976: The Republic of Vietnam falls and is replaced by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Famous Birthdays on July 2

• German-Swiss novelist, painter, poet and Nobel Prize laureate, Hermann Hesse is born in 1877.
• American artist Rinaldo Cuneo is born in 1877.
• American biologist, neurologist and Nobel Prize laureate, Richard Axel is born in 1946.
• American actor and director, Ron Silver is born in 1946.
• American comedian, actor, screenwriter and producer, Larry David is born in 1947.
• American model and actress, Jerry Hall is born in 1956.